In a workshop in Yaounde last week they examined how they can preserve wildlife when exploiting the forest.

Forest exploiters, especially timber companies, have been drilled on how they could in course of exploiting the portion of the forest given them preserve wildlife. This was during a two-day workshop organised at Hotel Azur in Yaounde, Tuesday and Wednesday March 9 - 10, 2010 by Wildlife Wood Project-Cameroon in partnership with a London company, "Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Officials said the aim of the workshop was to provide a scientific foundation for a coordinated effort to improve wildlife management in timber production forests in forest management units of Cameroon, with focus on best-practice tools for monitoring wildlife.

Talking to CT during the workshop, Eric Arnhem, project manager of Wildlife Wood Project-Cameroon said the workshop served as an avenue for scientific experts, national and international NGOs in forest concessions as well as lodging companies to exchange ideas on methodological tools to monitor wildlife population and to propose recommendations to the private sector in order to ensure the long-term viability of animal biodiversity in their concessions. "We want to get together to think about the strategy we can implement in order to improve wildlife management in the production forests of Cameroon", he said.

Participants from the civil society, the private sector and timber certification companies, were, through paper presentations and discussions, drilled on topics like the legal aspects of the management of wildlife in forest concessions and a sustainable wildlife management in timber concessions.

The Project's Manager said for their two-year stay in Cameroon thus far, they have been monitoring techniques of wildlife population as well as carrying out socio-economic studies in order to understand how the bush meat trade functions. BAINKONG