People & forests

The countries of the Congolese basin still have the last great tropical forest carbon sink on our planet; indigenous and Bantu peoples have lived there for centuries.This book, a testament of forty years of discovery paths in Congo-Zaire, is dedicated to them...Let us go back to the source before the future gets darker; before consumerist extractions take control of the last islets of intact nature on the planet; before the last native peoples of the «uprooted» category disperse throughout our world.Without foresight on a large-scale, the second half of the 21st century will see the great dispersion of hundreds of millions of climate refugees, mainly from Africa, who will first go to Europe.I will take you to meet them... Karibu! You are welcome to the village.Devoid of comfort and permeated by sobriety, their way of life will surprise you...Your phones and laptops will be of no use to you... Come in light apparel...Here, no air-conditioning, no fridge or freezer, we will unpack the chikwangas from their marantaceae, we will taste the liboke with its spicy fragrance,We will chat outside by the fire, intoxicated by palm wine or lutuku, perhaps even dancing to the rhythm of the tom-toms.At night, we will sleep on a mat and, because the forest always calls for rain, the storm will rumble, the branches will crack, the rain will whip the palm thatched roofs tracing their way through the imperfect joints of the makeshift house.The dark and silent night will close with the freshness of the poured rain.And the smell of wet earth, and decaying leaves.A distant pre-dawn tom-tom will punctuate the waking of the village.Turn the page...