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Cameroon: Living Earth Engages DJA Community in Forest Conservation
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The Post (Buea)
17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008
Christopher Jator Njechu
Living Earth Cameroon has disclosed that the people around the Dja Biosphere Reserve, DBR, in Sangmelima, South Province, would reap optimum benefits if they participate in the conservation of the reserve.
Living Earth Cameroon made the recommendation after it conducted an assessment to establish measures to curb overexploitation of natural resources (chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants, timber, etc) which is common on the periphery of the DBR.
The assessment facilitated the setting up of a module for the training of eco-guards in communication, conflict management and community consultation necessary for effectively engaging with the local people in the management of natural resources.
The module, which would also be used in the Garoua Wildlife and Mbalmayo Forestry schools, was being used for the first time in Sangmelima to train 20 eco-guards from April 1 - 5.
Living Earth Cameroon, which aims at fully involving the local people in the control of their natural resources, is also trying to identify ways to arrest the phenomenon of overexploitation.
The assessment revealed that game guards and conservators around the DBR use repressive methods to enforce forest laws, with limited success. This approach has rather created a conflict between conservators and the local people, leading to outright disregard for the law and undermining of the benefits that conservation could bring to the people.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Philip Tabe Tako-Eta, called on the trainees to work with the local community to develop and implement a plan for the effective implementation of the Forestry and Wildlife laws and management of natural resources in the country.
Dr. Nouhou Ndam, Programme Coordinator of Living Earth Cameroon, said rather than depend on the exploitation of protected natural resources for household income, the local people have been provided with alternative sources of income-generating activities, soap production, bee farming and so on.
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Despite these efforts, he said, the local people felt neglected and developed mistrust of conservation officials.The material that makes up these training modules was put together, revised and developed with inputs from local and international consultants as well as authorities of the Forestry and Wildlife Ministry, the Guaroua Wildlife and Mbalmayo Forestry Colleges.
The first draft of this material was tested with a group of over 20 eco-guards in Djoum last year. The first full-scale training already took place in Lomie for 203 eco-guards of the North and East of the Dja conservation service.
For the two decades that Living Earth has been working in Cameroon, its activities in Dja dates since 2003, after it observed that the local population was dissatisfied with conservation projects.
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