Evicted to Save a Gorilla, Indigenous Batwa Posed No Threat, Study Finds

For decades, Congolese officials have barred the Batwa from their ancestral lands in the name of preserving the critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla. But a new study suggests the Batwa were never a threat to the creatures.

In the 1970s, the military expelled some 6,000 Batwa from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many Batwa now live in squatter camps on the edges of the park, and those who have recently attempted to resettle the park have been met with brutal violence. A recent report alleged that between 2019 and 2021 Congolese soldiers raped dozens of women and killed at least 20 Batwa in the park, including some who were burned alive.

Some conservationists have claimed that the Batwa pose a grave threat to wildlife, but the new study shows the Batwa have actually had little discernible impact on eastern lowland gorillas.

Researchers found that after the Batwa were evicted in the 1970s, the population of gorillas grew only slightly. Gorilla numbers did see a precipitous drop in the 1990s, but only after refugees from the conflict in neighboring Rwanda moved into Kahuzi-Biega National Park and began to poach wildlife.

“Simply put, armed conflict had a much greater impact on gorilla numbers than the presence (or absence) of the Batwa inside the park,” write researchers from the University of Antwerp.

However, their study did find that in parts of the park where the Batwa recently resettled, tree cover dropped significantly as they gathered timber and charcoal for sale to nearby cities. “These observations challenge narratives that either paint Indigenous peoples as environmental protectors or as destroyers,” researchers write. Their findings were published in World Development.

In July, the African Union ruled that the Democratic Republic of the Congo must hand back parts of the giant Kahuzi-Biega National Park to the Batwa people. Advocates are now calling on officials to abide by the ruling and to work with the Batwa to protect the forest and its wildlife.