Baka Peoples - Facing Changes in African Forests / Forest dwellers feel the heat as traditional seasons fail

Just 3 days of training & the local Baka team of women & men, youth & elders split into groups and developed various storyboards to depict important issues concerning their basic human rights. Climate change is a totally new label to most villagers, but seasonal changes were identified as a vital issue affecting the livelihoods and cultural heritage of the Baka forest dwellers. Fruits are rotting on the trees due to the excessive heat, even the forest floor is drying up. The women took the cameras to the forest spring to demonstrate their fishing techniques whilst the men went deep in the forest to harvest wild honey. On the way medicinal trees were identified and illegal deforestation documented. The video has had amazing impacts already. Plan Cameroon have agreed to fund a year of PV work focussing on children's rights; an adaptation plan is under way to build fish ponds and home gardens and to keep bees, and this video was watched by thousands in May '09 via the front page of the UNDP website!