“We have more value in Nature, there in the forest. We feel that this is our home.” — Autu Patrick, Autu, Batwa, Uganda

Hello, my name is Autu Patrick, I am the son of the king if the Batwa, Geoffrey of Semuliki Park, Bundibugyo, western Uganda. We used to live in the national park forest, that is our home, we originated from the Congo Mahoya to Semulik National Park that’s where we used to live and we used to get medicine from there, medicine trees that help us to treat ourselves locally and the animals and fishing, we used to do well from there. It felt that was our home and we own it and we have a right over it still we have more value in Nature, there in the forest. We feel that was our home. Nature keeps its own self like Semulilki National Park, we are just staying there to protect it, but we don’t own i