Sobrevivência humana e conservação no Parque Nacional de Virunga: a interação de dois mundos na percepção dos moradores locais

Abstract

Protected areas in countries with low human development index still suffer from human pressure due to the precarious socioeconomic conjuncture in its surroundings. The issues faced by the Virunga National Park (ViNP) are mainly related to external pressures, due to the high population density and level of poverty in these surrounding areas. The objective of this study consisted in analyzing the interaction between the survival in the communities surrounding the Virunga National Park residents regarding food insecurity, domestic energy and perception the perception of the families from these areas, as well as the effectiveness of the park management. The Virunga National Park is an African park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the province of North Kivu, and covers an area of 800,000 hectares, extending a distance of approximately 300 km, with an average width little over 50 km. The data collection was done by means of a script of household surveys. We interviewed 127 families from seven villages surrounding the ViNP. The sampling was conducted using the intentional non-probabilistic technique (Snowball sampling) in which the families were indicated for the research based on key family of the village. According to the snowball sampling, the sample begins with the most influent person or family, known as the key-interviewee. In this research, the key-interviewee was often the chief of the village or location. A spatial analysis with the nearest neighbor interpolation method was performed using ArcGis 10.2.2, which allowed the geographic distribution of the survival data obtained from the residents. The results were critical regarding the effectiveness of the ViNP management, the family income, family size, access to employment, and access to agricultural land. In addition, in the domestic energy crisis of the communities surrounding the ViNP, the volume of firewood was insufficient to meet the energetic needs of the households. The negativity of the perception of the families regarding its socioeconomic importance was confirmed by the lack of direct benefits, such as the lack of access to agricultural lands. The special analysis of this study showed that the situation of the human survival of southern families from the southern part of the ViNP does not reveal such criticism when compared to the families from the northern part. Ecological tourism was considered an alternative to creating employments around the PNVi and to include the families in the management of the PNVi to exempt the park from various external pressures and threats.