A rich, interdisciplinary study of Central African land ethics incorporating conversations with local rainforest inhabitants that yield vibrant new insights into the dilemmas of sustaining Africa's rainforests and its people.. In Conversations in the Rainforest , Richard B. Peterson combines interdisciplinary research and intimate, first-hand conversations with members of various indigenous communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He reveals the startling depth and clarity of local peoples' perspectives on nature, on Western-backed conservation projects, and on the challenges of preserving Africa's rainforests. In doing so, Peterson points toward an environmental ethic applicable to rainforests and to the world at large. }Can any lessons for long-term environmental sustainability come from Africa, a continent long perceived more as a cauldron of environmental disasters than a cradle of environmental solutions? In Conversations in the Rainforest, Richard B. Peterson answers an emphatic yes. Peterson deftly interweaves the ideas of African and Africanist historians, theologians, anthropologists, philosophers, writers, and ecologists with a series of remarkable conversations he shared with inhabitants of the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yet, rather than remain in the background of his analysis, these conversationson subjects ranging from traditional interpretations of nature to contemporary indigenous perspectives on modern environmental challengesconstitute the very core of this book.Through this enlightening and frequently mesmerizing narrative approach, Peterson brings the foundations of Central African land ethics into vivid relief. With uncommon empathy and insight, he shows how ecological and social sustainability projects in the region can be based more firmly on these foundations. This book holds invaluable lessons for environmental practitioners, scholars, and anyone interested in long-term environmental sustainability on a global level. }

Table of Contents:
Acronyms; Boxes, Figures, and Photographs; Notes on Nomenclature; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; Conservation for Whom?; The Limitations of Imported Knowledge; Thinking About Our Thinking; The Limitations of Indigenous Technical Knowledge; Decolonizing the Mind: Beyond ITK Toward Afrocentricity; Afrocentricity and the Environment; The Tale of the Microhydro and the Mami Wata; Bridge Blueprints; 2. Central African Land Ethics: Theoretical Questions and Research Perspectives; Ecology, Values, and Value Transformation; Environmental Ethics in Global Perspective; Environmental Ethics in Central Africa; Universalism and Pluralism: The "One/Many Problem"; Is Nature Normative? Premodern World Views and Postmodern Ecological Science; Premodern World Views and the Nature-Culture Relationship; Ecological Science and the Nature-Culture Relationship; What Is Africa? Listening to Local People's Voices; So What? Central African Environmental Ethics and Environmental Justice; Repair and Reconstruction: Signs of Hope Grounded in African Soil; Methods and Research Process; Conversation, Lived Experience, and Radical Empiricism; Focus Groups; Narrative and Interpretation; Summary and Conclusion; 3. Narratives on Nature: An Opening Conversation with Ubangian Farmers; A Narrative Approach; Loko: Amid Forest and Savanna; Bogofo: An Initial Group Discussion; Conclusion; 4. Parts of a Whole: Nature, Society, and Cosmology in the Ubangi; Making a Living: Implicit Means of Conservation; Diversification of the Household Economy; Integration and Periodicity of Resource Use; Rotational Harvesting of Game and Fish; Sanctions Against Waste; Optimizing, Not Maximizing, Production; Benign Technologies; Production for Consumption More Than for Markets; Controls on Population Growth; Living with Neighbors: The Individual-Community Relationship; Central African Individual-Community Relations in Theory; Practical Example