27 words for elephant
In English, an elephant is an elephant. Ok, we have words for a group of elephants (a herd) and baby elephants (a calf), but these are general words…
Tag: Indigenous and Local Communities
The forest spirits who hunt honey
As unbelievable as it seems to me, I’m now in the final 4 weeks of my PhD fieldwork. Technically, anthropology fieldwork is supposed to be around 1 year…
Decolonising protected areas: Sapelli in eastern Cameroon
In 2018, the Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar remarked: We are facing modern problems for which there are no longer modern solutions What he’s referring to is that the…
Indigenous-led technology can boost biodiversity and ensure human rights
by Simon Hoyte, Alice Sheppard, Marcos Moreu, Megan Laws, and Jerome Lewis Over recent years there have been high profile legal challenges, investigative articles in the media, and…
Violence, corruption, and false promises: Conservation and the Baka in Cameroon
Originally published by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs; Written by me and Catherine Clarke Spending time with the Baka, as we have both done over several…
“We are weeping with our knowledge of the forest”
I have been living with the Baka, one of Central Africa’s hunter-gatherer groups, for the last 5 months. As an anthropologist, this form of immersion is common because…
“We will always put economic growth ahead of environmental concerns”
It may sound strange, but wouldn’t it be nice if Trump’s disconnect between endless economic growth and environmental crisis stemmed from pure ignorance. At least if this was…
Spiritual Conservation
“Ecosystems are being destroyed because Africans have severed their relationship between ecosystems and spirituality. It is very very important for people to reintroduce that link, that relationship b…