Customary Rights and the New Conservation Paradigm in the Context of the Conflict in Kahuzi Biega National Park in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

This paper examines the Kahuzi Biega National Park (PNKB) Development and Management Plan 2009-2018, the revised version of 2013, in accordance with the international principles of the new conservation paradigm. Three-dimensional modelling as a tool for knowledge transmission and socio-ecological education to indigenous youth was carried out to illuminate the impact on the life of the Batwa indigenous people on their ancestral land. Sixteen former camps within the PNKB were identified, including other cultural spaces such as places of refuge, hunting, exchange, and commercial barter occupied by indigenous Batwa within the PNKB, conferring on them customary rights to the park. The return of the Batwa indigenous people to the park in 2018, believing that the authorities had not kept their promises, followed by 54.5% of the traces of occupation of their former customary spaces. A related cultural, environmental, and educational development plan is essential to conciliate the interests of conservation in this conflict context among the indigenous residents