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| copyright ECOBIO/Université de Rennes |
So it's quite difficult. But I've also realised that Guillaume and Celine have quite different objectives as to the training. Guillame says that already being with westerners and seeing their work ethic is quite a training for these guys, so actually I shouldn't worry too much. But then we spend 10 h together at the platform and it would be at least favorable if they knew what for they do their job and since they see my work too, it would be nice if they had at least a slightest idea why do we spend these hours at the camera... But well, again where to start. So ok you say that we're all here to collect data. But what is this data used for? Why do we need those information? (But wait a minute, it doesn't occur to them that the data is used for something, they look at me with blank eyes when I raise the question). So let's go back one step, why does this Park exist, why do we do conservation? And this is when it gets wild and out of control. And not because even after majoring in biology I still find it hard to explain to naive people why it is important to protect the equatorial rainforests and to find examples how is everything interconnected in the ecosystem (shame on you Marianna) but because I get answers like this: there is loads of money in conservation, and this: you will be rich when you go back...
Like the other day my discussion with Neige, my camp helper: (the context is the following: we use silicagel to dry the feces samples we collect and from time to time you need to change it when the stones are not able to absorb any more humidity, and when we do that we put on masks so that we don't contaminate the samples with human DNA) so I'm changing the silica and Neige comes up to me smiling and saying: you will be rich with all these feces in Europe. I look at him perplexed, don't really understand what he means. So I ask why does he think so, and then he says "ces crottes, c'est beaucoup d'argent" (these poops are worth a lot of money). I look at him with disbelief, but want to make sure I know what he means: DO YOU THINK WE ARE SELLING IT? And then he says "I don't know Marianna, all I know the white are coming here and are making a lot of money. Nobody comes here just like that." My first reaction is that I'm pissed, mad at the park, I mean how can you send off these people to the forest without explaining them what they are doing (to be fair: Neige is not a worker of the Park, he is paid by us, but he is workig with/for whites for a while; and the next day I asked the same question at the platform, and the answer was yes). But then I calm down, and realize that a) that would be also my job to explain to them b) I did it several times (eg. I even draw colorfull necklaces telling them that this is how the DNA look like) c) they were probably laughing at my explanation just like when I ask them not to make noise in the forest. When I ask the ecomonitors the same question Pavel tells me, that for example last year they were collecting the feces themselves, and allthough they got gloves and masks to protect them, they recieved no extra money for the risk of the contamination. Allthough somebody paid hard for those poops in Europe. (Well, all right using the word contaminate is confusing. This time however it's humans that can contaminate the samles by introducing human DNA which is indistinguishable from the gorillas'. Again did anyone explain it to them? I know this year I did, a zillion times, and we're still at this confusion.)
And then I start to justify them: all they see is white coming here mining gold, diamond, paying them to kill elephants for the ivory. Earlier when I asked them if they knew why would somebody want to buy the tusks they had no idea. They said they've heard that they are used for jewellery, but they've never seen anything made out of it. For them ivory is as useless as gorilla poop. Why are then white people coming for it? Obviously there must be money in it. (And here again some confusion. When I say "but now it's mostly the chineese who are buying it", they laugh at me: "so what, you say the chineese are not white?"... And speaking of them, another one, this time it's morbid: "is that true that every chineese woman will give birth to 6 children at the same time?") Same thing for the conservation, why would anyone put money in saving the nature without having any income from it. Obviously we are making tremendiusly loads of money here. Otherwise who would pay those expensive flight tickets. Same thing for the pictures, of course we are going to sell them in Europe and there is no way to convince them of the opposite. When I say these pictures are for documentation they are laughing, and when I say anyways who would want to buy it, they get agitated, we are so many in Europe, someone will buy them (I wonder what would a photographer say to that). Like all those tourists who come here and take pictures, they are obviously earning some money with them. Otherwise why would they come? Then I'm like "look, phothography is like music, right? Here everybody nows how to sing, loads of people do sing for themselves, but only a few make a living out of it. They are called professionals." But the reaction is like oh, Marianna, you are trying to decieve us. Then I start my tale like, look in the western world you work like this, you earn money, you save some money and when you saved enough you think about how to spend it. And some people chose to do tourism just for the experiance. Just from curiosity. Just for the pleasure to see new things. They smile at me with disbelief, nobody is travelling just like that. It's a lot of money, you don't spend it like that. Then I say in Europe people can put some money aside cause they don't make 10 kids, it's their choice...But I'm loosing them here, so I go back, that there are even some criminals, who have so much money, that they don't know what to do with it, so they came up wih the idea of buying ivory and diamond and gold and all that stuff. That they do it just to show off how rich they are and that they are bad bad people because they don't think of the consequences of their desires. And that the poor black people shouldn't be used like this so should say no to elephant hunting. And Romain, one of the former poachers is listening to me carefully and then says: "so if they have so much money, they should just send it to us directly, instead of sending us to kill elephants". I say brilliant, and I ask him if I can write about it and he says no because he still feels like he has no right to say anything to the white men.
So here is why conservation will never work in poor countries like Congo: I've been working 4 months day after day with these guys, living together in the middle of nowhere. Having meals together, walking in the forest together, helping out each other, taking care of each other. A real sense of community, just what you would expect how one should live together in an isolated camp. I ask them questions about their life, they ask about mine. They assist to my work, so I explain them things, like what is genetics and how is it used to determine parenthood, for example. Then I tell them that some men refuse to pay child allowance because they don't believe that they fathered the child, and with the help of genetics we can find out what's the truth. And they love the idea, because they have the same problems here. And I think: how cool they get it, we've connected. And all this time it just doesn't occur to me that at the back of their head they're thinking I will go back to Europe and make money out of gorilla poop. We have no idea of the degree of their ignorance. And on the other hand they have no sense of working for the good of the community. As for them nobody does that. If you do something it is for your own benefit, and with this logic it's not surprising, that the only and the main purpose of national parks is to make money. They even call it an enterprise.
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| copyright ECOBIO/Université de Rennes |
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