Page 23 - English Reader - 8

“This is a new kind of hunting and it is made possible in the Great Congo Basin because logging

companies have gone in and made roads deep into the heart of the large forests. And now for the
first time, there is a road, and there is transport. The hunters are going in from the towns and they
camp at the end of that logging road. They shoot everything—elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, the
little bonobo, monkeys, antelopes, even the larger birds and bats; all of them are shot and smoked.
The dead animals are loaded up along with the trunks of the trees and taken into the town where
the rich will pay more for this ‘bush meat.’ They prefer the taste so they pay more than they would
for chicken or goat.”

“It is absolutely not sustainable—the forests cannot stand
this kind of raiding of the animal population. It is even worse,
because deep in the heart of the forest are these great
logging camps with maybe two-thousand people who were
not there before; the loggers and their families.”

“And the pygmy hunters who have lived in harmony for
hundreds and hundreds of years with their forest world
are given guns and money and told to go and shoot for the
logging camps. And that is not sustainable either.”

“And, as is true in so many cases, we look at the plight of animals and find that it is tied up so closely
with the plight of people. And that is true with the pygmies.

When the logging camp moves, if they have practised so-called sustainable logging, there will be
forest left. But what will be in that forest? Nothing larger than little rats, tiny birds, and lizards. So
what will the pygmies do then? Their culture, their way of life, everything, will be destroyed, and
very little left for them. This story is repeated again and again.”

Word Meanings

1. ridiculous : absurd or laughable

2. palaeontologist : a person who studies fossils
3. matriarch : mother who is head of her family group
4. personalities : special qualities as individuals

5. rational thought : the ability to think, reason, and understand
6. demonstrated : shown; clearly proved

7. intensive farms : small farms in which many animals are reared with a lot of effort
8. chasm : a deep split or gap between two people or groups

9. field of compassion : the things that you are concerned about and feel sympathy for
10. habitat : the place where an animal or plant naturally lives or grows

11. encroaching : going where you have no right to go
12. snares : traps

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