We Protect Our Forest Because It’s Our Identity, Say Guinea-Bissau Locals

When communities truly value something, it can become an icon to their society. For locals in Cobiana, Guinea-Bissau, it happens to be the trees of their sacred forest – and cutting down a tree is strictly prohibited by the community.

The sacred forests are “a crucial identity element of socialization, knowledge production, and economics … an element that reinforces the identity of the place and also the governing power of spaces and resources,” says Miguel de Barros, an activist and sociologist in the West African country.

The government did not weigh in any laws to protect and save the locals’ forests: their local community has been traditionally doing it themselves for decades. In their eyes, no amount of money could buy a single piece of their forest. “It is our identity,” says Albino Mendes, a local protector.

In addition to taking care of their own forests, locals are trying to develop woodlands in communities that haven’t yet endorsed the concept of sacred forests, to educate a similar understanding and reverence for the environment.