The Banyabutumbi, Bakingwe and Bahooro peoples of the Lake Edward Ecosystem face challenges of displacement, competition for food and land, overfishing and collapsed fish stocks, and the violation of their human rights. These Indigenous communities have also suffered the loss of many household shrines and traditional religious regalia, many of which were purged as satanic articles and publicly burned. The practice of rituals at sacred sites along their lakeshore continues to be forbidden.
This project will conduct quarterly community dialogues and inter-community exchange visits among the three neighbouring Indigenous communities in order to bring the Sacred Natural Sites custodians and communities together and focus on a process of reconstructing community governance systems.
These dialogues will enable these communities to participate effectively in conservation and sustainable management of the lake, exercise their rights, and to revive Indigenous knowledge and practices that can reduce ecosystem and biodiversity degradation.
People’s lives will be changed through:
– having spiritual satisfaction by practicing and fulfilling their spirituality
– enjoying the biodiversity and living in harmony with surrounding ecosystems
– having adequate food, water, and a healthy natural environment
Furthermore, the regeneration of ecosystems and harmonious living between humans and other beings means that the wildlife habitat will be preserved and the communities will have the possibility of generating funds through ecologically sensitive tourism.