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James Ford and Irene Hofmeijer present during the First International IHACC course in Lima Peru

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From November 9-11, 2011 the McGill IHACC team and the IHACC team at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) came together to host the First International Climate Change and Health Outcome Course and Workshop in Lima, Peru. This was the first course on health and climate change ever offered at UPCH. The 3 day series covered (a) Climate Change Vulnerability and it’s Conceptual Evolution (James Ford); (b) Vulnerability Assessment Frameworks (James Ford); (c) Vulnerability Methods (James Ford); (d) Climate Change and Food Security (Marie-Pierre Lardeau); (e) Vulnerability Studies in Action (James Ford).

Twenty nine participants (14 ales and 15 females) attended the lectures from different disciplines (medicine, administration, nursing, psychology, veterinary and others) and from different sectors: UPCH, Universidad de San Marcos, Universidad National Agraria la Molina, Ministry of Agriculture and National Service of Meteorology and Hidrography.  A complete English syllabus is available on this website. For information in Spanish, http://www.upch.edu.pe/faspa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=488:salud-vulnerabilidad-adaptacion-cambio-climatico&catid=26:evento-faspa.

An important outcome of this activity was the creation of a discussion space with officials from the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture responsible for drafting and implementing the National plan of risk management and adaptation to climate change in the agricultural sector. Information will be shared and  adaptations plans for IHACC communities will be prepared in collaboration with them.

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Learning traditional activities from Shawi women in the Peruvian Amazon

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IHACC team member Marie-Pierre Lardeau recently returned from a field visit to the Peruvian Amazon study regions. She shared this notes from the field. During the field work, Carol and I had the opportunity to learn more about some of the women’s traditional activities in the Shawi culture. Although Shawi women are traditionally more reserved and do not engage actively in conversations with strangers, they were very welcoming to us and let us in their homes. They absolutely amazed me with their knowledge of crafts, sowing, weaving and elaborate necklace making. Above all, what really impressed me was how almost everything is made completely by hand, with local materials.

 

 We were lucky enough to get to participate in one of these activities in Nuevo Progresso, one of the communities in which the IHACC project is working in. Santusa, a young mother, taught us one afternoon how to make mocawas, which are the traditional clay recipients used by the Shawi to eat and drink. Mocawas are made by women and have different shapes according to their intended use and are always painted and decorated. The ones that have the most elaborate designs are the ones for the masato, which is the traditional fermented yucca beverage. Masato is made with pride by women, and each house makes its own, it is the welcome beverage that is served in a mocawa when someone stops for a visit.

So on that Tuesday afternoon, Carol and I sat with Santusa who offered us one white clay bowl each so we could decorate them. I was so impressed by the fact that everything came from nature to make these bowls….The clay bowls themselves are made by hand: the clay is retrieved from the river, is mixed with ground pan de arbol, a starchy fruit found in the Amazon forest, shaped in bowls, cooked over the fire, and are then ready to be painted. The paints are made from various earth pigments found around the community that are mixed with river water and typically include ocre, black, cream and a deep brick colour. The paintbrush is made of strands of the women’s hair, attached to a small stick by cotton that is woven by hand. Santusa was pretty amused at Carol and I attempting to paint straight lines and make nice patterns, we often asked for her help to straighten things out, as we saw our lines getting incredibly thick or incredibly crooked! Even the most simple patterns that we thought we might be able to master seemed proved to be quite challenging! It was a good opportunity for us to laugh with Santusa, and learn more about the Shawi culture.

Another really interesting experience was learning about textile making with Norma, a young and friendly mother in Nuevo Progresso. She taught us how she makes the traditional fabric women wear in the Shawi communities: a long hand-woven fabric that is completely created without the use of any mechanical help. Every line of fabric is created by the expert hands of women who maneuver the long sticks they use in out of the fabric. Once the fabric is finished, it is then soaked in a mixture of grated leaf and water, which makes a natural burgundy dye. Some women use other pigments to colour their skirts but it seems the most popular one are burgundy and black. It takes a lot of patience and dexterity to create this fabric, because the first step actually involves making hundreds of threads by hand from the cotton that is picked around the community. This time, Carol and I didn’t attempt trying to make some fabric with Norma, as we saw that this was completely out of our league, and it gave us an incredible amount of appreciation for the work involved in the creation of clothes!

Marie-Pierre Lardeau

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Launching the IHACC project in Bwindi

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  At the end of October, the Ugandan team traveled to Bwindi in south west Uganda to launch the IHACC project with our partners and members of the community. Ugandan PI Shuaib Lwasa sent in this brief report on the team's visit.

....It is a long journey from Kampala, about 12 hours of driving on roads of varying quality; you definitely need a capable vehicle with four wheel drive!  Upon arrival, we were able to meet and begin working directly with members of the Indigenous Batwa Peoples in Kanungu District.

During the visit we run a workshop to discuss the project objectives, program and work plan. One of our major tasks was to capture video clips that will be used to create an informational video.  The objectives of the video are to (1) describe the overall IHACC project, (2) outline the schedule of research activities, and (3) explain potential short and long term outcomes and benefits of the project to Batwa community members.  This video will be shown to each participant before they complete the questionnaires in the first phase on the project.

The Batwa are quite amazing people. Two of the first members we met on this visit were Rueben and Geoffrey. Geoffrey is an older gentleman who has a job as a cleaner at the Bwindi Community Hospital. Reuben is able to speak some English and we communicated without the help of our interpreter. He taught us some simple phrases and greetings that we were able to use throughout the rest of the trip.

We also had a really neat experience with Sabastian, a health worker and interpreter from one of the project partners, Batwa Development Programme. Sherilee and Allan talked about many similarities between the Canadian Inuit and Batwa Peoples. Showing him photos from travels to the Inuit community Rigolet, located in the Canadian Sub-Arctic (another IHACC study site), Sabastian was fascinated by the snow and ice, dogsleds, hunting, snowmobiles, and frigid winter temperatures.

At first, he could not believe that people would want to live in a remote place with all the snow and ice. He asked “why would the Inuit not move down to the south where it is warm?”  We rhetorically asked him why the Batwa want to go back to the forest when they could live in their settlements where they have a house with a tin roof over their head? All they have to do is give up their hunting culture and become farmers. He smiled, we could tell he instantly understood that the connection Indigenous people have to the land is truly universal.

 

Shuaib Lwasa

Ugandan Batwa Communities profiled in Daily Monitor Article

The yearning to reconnect with their traditional roots. You can read the article on the Daily Monitor website.

By Alfred Tumushabe

‘East or west home is best,’ is a popular saying which denotes the special value and affinity some people attach to their traditional homes and environments.

When people migrate to new areas to find jobs, pursue studies or are forced away by wars and catastrophes, they always yearn to reconnect with their traditional roots and when conditions allow they go back to re-establish themselves in their ancestral lands.

This very sentiment is reigning among the Batwa, the former forest people in south-western Uganda. The ethnic group had for centuries lived in the jungles of Bwindi and Mgahinga with wildlife as hunters and fruit gatherers until 1991 when the government evicted them from their ancestral dwelling to pave way for the wild life conservation.

The forests, located on the Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo frontiers, are protected as Bwindi Impenetrable National and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks. About 3,000 Batwa (about 96 per cent of Batwa in Uganda) people who were evicted are in Kigezi sub-region, according to the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU).

About 1,598 live in Kisoro, 774 in Kabale and 665 in Kanungu districts, and a few others are in Bundibugyo and Kasese districts. Two decades outside the forest life, Batwa are still unable to compete on equal terms with other ethnic groups in Uganda and they remain marginalised and the poorest section of the society. They believe they were owners and custodians of the forests but the government never allocated them alternative land, which is a violation of their human rights.

They live destitute lives as squatters on other people’s land and their hopes for government help remain just a pipedream. “Government has never settled Batwa since we were chased from the forests. We are squatters on other people’s land,” says Mr Elias Habyarimana, the chairman of Batwa community in Uganda. He adds: “When the land owner is tired of you or you make a simple mistake you are immediately chased and you don’t have anywhere to run to. The government should give us land.”

Mr Habyarimana says that Batwa live on the streets of Kisoro Town as beggars and doing petty jobs. Some live on small portions of land given to them by non-governmental organisations like CARE and International and Adventist Relief Agency (ADRA) while others are squatting on the fringes of the forests.

Kisoro District Chairman Milton Mutabazi justifies their claim. “Most of them are squatters. I think their plight needs to be addressed,” he says.

Worse still, in the areas where they live, Batwa are excluded from community activities due to illiteracy and are victims of tribal prejudices. For instance, they cannot intermarry with other tribes. This segregation stops them from freely mixing with others in schools, hospitals and places of worship.

“The [Kabale] district has built health centres and schools near their camps but surprisingly women don’t come to deliver from there or seek other health services, they prefer to use herbs. And very few of their children go to schools,” says Kabale Chairman Patrick Kaihwa.

Despite being widely acknowledged as having the greatest knowledge of Bwindi and Mgahinga forests, Batwa have had no formal role in the conservation of the wildlife.

Only recently, UOBDU through Forest Peoples Programmes and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has come up with initiatives to exploit their knowledge of the forests so as to give better services to the tourists, render economic support and preserve Batwa traditional knowledge.

Assisted by UOBDU, 64 Batwa elders and clan heads that possess vast knowledge of the impenetrable forest have drawn a detailed map capturing all physical features and important spots in the jungle, some hitherto unknown to the wildlife conservation workers in the area. They presented the map on July 20 to UWA, government officials and UOBDU funders at Mubano Hotel in Kisoro Town.

Developed with technical assistance of experts, it details the territories inhabited by various clans, hills, rivers, homes for gorillas, hot springs, mineral-rich spots, worshiping places, caves and gorges.

The map is to be used by UWA in wildlife conservation initiatives and it will be a record of the traditional knowledge and life of Batwa which will serve as a reference for their children and future generation.

“Such knowledge would directly lead to a better understanding of Bwindi and its biodiversity and allow an opportunity for Batwa to directly engage in the conservation of Bwindi. It is a documentation of Batwa’s traditional life which will be important to their children,” says Ms Penninah Zanika, UOBDU Programme Coordinator.

UWA Conservation Area Manager Bwindi-Mgahinga National Parks Pontious Ezuma says he was overwhelmed by the knowledge of the Batwa about the area and would use it to make his patrols in the 331sq Km forest.

Mr David Kiiza, a member of the Batwa community, said he was happy for the opportunity given to them to reflect on the forest life and for knowledge preservation that will go a long way to benefit “our children after we are long gone”. But the presentation of the map of the wildlife times evoked nostalgic feelings among the Batwa audience; about the deprived life, majority saying they can go back to the forests given the opportunity.

Ms Joan Singakayanje, another community member who looks to be in her 50s, says she still sneaks into the forest to worship and carry out other rituals. “I still know and locate our place of worship. It is near a swamp and I still go there to pray,” she says. She adds: “I have never had an injection in my life. I use herbs. Some of us can go back after all we are not better of where we are.”

Mr Habyarimana says they were friendly to the fierce wild animals that today, on mere sight, send many people scampering for their lives. “We lived with all sorts of animals; snakes and gorillas harmoniously. Whenever you met a snake it would wait for you to cross. No animals ever harassed us,” he adds.

The presentation was climaxed with a Batwa cultural dance.Unfortunately, for Ms Singakayanje and others nostalgic about wildlife times, it will never be possible to return to their ancestral forest home.