The cost of conservation in central Africa

• Photographer
  Tommy Trenchard, Sierra Leone

The pygmy groups of central Africa are thought to be the area's
earliest inhabitants. For thousands of years they lived in harmony
with the forest, which supplied them with their food, their
clothing, their medicines, their spirituality and their identity.

But as huge areas of land were declared national parks over the
last few decades, the pygmies have been forced from their native
lands. They received no compensation for their loss, and now live
in slave-like conditions as vassals to local landowners, who often
pay them only in food.

They face extreme discrimination and live in abject poverty, with a
life expectancy of less than 30 years.