Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
232
With regard to conservation
Alden defined
pomoli
as the form of magic used to exchange the
lives in one's lineage for kills in the forest. The people who live in the rainforest know what normal
is, that a balance of life must be maintained, and they can see when the balance is off and someone
is using sorcery.
232
They only hunted during
Alden points out that the exception to hunting rules was often for fu-
nerals: “They mostly trapped, but there were some exceptions. If there was a death and you needed
to feed villagers, they would still do the communal net hunt. That was something I loved. They
would still go out and spread the nets. . . . People would come out as a whole village, kids included.
And the adults would tell the kids, 'Stop talking village talk,' and before they went to sleep, they
would say, 'Dream of animals, because if you dream of them, you will kill them the next day.' And
this was a group thing. They would spread the nets, and then the women and the kids with the dogs
would bang on pots and take the leaves out from the dogs' collars and let them out in the horse-
shoe of nets and flush the duikers and antelopes into the nets.” (The
basenji
, a breed of Congolese
dog that can't bark, wear collars with wooden clappers. This way the hunters can keep them silent
when necessary and follow their movements otherwise.)
233
Even BCI's scientific surveys
Ecologists Christiaan A. van der Hoeven, Willem F. de Boer, and
Herbert H. T. Prins describe an approach similar to that used by BCI:
Methods currently used for assessing wildlife density in rainforests are time and money con-
suming. The precision of the most commonly used methods is disputed, but accepted because
more exact methods are not available. In this study a new method of wildlife density estima-
tion is explained. The new method is less time and money consuming, but yields comparable
results with classical methods. The method was tested in the field in Cameroon and compared
with transect surveys in the area and with relevant literature. The Pooled Local Expert Opinion
(PLEO) method is based on the knowledge of local experts. A number of hunters were asked
to estimate wildlife abundance in a specified area, after which the density/km
2
was calculated
for 33 wildlife species. These estimates were pooled and extrapolated for the whole study area.
Elephant (
Loxodonta africana
) density outside the National Park was estimated to be 0.06 an-
imals/km
2
, and 0.3 inside. Buffalo (
Syncerus caffer
) density for the study area was estimated
at 0.2 animals/km
2
and gorilla (
Gorilla gorilla
) density at 1.05 per km
2
. Transect surveys car-
ried out at the same time for considerably more money, taking far more time, produced too few
data to calculate densities. The evaluation of the PLEO method was favourable and the method
offers a substitute for conventional methods of estimating wildlife density in rainforests. The
methodology is simple and it can be incorporated in many tropical biodiversity and conserva-
tion projects. It can also be used for long-term monitoring of wildlife status in a given area. In
contrast with classical methods, the PLEO method is low in cost and assures local ownership
of the results.
Van der Hoeven, de Boer, and Prins, “Pooling Local Expert Opinions for Estimating Mammal
Densities in Tropical Rainforests,” abstract,
Journal for Nature Conservation
12 no. 4 (December
2004): 193-204.
See also Meijaard and Marshall, “Why Didn't We Just Ask?”
Forest Science News
.
234
Blinded by the old
Joseph Conrad's voyage in 1890 was the worst experience of his life, from
which neither his health nor his spirit recovered. He went so far as to say that before going to the
Congo, “I was a perfect animal,” and that since, “I see everything with such despondency.” In
In
the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz
, Michela Wrong writes: “Conrad was more preoccupied with rotten
Western values, the white man's inhumanity to the black man, than, as is almost always assumed
today, black savagery” (184, 210).
Stearns,
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
, 328.
