The Mount Cameroon National Park,
58178 hectares with over 41 communities sharing boundaries with the park.
Among the 41 communities living
in this area, over 85% are farmers with few being hunters and timber
exploiters.
Upon the birth of the park in
2009, the management of the area shifted from local communities to the park
service under the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.
Such transition distort the
livelihood of the immediate forest dependent communities since their actions
are to be in conformity with the forestry law and the IUCN classification for
the protection of wildlife.
In that effect, after the
validation of the Management of the Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP), the
idea of collaborative management reinforced the collaborative management
efforts of the.
With the collaborative management
idea, the park created 41 Village Forest Management Committees (VFMC) within
the 41 park communities. To ensure a smooth functioning each VFMC provides a
nine man executive to represent the village during conservation discussion.
From the nine man executive, the
chief of each village is a member while the others constitutes representatives
such as; an external and internal elite, a farmer, hunter, youth and women (02)
representatives and Village Development
Committee representative.
Through such committees, the park
service signs a Conservation Development Agreement through which the VFMC and
the park service jointly carry out conservation activities like patrols, reporting
of illegal activities just to name a few.
In this light, these 41
communities after benefiting from their work allowance they also get
Conservation Bonus which is to be directed to a community project which should
be conservation friendly.
Also, to enhance the communities’
wellbeing, the park service has also initiated some alternative Income
Generating Activities such as plantain, cassava and yam projects.
To ensure
the sustainability and the perfect functioning of the VFMCs the park service
carries a routing follow-up of their projects and the running of the nine man
executive, they assist the VFMCs in their reorganization process.
The efficacy of the VFMC
determines the level of collaboration and benefits that the communities can get
from the park service.
To assist these communities, the
park service as part of their obligation are once more taking the
responsibility to follow-up the reorganization of the VFMCs of some villages.
Bonakanda village is one of the
partner were the reorganization was performed under the watchful eyes of the
Conservator of the MCNP, Mr. Bisong Simon and H.R.H Ndongo Emmanuel this September, 19th 2016.
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