Dr. Kai Schmidt-Soltau This is Me

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1. 1. The social impacts of protected areas

   www.social-impact-of-conservat - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/25/2005   Last Visited: 10/1/2007

   Dr. Kai Schmidt-Soltau [1] and Dr. Dan Brockington[2]
   ...
   In national parks, a first systematic study of indigenous population displacement under the lens of the IRR model was carried out in 12 protected areas and national parks in 6 Central African countries by Kai Schmidt-Soltau (2003) and underlined the analytical strength of the IRR model. Beside of its analytical advantages, our utilization of the IRR model guaranties the compatibility of our findings with the mainstream policies for involuntary resettlement, since the OP 4.12. of the World Bank, which is considered by all major stakeholders as best practice, is based on the IRR model.
   ...
   Coordinators: Dan Brockington & Kai Schmidt-Soltau
   ...
   West and Central Africa: Kai Schmidt-Soltau, Phil Burnham
   ...
   China: Shi Guoqing, Zhu Wenlong, Kai Schmidt-Soltau
   ...
   Kai Schmidt-Soltau is a sociologist and independent consultant with GTZ and the World Bank Group based in Central Africa since 1997. P.O. Box 7414; Yaoundé; Cameroun (Email: SchmidtSol@aol.com). He has published on this subject: The local costs of rainforest conservation: Local responses towards integrated conservation and development projects. In: Journal of Contemporary African Studies (in print); Conservation-related resettlement in Central Africa: Environmental and social risks. In: Development and Change 34(3): 525-551 (2003); Die soziokulturellen Risiken von naturschutzindizierten Zwangsumsiedlungen: Fallbeispiele aus Zentralafrika. In: Peripherie 18(4): 732-823; Displaced by conservation. In: Voices 4/2002: 9; Die Opfer der Nachhaltigkeit: Soziale und ökologische Folgen des Naturschutzes in Zentralafrika. In: Iz3w 264 (2002):7-11
   
   He has presented papers on the subject at the X. world congress of rural sociology (IRSA) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2000), the international symposium on resettlement and social development" in Nanjing (P.R. China, 2002), the international symposium on the multidimensionality of displacement risks in Africa in Kyoto (Japan, 2002), at the 8th Biannual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration in Chiang Mai (Thailand, 2003)

2. 2. Biodiversity Conservation versus Resettlement in Rainforests: Balancing Environmental and Social Sustainability

   www.danadeclaration.org/text%2 - [Cached]

   Last Visited: 11/10/2007

   Further, the biological concerns have gained policy backing and financial resources toward their practical implementation (park establishment) while the recommendations made by social research remained both under-designed and woefully under-resourced (Cernea, 1999; Schmidt-Soltau 2002a).
   ...
   In national parks, a first systematic study of indigenous population displacement under the lens of the IRR model was carried out in 12 protected areas and national parks in 6 Central African countries (table 2) by Kai Schmidt-Soltau, the other author of this paper, between 1996 and 2003.
   ...
   When Schmidt-Soltau visited this area first in 1999, he tried to find out why the indigenous Babenzélé population could not be found in the park. He learned that ‘they used to come in the past time and again, but that they are not allowed to enter the national park any longer'.
   ...
   We have documented earlier that most likely the resettler-host ratio varies between 2:1 and 1:1 (Schmidt-Soltau 2002c).
   ...
   Therefore, our research has reconstructed a pre-conservation picture based on a livelihood survey in one of the remotest regions in Central Africa - the Takamanda forest reserve area (Schmidt-Soltau 2001). In contrast to its status as a "reserve", no conservationists or state agents had penetrated this area before the survey.
   
   Table 6 estimates the loss of cash income on the basis of an un-conserved area as outlined before. If one consider the fact that the inhabitants of the Central African rainforests generate 67 % of their total cash income - in total Euro 161 per capita (Schmidt-Soltau 2001) - from hunting and gathering, it becomes clear that we are talking about one of the poorest population in Africa and the world.
   ...
   The common practice to do nothing represents the path of least resistance, and leaves without any assistance and guidance people who lived and/or utilized these areas as source of livelihood before the arrival of the conservation project (Schmidt-Soltau 2002a) and is the worst possible option from the perspective of biodiversity conservation (Terborgh and Peres 2002).
   
   It must be also stated that policies to expropriate rural populations without compensations and prior consultations, planning and informed consent seem to violate several international laws and conventions. The ILO Convention 169 relates to the forced displacement of indigenous groups and it specifically addresses this issue. Unfortunately, no African state has ratified this convention. In addition, one can hardly ignore the fact that all but two of the nine national parks surveyed violate the Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted on 27 June 1981 by the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organization of African Unity, which guaranties ‘all peoples a freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources' (Schmidt-Soltau 2003).
   ...
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2000. Conservation and Resettlement in the Central African Rainforest. Paper presented at the resettlement workshop on the 10th World Congress of Rural Sociology, Rio de Janeiro.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2001. Human Activities in and around the Takamanda Forest Reserve: Socio-economic Baseline Survey. GTZ-Consultancy report (will be published in 2002).
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002a. Conservation initiatives and local responses around Korup National Park (Cameroon). Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002b. The surface area of agricultural production in and around the Takamanda Forest Reserve: Findings from surface area measurement of individual farmland and from participatory cartography on village level. Yaoundé 2002.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002c. The Environmental Risks of Conservation related Displacements in Central Africa. Paper presented at the International Symposium on "Multidimensionality of Displacement Risks in Africa" Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan), November 2-3, 2002.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2003. Is there a Right to Resist? A Philosophical Survey of the People and Parks Paradigm. Paper presented at the 8th Biannual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, Chiang Mai (5-9 January).
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2003.
   ...
   [2] Kai Schmidt-Soltau is a sociologist and independent consultant with GTZ, EU and the World Bank based in Yaoundé (Cameroon; since 1997) and a visiting professor for resettlement studies at Rhodes University. (Email: SchmidtSol@aol.com)
   ...
   3= See Sournia 1998, Schmidt-Soltau 2002c. 4 = While ‘involuntary resettlement' is an organized approach in which the local population receives assistance through the national government and/or the promoter, the term ‘expulsion' in this paper is used for forced displacement imposed without significant assistance and regulated compensation, in kind and cash, from a village or settlement that is permanently inhabited- ‘Expulsion of pygmy-bands' refers to the expulsion of ‘pygmies', which do not utilize permanent settlements, from some parts of the forest utilized and inhabited by them on a temporary basis. Dispossession refers to cases in which the national government or the promoter did not recognize common law ownership or usufruct rights - such as traditional land use titles - as legal title, and in which the elementary rules of expropriation with compensation and allocation of titled alternative land are not respected . 5 = Most data are rough estimates based on published and unpublished data. 6 & 7= We understand a displacement as success, when all parties involved are satisfied with the outcome of the displacement and the change of land-use patterns. Compensation refers to financial mitigation towards livelihood restoration, which must be offered to the resettlers. A partial compensation refers to compensation for only one or some of the assets taken away, or for damage inflicted, but does not offer the full array of assistance. 8 = Schmidt-Soltau 2000:6; 9=PROFORNAT 2003, Curran & Tshombe 2001:521, FPP 2003; 10=Noss 2001:330; 11=Schmidt-Soltau: unpublished data; 12= MDP 1994 & IFORD 2003; 13=MDP 1994 & IFORD 2003; 14=Schmidt-Soltau 2001:20; 15=PROECO 1997; 16=Joiris & Lia 1995:41, 17=Abilogo et al 2002: 10, FPP 2003.
   ...
   [11] Sources: 1 = Schmidt-Soltau 2000; 2 = Schmidt-Soltau 2001; 3 = un-conserved forest in a remote location: Schmidt-Soltau 2001 4 = To move from this cash income to total income, one has to include the quantity of game and NTFPs, which are used for subsistence. The ratio between outtake for cash and outtake for subsistence was assessed to be 56.96 : 43.04 (Schmidt-Soltau 2001,2002b).

3. 3. Biodiversity Conservation versus Resettlement in Rainforests: Balancing Environmental and Social Sustainability

   www.danadeclaration.org/wpccce - [Cached]

   Last Visited: 11/10/2007

   Further, the biological concerns have gained policy backing and financial resources toward their practical implementation (park establishment) while the recommendations made by social research remained both under-designed and woefully under-resourced (Cernea, 1999; Schmidt-Soltau 2002a).
   ...
   In national parks, a first systematic study of indigenous population displacement under the lens of the IRR model was carried out in 12 protected areas and national parks in 6 Central African countries (table 2) by Kai Schmidt-Soltau, the other author of this paper, between 1996 and 2003.
   ...
   When Schmidt-Soltau visited this area first in 1999, he tried to find out why the indigenous Babenzélé population could not be found in the park. He learned that ‘they used to come in the past time and again, but that they are not allowed to enter the national park any longer'.
   ...
   We have documented earlier that most likely the resettler-host ratio varies between 2:1 and 1:1 (Schmidt-Soltau 2002c).
   ...
   Therefore, our research has reconstructed a pre-conservation picture based on a livelihood survey in one of the remotest regions in Central Africa - the Takamanda forest reserve area (Schmidt-Soltau 2001). In contrast to its status as a "reserve", no conservationists or state agents had penetrated this area before the survey.
   
   Table 6 estimates the loss of cash income on the basis of an un-conserved area as outlined before. If one consider the fact that the inhabitants of the Central African rainforests generate 67 % of their total cash income - in total Euro 161 per capita (Schmidt-Soltau 2001) - from hunting and gathering, it becomes clear that we are talking about one of the poorest population in Africa and the world.
   ...
   The common practice to do nothing represents the path of least resistance, and leaves without any assistance and guidance people who lived and/or utilized these areas as source of livelihood before the arrival of the conservation project (Schmidt-Soltau 2002a) and is the worst possible option from the perspective of biodiversity conservation (Terborgh and Peres 2002).
   
   It must be also stated that policies to expropriate rural populations without compensations and prior consultations, planning and informed consent seem to violate several international laws and conventions. The ILO Convention 169 relates to the forced displacement of indigenous groups and it specifically addresses this issue. Unfortunately, no African state has ratified this convention. In addition, one can hardly ignore the fact that all but two of the nine national parks surveyed violate the Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted on 27 June 1981 by the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organization of African Unity, which guaranties ‘all peoples a freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources' (Schmidt-Soltau 2003).
   ...
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2000. Conservation and Resettlement in the Central African Rainforest. Paper presented at the resettlement workshop on the 10th World Congress of Rural Sociology, Rio de Janeiro.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2001. Human Activities in and around the Takamanda Forest Reserve: Socio-economic Baseline Survey. GTZ-Consultancy report (will be published in 2002).
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002a. Conservation initiatives and local responses around Korup National Park (Cameroon). Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002b. The surface area of agricultural production in and around the Takamanda Forest Reserve: Findings from surface area measurement of individual farmland and from participatory cartography on village level. Yaoundé 2002.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2002c. The Environmental Risks of Conservation related Displacements in Central Africa. Paper presented at the International Symposium on "Multidimensionality of Displacement Risks in Africa" Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan), November 2-3, 2002.
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2003. Is there a Right to Resist? A Philosophical Survey of the People and Parks Paradigm. Paper presented at the 8th Biannual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, Chiang Mai (5-9 January).
   
   Schmidt-Soltau, K. 2003.
   ...
   [2] Kai Schmidt-Soltau is a sociologist and independent consultant with GTZ, EU and the World Bank based in Yaoundé (Cameroon; since 1997) and a visiting professor for resettlement studies at Rhodes University. (Email: SchmidtSol@aol.com)
   ...
   3= See Sournia 1998, Schmidt-Soltau 2002c. 4 = While ‘involuntary resettlement' is an organized approach in which the local population receives assistance through the national government and/or the promoter, the term ‘expulsion' in this paper is used for forced displacement imposed without significant assistance and regulated compensation, in kind and cash, from a village or settlement that is permanently inhabited- ‘Expulsion of pygmy-bands' refers to the expulsion of ‘pygmies', which do not utilize permanent settlements, from some parts of the forest utilized and inhabited by them on a temporary basis. Dispossession refers to cases in which the national government or the promoter did not recognize common law ownership or usufruct rights - such as traditional land use titles - as legal title, and in which the elementary rules of expropriation with compensation and allocation of titled alternative land are not respected . 5 = Most data are rough estimates based on published and unpublished data. 6 & 7= We understand a displacement as success, when all parties involved are satisfied with the outcome of the displacement and the change of land-use patterns. Compensation refers to financial mitigation towards livelihood restoration, which must be offered to the resettlers. A partial compensation refers to compensation for only one or some of the assets taken away, or for damage inflicted, but does not offer the full array of assistance. 8 = Schmidt-Soltau 2000:6; 9=PROFORNAT 2003, Curran & Tshombe 2001:521, FPP 2003; 10=Noss 2001:330; 11=Schmidt-Soltau: unpublished data; 12= MDP 1994 & IFORD 2003; 13=MDP 1994 & IFORD 2003; 14=Schmidt-Soltau 2001:20; 15=PROECO 1997; 16=Joiris & Lia 1995:41, 17=Abilogo et al 2002: 10, FPP 2003.
   ...
   [11] Sources: 1 = Schmidt-Soltau 2000; 2 = Schmidt-Soltau 2001; 3 = un-conserved forest in a remote location: Schmidt-Soltau 2001 4 = To move from this cash income to total income, one has to include the quantity of game and NTFPs, which are used for subsistence. The ratio between outtake for cash and outtake for subsistence was assessed to be 56.96 : 43.04 (Schmidt-Soltau 2001,2002b).