{"id":13174,"date":"2025-09-17T10:58:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/2025\/09\/une-ecole-de-terrain-transdisciplinaire-pour-comprendre-comment-les-activites-humaines-passees-faconnent-encore-la-biodiversite-des-ecosystemes-du-gabon\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:23:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:23:34","slug":"a-transdisciplinary-field-school-for-understanding-how-past-human-activities-are-still-shaping-the-biodiversity-of-gabons-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/2025\/09\/a-transdisciplinary-field-school-for-understanding-how-past-human-activities-are-still-shaping-the-biodiversity-of-gabons-ecosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"A transdisciplinary field school for understanding how past human activities are still shaping the biodiversity of Gabon\u2019s ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gretchen Walters, Institute of Geography and Durability<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Gretchen Walters recently joined Gabonese colleagues and international partners in Doum\u00e9 to study and teach with them how past human activities are still influencing biodiversity in Gabon\u2019s areas that may appear \u201cnatural\u201d. This research aims to better manage and protect biodiversity, taking cultural and historical practices into account.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Gretchen Walters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Viewing the forest and savannas from a plane or drone, the expansive ecosystems look almost uniform, and natural. But if one knows how to read the landscape, it\u2019s a completely different story: the ecosystem bears the marks of its history in its flora, fauna, soil, and its people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying biodiversity is at its best when it brings together different disciplines and stakeholders to understand the issues. In June and July 2025, Professor Gretchen Walters taught in the Ecole de Terrain \u201cECOTROP\u201d in Gabon to students and professionals from the national parks agency, in collaboration with teachers from Gabon, France, the UK, the US, Swaziland, and Greece. The goal was to conduct research with students and teach tools and methodologies that would allow to understand the biodiversity of Gabon\u2019s ancient villages which are scattered throughout the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 participants1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0and several professors from the Universit\u00e9 Omar Bongo (UOB, with which UNIL has an agreement), Universit\u00e9 des sciences et techniques de Masuku (USTM), the Gabon national parks agency, and five American universities, set out together to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drone image of the village of Doum\u00e9. Photo\u00a0: D. Mouketou-Tarazewicz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Over the course of three weeks, we studied the biodiversity of former village sites in Gabon around the village of Doum\u00e9 in collaboration with members of the Kota, Adouma, Bongo, and Awandji ethnic groups, who have lived in this forest-savanna mosaic at the edge of the Ogoou\u00e9 River for several hundred years.<\/p>\nProf. Gretchen Walters<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Doum\u00e9 village, Gabon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gabon\u2019s forests were previously extensively settled with villages and their associated territories occupying vast areas. However, during the colonization by France, villages were forced to move to the roadsides, in what is called the \u201cRegroupement\u201d, a process that occurred from 1919 to the 1970s. This far-reaching colonial policy displaced villages, but did not displace land use. People regularly return to these former villages and they still are part of village hunting territories and remain important for cultural reasons. However, most research does not account for these parts of the ecosystem, tending to focus on places which appear to have less human influence. Thus, this field school and the related FNS forest history project aims to fill these important gaps, and to account for how people have shaped the ecosystem over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ECOTROP, participants become members of a one of the following thematic \u201cateliers\u201d: archaeology, pedology, botany, zoology (birds and mammals), and participatory cartography. Each atelier is led by a researcher, and the results of each atelier contribute to answer our research questions about understanding the role of people in modifying soil and biodiversity. Using a variety of methods, each atelier documents the biodiversity, social history, and soils of a former village and a neighboring comparative site which has never had a village or an agricultural field.\u00a0\u00a0UNIL\u2019s contribution to the field school is to bring an environmental anthropology approach using transdisciplinary methods, which collaborate with experts from the four ethnic groups of Doum\u00e9. While the field school is funded in part by an National Science Foundation grant from the US, UNIL\u2019s participation is from a sister project, funded by the FNS, which also focuses on understanding the legacies of the past forest land use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, we focused on the former villages of Mabouli and Manenga while the archaeology team worked in the nearby Youmbidi cave. Each team works with community members, but in the participatory historic cartography one, these community members become experts that we work with, since we are documenting their village histories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our fieldwork, our work was documented by\u00a0 Victor\u00a0Amman<\/a><\/strong>, a graduate of UNIL who creates science documentaries. We look forward to seeing his film early next year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we are finished with our research, we present our findings back to the community members in Doum\u00e9 and in the nearby cite of Lastoursville. This is an important step for participants to learn how to communicate their findings to the general public and most importantly, for the host communities to understand what we did. We look forward to working with them again next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ECOTROP is a field-based research class that has been held in Gabon and Cameroon since 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Consortium is led by the Gabon National Parks Agency in partnership with the USTM and UOB, along with numerous other universities outside of Gabon, but notably the University of New Orleans and the Institute of research and development of France. The field school is largely financed by a grant the United States National Science Foundation to the University of New Orleans and TOTAL. UNIL became a partner of the ECOTROP Consortium in 2025,\u00a0\u00a0and participates in ECOTROP as part of a wider FNS project on a related subject in Gabon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Field camp, established at the Doum\u00e9 school, during their summer break.\u00a0Photo:\u00a0B.\u00a0Ngonda Makita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Archaeological excavations in the Youmbidi cave, conducted by archaeologists Richard Oslisly and Geoffroy de Saulieu from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Photos: R. Oslisly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Interview in Doum\u00e9 village, participatory historical mapping workshop. Photo: B. Ngonda Makita.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Atelier, co-led by Prof. Walters, with Sam Mengara of ANPN, works with local community members to document their former village areas in the forest and their migration histories. On the right, Graziella Angou\u00e9 Mba (USTM) works with Victor Vendza to document the migration history of the Adouma people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Graziella Angou\u00e9 Mba (USTM) is working with Victor Vendza to document the history of the migration of the Adouma people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A botanical transect under the supervision of Dr Davy Ikabanga (USTM).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dr Dieudonn\u00e9 Mouketou-Tarazewicz (UOB) and Brice Ngonda Makita (USTM) study soil formation at the former village of Mabouli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"presentation<\/a>
After the fieldwork, students present their results to Doum\u00e9 village, and then again in the nearby city of Lastoursville. Here, Dann Randy Ingolou Ikabanga (doctoral student of the ForHist project) presents the results of the participatory historic cartography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"gretchen<\/a>
Victor Amman interviews Gretchen and Sam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A planted\u00a0Ceiba pentandra<\/em>\u00a0tree in the first Doum\u00e9 village, documented from the 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Images of the forest, the stream near former Manenga and the Doum\u00e9 rapids.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"arbre<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"riviere<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Participants are called \u201capprenants\u201d because they may be university students or professionals from the national parks agency. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Prof. Gretchen Walters recently joined Gabonese colleagues and international partners in Doum\u00e9 to study and teach with them how past human activities are still influencing biodiversity in Gabon\u2019s areas that may appear \u201cnatural\u201d. This research aims to better manage and protect biodiversity, taking cultural and historical practices into account. By Gretchen Walters Viewing the forest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":13128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"43806682-430b-44bf-a0c6-d55a0e5378ea\",\"content\":\"Participants are called \\u201capprenants\\u201d because they may be university students or professionals from the national parks agency.\"}]","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[67161,67041],"tags":[67107],"class_list":{"0":"post-13174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-in-the-field","8":"category-research-at-work","9":"tag-gretchen-walters-en"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13174"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13186,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174\/revisions\/13186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/geoblog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}