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 This conference brings together African,
American, and European scholars and conservation professionals specializing
in the densely forested Sangha region of the northwestern Congo River
basin. This trinational region is located along the borders of Cameroon,
Central African Republic (C.A.R.), and Congo (see map, below). Through
a series of questions concerning the present conditions, we will address
this region's past ecological and social context, and will explore the
relevance of the region as a unit of future analysis and action. Conference
results will be edited as a collection of case studies analyzing the
interaction between research and conservation practices in the region.
These results will be published as a volume in the Yale Forestry and
Environmental Studies Bulletin Series. This compilation will be of critical
interest to non-governmental, state, and commercial agencies active
in this and other ecologically and culturally similar areas.
 A site of contact among myriad
African language and culture groups for millennia, the colonial relations
within this region were historically contested by French and German
governments and concessionary companies around the turn of the century.
Today territorial relations within the region are no less complex. The
American non-governmental organizations World Wildlife Fund (WWF-U.S.)
and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have established several contiguous
parks and reserves since 1990 (red area on map). Within a slightly larger
radius, the European organizations die Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and Ecosystèmes Forestiers en Afrique Centrale
(ECOFAC) maintain forest management projects in each of the three countries.
Private concessions for timber and tourism companies carry out activities
within the same region. Each of these organizations has its historical
precedents, internal contradictions, and potential for coordination
with other agencies in the future. Unfortunately, what literature exists
about the region's historical, cultural, and scientific contexts is
scattered and relatively inaccessible to African and international policy
makers.
This conference will catalyze such dialogue in order to delineate possibilities
and constraints facing future trinational forest management. The conference
will offer a unique opportunity for scholars and conservation professionals
from varied national and disciplinary backgrounds to share research results
and professional perspectives, and to initiate relationships of collaboration
and constructive criticism.
- The main goals of this conference are:
- to present results of ongoing research and to
identify gaps in existing knowledge. Participants will assess the relevance
of research results and practices to the region's resource management and
economic development strategies;
- to identify and analyze current conservation
actors: their historical roots, contemporary structures, methods, results,
and future plans. Participants will address the ways that these conservation
agencies reflect and shape knowledge (biological, social scientific, or
indigenous);
- to plan a more comprehensive conference to be
held in a central African setting in 1999, drawing representatives of industry
and government into this emerging network of scholars and professionals
engaged in critical reflection, reaction to policy, and contribution to
an ever-increasing knowledge base about the western Congo River basin.
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