Biodiversity, Biomes, and Beliefs – the Impacts of Conservation and Global Change on BaAka Hunter-gatherers in the Central African Republic

Research and the media frequently communicate the ways in which indigenous communities and cultures are affected by protected areas management and industrial resource exploitation, with due emphasis on human rights and environmental justice. Just as critical to these conversations are examinations of the scalar effects of biodiversity and forest protection on hunter gatherers as written on their bodies, their microbiomes, and in their stories. This presentation draws on 15 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research to demonstrate how the resilience of BaAka hunter-gatherers living in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic is experienced and evident by qualitative and quantitative data.