As conceived by several International
Steering Committee members, the network serves as a neutral forum for
debate across many divides. Thus the idea of developing interdisciplinary
Working Groups who could communicate via the SRN Website emerged. We have
attempted here to develop a set of interdisciplinary themes based on the
most fruitful areas of ongoing network member activity, and to frame them
in terms of the clear, compelling debates that have been raised within
written and actual conversations across the network. The working groups
will, we hope, operate as a discussion forum centered around a set of
papers. The papers will be submitted by network members or interested
stakeholders and reviewed by our editorial board — a group of bilingual
scholars of various disciplines who have devoted their time to reviewing
manuscripts for the series. Our thanks to Andre Siamundele (Literature),
Estienne Rodary (Geography), Mathias Hounkpe (Political Science), Hubert
Ngatcha-Njila (Political Science), and Stephanie Rupp (Anthropology) who
helped select the papers that appear below, by Karsenty, Vermeulen and
Joiris. Our thanks too, to those who have submitted manuscripts, and been
so patient with the long translation, editing, and production process.
Based on network meetings to date, we
have created lists of potential participants that could constitute logical
core communities for each working group. To add or alter or remove your
name from these lists email us at sangha@yale.edu, and write SRNWG in
your subject line so that we can maintain the lists and update them on
a regular basis. We hope that the wide range of documents that appear
below will serve as points of departure–often representing poles
of debate–for the exchange of ideas across the network. Taking off
from the different perspectives summarized in these documents, further
communication may shape future conferences, the evolution of these groups,
the emergence of new groups, and the raising or spending of research funds.
NOTE: Our working group titles, open
to further discussion and modification, are currently in a mixture of
French and English reflecting their Francophone and Anglophone origins,
institutions and individuals who make up the groups. We hope that they
are provocative and clear.
WORKING GROUP 1:
MIGRATIONS/MARKETS/FRONTIÈRES
A forum for analysis of historical and
current social, ecological and economic transborder phenomena such as
disease, displacement/movement of populations, and flows of commodities.
1) Papers that trace poles of debate
include one that is available from our conferences page, and others appearing
on the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force Page--
Mogba/Freudenberger (in Eves et al.
1998 — SRN Yale 97 Conference Proceedings) argue that migration is a
major problem for the management of the Sangha region transborder conservation
sites. (cf. Giles-Vernick comments, same volume, who reminds us that migration
is fundamental to regional identities and relationships to the forest,
and also to strategies for colonial control that current conservationists
should not necessarily emulate!).
Eves, H. Bushmeat Crisis
Task Force initiative (see Eves, Etoungou et al. 1999 - SRN Orléans Conference Proceedings; see
also <www.bushmeat.org>) begins to trace the mechanisms and
consequences of transborder trade in animal products.
2) Members: Catherine Coquery Vidrovitch
(University of Paris, History); Roger Fotso (Wildlife Conservation Society,
Ornithology); Christoph Mbida (University of Yaoundé, Archeology);
Zephirin Mogba and Moukadas Nouré Aboubakar (University of Bangui,
Sociology) Tamara Giles Vernick (University of Virginia, History); Eric
Worby (Yale University, Anthropology); Heather E. Eves (Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies)
WORKING GROUP 2:
LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS/
ECOLOGIES
A forum for the study of forest structure
and forest-savanna advancement or change, with emphasis on natural processes
and human roles; on wealth and variety of species, and or population dynamics;
on prehistory, history and present trends.
1) Papers that trace poles of debate
in this group are available by returning to the conferences page and clicking
on their links from the respective conference proceedings in which they
appeared.
Leach (Etoungou et al. 1999,
SRN Orléans Conference Proceedings) argues for the incorporation of "new ecology" with
its nuanced understandings of pressure, disturbance, and transformation--both
natural and human induced--as part of healthy, productive ecosystems.
She argues against widespread and often scientifically inaccurate notions
that humans are necessarily destructive to complex ecosystems.
Gartlan (Eves et al, 1998,
SRN Yale Conference Proceedings), on the other hand, sees humans--all humans--as ultimately
capable of enormous destruction of natural systems, in part due to their
adoptions of human-centered systems for understanding the natural world
and its usefulness to us. He cautions against incorporation of human uses
into systems of ecosystem protection, due to this possibility of uncontrolled
destruction.
2) Members: Pamela Beresford (AMNH, Ornithology);
Laurent Debroux (University of Gembloux, Sylviculture); Melissa Leach
(IDS Sussex, Anthropology); Rufin Oko (Congo Government, zoology); Justina
Ray (University of Toronto, Ecology); Alain Froment (IRD-ERMES, medicine
and physical anthropology); Martin Zeh-Nlo (University of Dchang, Cameroon;
Agronomy); Philippe Auzel (U. Gembloux, Agronomy); Melissa Remis (Purdue
University, Physical Anthropology); Jean Chabi (IMSP Benin, physics and
hydrology); Joseph Baloguini (University of Bangui, ethnozoology and medical
anthropology)
WORKING GROUP 3:
POLITICS AND POLICIES
A forum for analysis of international
regimes as they evolve and influence local processes of participation,
privatization, decentralization and community-based management; also for
comparative studies and monitoring of evolutions in the environmental
politics of countries both within and beyond the Sangha region.
1) Working papers for this group are
available through the links below, in both French and English versions.
They consider different dimensions of the demarcation and incorporation
of village territory within conservation areas taking Cameroon, and the
broader Sangha region, as examples. Joiris argues that the village territory
is neither easy to "measure" nor to incorporate within the fundamentally
incompatible territorial construct of "protected area." Vermeulen,
on the other hand, argues that tactics for quantifying and taking into
account village territory can and should be elaborated in demarcation
of protected areas:
Karsenty
with Kaplan, Introductory Comments--English
Karsenty avec Kaplan, Commentaires Preliminaires--Francais
Joiris,
D. 1998. English:
Indigenous
Knowledge and Anthropological Constraints in
the
Context of Conservation Programs in Central Africa
Joiris,
D. 1998. French:
Savoirs
Indigènes et Contraintes
Anthropologiques dans le Cadre
des
Programmes de Conservation en Afrique Centrale
Vermeulen,
C. 1998. English:
Villager
Lands’ Place and Legitimacy in Conservation
Vermeulen,
C. 1998. French:
Place
et légitimité des terroirs villageois dans la conservation
2) Members: Jesse Ribot (WRI/Harvard,
Population and Development); Rebecca Hardin (Yale/IRD; Anthropology);
K. Sivaramakrishnan (IDS Sussex; Anthropology); William Ascher (Duke University;
Political Science); Joseph Mewondo-Mengang (Cameroon Government, resource
management); A. Agrawal (Yale University, Political Science); A. Blom
(Wangeningen University-WWF; resource management); U. Ngatoua (CAR Government,
resource management); Ebrima Sall (CODESRIA; social sciences of development);
E. Rodary (CREPAO. Par et IRD-ERMES).
WORKING GROUP 4:
ENVIRONMENT, LITERATURE,
AND POPULAR CULTURE
This group makes a place for scholars
in the tradition of the humanities to meet those working in science or
policy fields for conversations about the social dynamics of environmentalism
and environmental planning. Especially in equatorial Africa, such questions
remain under-studied in the existing literature. And yet, many universities
in that area have fine programs in languages and literatures, where vibrant
minds and voices are creating social commentary about environmental issues.
The voices within Sangha River Network meetings that have been raised
on such matters were often lost due to the urgency of biological, economic,
and political parameters that demanded debate. We hope, here, to foster
further discussion on these topics, and to provide material from the Amazon,
Asia, and other crucibles where protection of the environment has become
a form of social mobilization, for consideration by our Africanist colleagues.
1) Working papers for this group have
been gleaned from the meetings of the Environment, Literature and Public
Policy working group at Yale University's Whitney Humanities Center. Founded
by Yale-based members of the Sangha River Network in May 1999, the group
seeks to explore the ways in which forms of cultural expression reflect
or shape environmental issues.
2) Founding members included Andre Siamundele
(French and Francophone Literature, Colby College), Hilary Kaplan (Comparative
Literature, Yale University), Rebecca Hardin (Anthropology, Yale University),
Eric Worby (Anthropology, Yale University), and Christopher Miller (French
and Francophone Literature, Yale University).
Suzana Sawyer, UC Davis, "Bobbitizing
Texaco: metaphorics of resistance to the oil industry in Ecuador"
(provisional title)
Andre Siamundele, Colby College, "Forest,
River, the use of environmental imagery in the literature of Democratic
Republic of Congo" (provisional title)
Rebecca Hardin, Yale University, "The
Silence of the Forest and the voices of Environmental Politics in
Central African Republic" (provisional title)
Hilary Kaplan, Yale University, "Constructions
of the environment in literatures of Senegal and Cape Verde" (provisional
title)
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