WCS Cameroon Mbam Djerem National Park Project
Created in January 2000, the Mbam Djerem National Park (MDNP) is located at the contact zone between the closed canopy humid forests of the Congo basin in the south and the savanna in the north. Largest forest savanna protected area of the country, MDNP is very species rich and diverse. Many streams, among them the Djerem River, flow through the park providing water to humans, livestock, and wildlife.
The park’s extraordinary habitat diversity makes it the most biologically diverse protected area in Cameroon, with ideal living conditions for more than 60 mammal species such as elephants, bongo, buffalo, hippopotamus, leopards, more than twelve diurnal primate species including two subspecies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes vellorosus and Pan troglodytes troglodytes), 65 species of reptiles, well over 500 species of birds and 30species of fish. Since 2003, WCS has been responsible for the management of this important conservation site.
The Human Aspect
An estimated 30,000 people live in 74 villages located within 20 kilometers of MDNP. These communities have a high level of poverty and limited access to employment opportunities and social infrastructure such as schools, health centers and clean water. They are dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods. Traditional livelihoods in the landscape include farming, fishing, beekeeping/honey production, livestock herding, and harvesting of non-timber forest products including bushmeat. Due to the dependence of local communities on natural resources, community education and awareness, and small-scale livelihoods projects have been a necessary part of WCS activities since it began working in the area of MDNP. These interventions will have to be taken to scale in the near future as the human population in and surrounding the landscape is expected to increase dramatically, by an estimated 50% in the next 10 years due to the construction of the Lom Pangar Dam, a new bauxite mining operation, and expansion of both artisanal and commercial gold mining in the landscape.
Conservation Approach
- Provide technical and financial support for the development of alternative livelihoods including: sustainable fisheries, beekeeping for honey production, and sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products; Improve cattle husbandry practices to address the shortage of water and pasture land which force herders into MDNP in the dry season degrading/destroying natural habitat and increasing the probability of disease transmission between cattle and wildlife.
- Sustainable Finance: Work with the government, partners organization, donor agencies and and private sector to establish a sustainable funding mechanism to ensure the long term financing of the MDNP and the surrounding areas
Goals
Important Next Steps
Law Enforcement: Strengthen and expand effective law enforcement to regulate human activities and protect wildlife through provision of training, equipment and logistical support for anti-poaching and park management. Also improve the capacity of judicial authorities to implement wildlife law and regulations
Land Use Planning (including establishing habitat corridors): Develop and implement a landscape-level land use plan to guide human and economic activities while protecting biodiversity; establish functional corridors between protected areas, communal forests, communities forest and logging concession to ensure long-term viable wildlife populations.
Management Plans: Develop, implement and monitor implementation of management plans for the National Park, logging concessions, communal forests, and community forests
Minimize Impact of Infrastructure Development and Extractive Industries: Work with the government and private sector to ensure all interested parties adhere to best practices and that damage to the landscape is avoided, minimize and mitigated and residual damage offset
Environmental Education and Awareness and Conservation Constituencies: Build local and national constituency for the conservation of the landscape (including private sector logging companies, dam managers, mining companies, the Ministry of Forest and Wildlife, WCS, governmental agencies, and representatives of local communities); Develop and implement targeted environmental education and awareness programs to influence behavioral changes in the local communities.
Activities
WCS Cameroon plans to undertake the following interventions to abate these threats conserve its targets and accomplish its vision. Interventions are grouped into 6 categories: law enforcement; land use planning and management plans; minimizing impact of infrastructure development and extractive industries; environmental education, awareness and conservation constituencies; alternative livelihoods; and sustainable finance
Threats
Poaching, illegal logging, development of infrastructure and extractive industries, illegal grazing, unsustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), agricultural expansion, disease transmission between livestock and wildlife, unsustainable artisanal fisheries, lack of connectivity, lack of ecoguard capacity, lack of enforcement of wildlife laws by the judiciary, and a lack of community and private sector awareness and conservation constituencies.