The Culture of People living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Cultural Heritage
No archaeological sites are known inside the park, although the wider Kigezi region may have been occupied from as early as 37,000 years ago (UNP, 1993; Cunningham, 1992). The earliest evidence of forest clearance dates back 4,800 years, most likely due to the presence of the Batwa pygmies, hunter-gatherers who were the original inhabitants of the forest and manipulated the vegetation with fire (Hamilton,1986). This is the earliest evidence for cultivation anywhere in tropical Africa (Hamilton,1986). It was not until approximately 2000 years ago that Bantu agriculturalists arrived in the region (Cunningham,1992). The extensive knowledge of wild animals and plants possessed by the Batwa people is threatened with disappearance unless their way of life is restored, or their knowledge condensed onto paper.
Local Human Population
Bwindi lies in one of the country’s most densely populated rural areas, with figures ranging between 160 and 320 people / sq.km at different locations around the forest. Approximately 10,000 families belonging to three Bantu peoples, the Bachiga, Bafumbira and Barwanda cultivate the land immediately surrounding the park. Also present are between 50 and 100 Batwa families who live as landless laborers following their eviction from the forest in 1964. They were completely dependent on forest resources and have received limited compensation. Initially there was strong opposition to the loss of forest resources from the local people who were also excluded from decision-making about the forest, but most now appear to respect the Park and show constraint in their use of its resources. However, large numbers do extract wood, bamboo, honey, bushmeat and gold and only about 10% of the forest remains free from human disturbance. According to Butynski (1984,1993) between 100 and 300 people were employed in pit-sawing in 1983 over 61% of the park, between 60 to 120 in hunting and collecting bushmeat, (24%), a further 100 to 200 people work in gold panning and mining (6%); and also collecting building poles, fuelwood, bamboo, honey and medicinal plants. Livestock are raised over 10% and footpaths over 67% of the Park. No forest remains immediately outside the Park, but commercial mechanised logging has not occurred within it owing to the ruggedness of the land.