BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS

Usually tropical forest play an inestimable role in biodiversity conservation as about 70% of all terrestrial species are found in these areas. At the same time more than 1.6 billion people depend on tropical forest for their livelihoods. As such, the South West Region of Cameroon is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world, with very high levels of endemic plants and animal species. Over one quarter of the total primates species found in Africa are present in this region’s protected areas including some of the continents most endangered species such as the forest elephant, the cross river gorilla, the Nigeria - Cameroon chimpanzee, the drill and preuss’s red colobus monkey.

Mount Cameroon, standing as the highest in West Africa (4,095m). it is an active volcano with altitudinal gradient vegetation type ranging from tropical lowlands forest to the sub-alpine grass lands. This wealth in biodiversity is very much threatened due to manifold reasons. These include poverty, poor governance, unsustainable land use and management of natural resources that include illegal logging and poaching.

In other to fight against deforestation and loss of biodiversity, the need for the prioritization of high value ecosystem in the South West Region stands as a continuum that requires a lot of actors, partners and the communities. As such, since over 65% of the population living within and around this area depends on the ever green flora and fauna from or outside the protected and or reserved areas for their living , it is required that much contributions has to be done to improve the livelihoods of the surrounding communities in a more reliable and sustainable manner especially through  empowerment (income generating activities, capacity building and alternative  and best use practices) of the communities for sustainable forest and wildlife management.

An important part of our interest is to sustain continuous and reliable values of protected areas like the Mount Cameroon National Park. In a bid to do this, much has to be done with the communities living within and around this protected area in terms of sensitization, awareness creation (capacity building) including other activities to facilitate and increase the involvement of local communities in the conservation and preservation of high values.  Also, for these communities to work together and in close collaboration with the actors and stake holders concern is an element that is very essential to this process especially for long term programs.      


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