Cameroon: involvement of local people in anti-poaching drives pays off
Copyright 2001 WWF
August 30, 2001
MUNDEMBA, Cameroon: Recent sightings of large mammals in the Korup National Park, Cameroon, are signs that the new partnership between the local people and Park services to track down poachers is successful.
Korup Project Research Officer, David Okon and Professor Dr.Volker Sommer, a primatologist and lecturer at the University College, London recently sighted 20 drills descending a tree at the Cross Mountain and Hunter's Trail junction in the Korup National Park, Cameroon.
The team made another sighting later while on routine monitoring in certain areas of the Park. Fresh chimp nests were also observed in one of the transects.
Then, there was yet another sighting of two groups of drills of 25 individuals each and the observation of fresh elephant footprints some four kilometres from the main entrance into the National Park.
The above sightings are signs that large mammals in the Korup National Park are having a new lease on life thanks to anti-poaching initiatives involving local people.
" It is an indication that the collaboration is bearing fruit, even though we are still in a wait-and-see situation", says Dr. Hanson Njiforti, Korup Project Manager.
Indeed, Korup Project Management's decision to involve local people and government administration in anti-poaching initiatives and general policing seems to be paying off as gunshots in the Park become less frequent permitting wildlife to dare forth.
Local people were hitherto, accomplices to poachers. They gave poachers, mostly from neighbouring Nigeria, shelter, cover and direction in the Park.
With the new collaborative approach, local peoples now tip-off Park authorities on the presence of poachers within the Park.
In a recent case, a community member hinted the Park surveillance and enforcement unit of an extensive poaching operation by snares at one corner of the Park and this led to the seizure of 7,325 wire snares, four searchlights, one GPS instrument, and the destruction of five poachers' huts.
In another incident, a notorious poacher was arrested a few days ago and his gun, five cartridges and a machete confiscated. The Mundemba Magistrate Court recently sentenced Ladibe Jean, a big-time poacher to six months 10 days in prison.
Korup National Park is at the origin of the flourishing bushmeat trade along the southern extremities of the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
With an area of 125,900 hectares, the Korup National Park is patrolled by 14 game guards, making it a guard for 8, 993 hectares.
This is a far cry from the World Conservation Union (IUCN)-recommended ratio of 5,000 hectares per guard in open forests and 3, 000 hectares in closed forests like Korup.
The European Union (major donor of the Korup project) recently consented to the recruitment of 12 additional game guards to ease patrol of the Park.
The new recruits come from villages within a three-kilometre periphery of the Park. They have the advantage of mastery of the terrain unlike the first 14 who were recruited from outside the project area.
The Korup National Park was created 1986 by the government of Cameroon in through the support of WWF. Under Cameroon Law, human activity in the Park is limited to tourism, research and recreation.
For more information contact:John Nchami, Communications Officer, WWF-Cameroon Programme Office. Tel: +237 21 70 83 Fax: +237 21 70 85 Email: Jnchami@wwf.cm
Dr. Hanson Njiforti, Project Manager, Korup, P.O. Box 2417 Douala-Cameroon, Tel: 00871 76161 7083 Fax: 00871 76161 7084 Email: Hnjiforti@wwf.cm