forests
Mbuti Resist Expulsion from their Forests
An Mbuti group in the eastern D.R. Congo has successfully forestalled government attempts to establish a nature reserve that would have prevented their traditional uses of their forests. Instead, they are working with several major NGOs to develop an effective preserve that will include their indigenous rights to use sustainably the forest products. The Guardian […]
Paliyans Handle Conflicts Effectively
Last week, a group of Paliyan women reported that forestry officials subjected them to a strip search while they were walking back from gathering in a forest. Two of India’s major newspapers reported on the allegations and the actions by officials in response to the complaints. According to a report in The Hindu on Tuesday, […]
Chewong Adapt to Modernity [anthology chapter review]
Perhaps the most basic question for anyone investigating the peaceful societies phenomenon is how they are able to maintain their peacefulness in the face of global economic and social pressures. Some answers are suggested by the Chewong, who still avoid anger, violence, and competition—and cherish the nonviolent interactions of their egalitarian society—despite the many challenges […]
The Peaceful Kadar Fight for their Rights
The state of Kerala has apparently not counted on the strenuous opposition of the Kadar to government plans for proceeding with a big hydroelectric power project on the Chalakudy River. The small, peaceful tribe of about 2,000 people staged a demonstration in March to show the importance of forests to their way of life. Now […]
Kadar Strive to Save their Forest
Last week, V. K. Geetha, a very active Kadar woman leader, wrote an eloquent appeal for saving their forest from a hydropower dam. Instead of focusing on the potential destruction of two Kadar communities posed by the threatened Athirappilly Dam, as numerous past news reports have done, her letter was a paean of praise for […]
Yanadi Prohibited from Entering the Forest
Officials in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh have used the smuggling of red sanders trees as an excuse to prohibit local Yanadi from entering the forests to harvest non-timber resources. Many news sources have described the extensive violence that has been occurring in recent months between the police and large gangs of tree smugglers […]
Resettlement Plans for the Malapandaram
Nearly 17 months after writing a report about a Malapandaram community in Kerala, Radhakrishnan Kuttoor, a reporter for The Hindu, returned to see how the same community is doing. The reporter, focusing his story last week on issues similar to the ones in 2013, referred to the situation in the community as a “tale of […]
Semai Place Names Help Preserve Forests—and Peacefulness [journal article review]
Semai names for places near their communities suggest their uses of the forests, their historical recollections, their spiritual values, and their commitments to maintaining a nonviolent society. Karen Heikkilä untangles these issues with a fascinating study of Semai toponymy, their understandings of place names, in a recent journal article. Heikkilä’s work provides a way of […]
The Kadar Preserve their Forests
In December 2006 the government of India passed landmark legislation that recognized the rights of traditional societies to continue to subsist in the forests. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, usually referred to simply as the Forest Rights Act of 2006, came into effect on January 1, 2008. […]
How the Semai Repel Cockroaches [journal article review]
The Semai effectively utilize products from their nearby forests that give them health and economic benefits, and in the process they are able to preserve their traditional way of life. A journal article about a research project in Malaysia, published in 2012, analyzes an important aspect of their traditional relationships with the forests: the uses […]
