SURVIVAL
Many Baka tribespeople in Cameroon have suffered abuse and beatings at the hands of anti-poaching squads PHOTO/© Selcen Kucukustel/Atlas
Kathryn Bigelow, producer of ‘Last Days of Ivory’ PHOTO/© Wikimedia commons/ David Shankbone
The Hollywood team behind the controversial film “Last Days of Ivory” have ignored calls to withdraw it, despite overwhelming evidence that it’s misleading the public. The film advocates a more militaristic approach to conservation that has already proved disastrous for tribes across Africa and elsewhere.
The film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, claims that the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab is funded by ivory poaching, but two recent investigations, by the respected think tank the Royal United Services Institute, and the UN and Interpol, have found that this is “largely wrong” and “highly unreliable”.
The film is being used to bolster the move towards a more violent conservation that criminalises tribal peoples for subsistence hunting.
Across Africa, tribal peoples are being evicted from their land and suffer violence at the hands of heavily armed anti-poaching squads. They’re accused of “poaching” because they hunt their food. And they face arrest and beatings, torture and death, while fee-paying big game hunters are encouraged. Their lives and lands are being destroyed by the conservation industry, tourism and big business.
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