Consortium leader: Millennium Ecological Museum (MEM)
Consortium: Millennium Ecological Museum (MEM), Cameroon; University of Douala (ENSET), Cameroon; Czech University of Life Sciences Faculty of AgriSciences (CZU FTA), Czech Republic; University of the Cinquantenaire de Lwiro (UNIC-LWIRO), Democratic Republic of the Congo.
RESSAC contribution: EUR 82,551
From around 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, Bantou speaking people began migrating and spreading throughout the entire forested area in Central Africa. During this process, native hunter-gatherer populations that maintained their ethnic distinction were organized into several groups.
Since 1950, remarkable social changes have occurred among African hunter-gatherers who no longer maintain a traditional nomadic lifestyle. Their livelihood activities have gradually changed from hunting and gathering to integrating shifting cultivation, and their lifestyles (food systems, diets, livelihoods, etc.) have changed just as suddenly.
The dietary composition, food choices and nutrition of contemporary hunter-gatherers are becoming central to discussions on the resilience of their food systems, as they are making rapid nutritional transitions away from diets composed of wild foods to ones dominated by cultivated crops and processed foods.
Despite the abundant literature on wild food plants used by hunter-gatherers, very few studies have focused on their food habits, the nutrient composition of their diets, or the pattern of nutritional transition.
Thus, in an attempt to address these research issues, a consortium comprising the University of Douala (ENSET), Cameroon); University of the Cinquantenaire de Lwiro (UNIC-LWIRO), Democratic Republic of the Congo; Czech University of Life Sciences Faculty of AgriSciences (CZU FTA), Czech Republic; and the Cameroonian NGO, Millennium Ecological Museum (MEM) requested financial support from RESSAC to conduct a study on local food systems and household dietary intake among Central African hunter-gatherer communities.
The study is targeting Central African hunter-gatherer communities in Cameroon (the Bakola/Bagyeli and the Baka) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the Twa).
The results of the study will contribute to the achievement of Strategic Objective 5.1 of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan 2015–2025 aimed at “improving the contribution of the forest sector to economic development and human welfare and also to regional strategy 2018–2025 for the Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Central Africa.
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