Chefferies and Sultanat of West Cameroon

After so many forest trips, we decide to spend our last days on a cultural journey to visit the traditional kingdoms (chefferies) of West Cameroon. We went to the Chefferie in Bafoussam, Bandjoun and the Sultanat of Foumban. Astonishing was to hear how much power the traditional kings still have knowadays over their subjects. Also interesting was the differences in how the new king is chosen when the king dies. In Banfoussam, newborn babies (he got about 150 children from 50 wifes) of the king are screened by the notabilities for "signs" of a necklace on their skin, if found, it is secretly noted and not announced until the day of the funeral of the king. In Bandjoun, the notabilities chose amongst the children of the king the most capable (exceptionally, it can also be a woman or brother). In Foumban, its the Sultan himself who decides which of his sons will follow him on the throne.

Exploring the Dja UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and finding nothing

After having visited two communities situated just outside the Dja Reserve, we decide to go trekking within the reserve in the hope to being able to take pictures of the wildlife which is supposed to be abundant in this UNESCO Biosphere and World Heritage site. The conservation of the reserve has been supported by ECOFAC, a programme of the EU for outstanding Central African Forests since 1992. As we are told by ECOFAC staff in Lomié that the ECOFAC office in Samaloum is the better entry point, we head towards this little town at the northern Dja border.

We pay a lot of money to cover our driver, car, accommodation, food, equipment and the 4 people who are going to accompany us: an eco-guide, an eco-guard, and two bearers. As agreed, we are ready early in the morning to start our journey to encounter buffalos, and monkeys, hopefully gorillas, chimpanzees or even elephants. The next hours are a hard test for our patience. The eco-guard disappears with our car, the guide disappears once and again for personal grounds and stays behind. When we finally reach the entrance of the reserve at 11am, he tells us that the animals are now sleeping, that´s why we cant see them.

We keep on marching for hours in the dense forest. At the beginning, walking is not a problem, but after several hours, my headache becomes difficult to bear. ECOFAC made us pay so much that we had not much money left to buy food and water, so we had to be economic.

Over the next two days, we don’t see a single animal in this supposedly outstanding reserve – apart from heaps of ants, termites, bees and mosquitoes who don’t loosen their grip on us. Instead, we find numerous traces of poachers – elephant bones, shoes, firewood. In the village just before the entrance of the reserve, we meet a woman carrying a Mangaby baby monkey, not older than 1 ½ months. Its mother had been killed and the tiny baby given to the woman to raise it until it´s old enough to be eaten. The rangers try to persuade her to hand over the animal to be raised in an animal sanctuary in Yaounde, to no avail.

During those two days in the reserve, we get to know our guides better and can hardly conceal our astonishment. The eco-guard knows only two types of behavior: sleeping or playing to hunt mammals with his rifle. He talks about cocaine and his second job as guard accompanying trucks transporting logs. He shows high interest in the explanations of the eco-guide about different tree species in the reserve and calculates the price he would get if he felled the trees and sold them in Yaounde. Also the guide seems to be occupied with the economic value of the big trees in the reserve. He explains to us that a certain tree, even though very big and tall, had unfortunately not a very high commercial value. Unfortunately? “Yes, if you sell it you don’t get much revenue for it.”

We are happy to come back to Samaloum and ultimately Yaounde, taking home first-hand experience about the hardship of life in the forests and the difficulties to reconcile conservation on the one hand and livelihoods and the other.

First Community Forest managed by Baka Indigenous gets ready for REDD

It´s not difficult to guess what is the most important economic activity in the area East of the Dja Wildlife Reserve. One truck heavily loaded with huge logs after the other comes our way as we head towards Lomié.

The only Community Forest entirely managed by Baka Indigenous in Cameroon, Buma Bo-Kpode in Nomedjoh tries to go another way. With the help of the CED and others, they developed a sustainable forest management plan which sets out alternatives to large-scale clear-cut logging. Payment for environmental services such as the carbon content of the community forest is one important corner stone of the concept.

We witness how the community trains for participative mapping and carbon inventory. Highly motivated, they embark on a 10-days trip to measure the data necessary to estimate the carbon stored in their trees. They handle compass, GPS, and measuring tape with a lot of diligence under the supervision of experienced staff.

Apart from payments for carbon sequestration, the community tries to develop other economic activities. As the Bakas are traditionally hunter-gathers, they have not yet managed to set up very productive fields. Improving farming, livestock breeding, and the production of handicraft are some of the envisaged activities, as well as exploring new chaines of marketing to improve the income for the community. With the income expected, they hope to finance a health center, an electricity generator, and better food for the elderly.

Yaounde

The GTZ house is based on a little hill. A few meters further is an open-air café where artists display their oeuvres. You can have a drink while overlooking a good part of the city - very scenic!

The mentality is very different here from Indonesia, that much is clear.

While in Indonesia people smile all the time, here in Cameroon, people don’t smile - behavior changes from very polite, to cheerful, mocking, to what Europeans (even more Asians, I suppose) would consider as quite rude – even if meant in a joking way.

Interaction is very much facilitated for me by the fact that all people apart from very remote villagers speak some degree of French, and most English as well, even though French is nobody’s mother tongue as Cameroon counts about 270 native languages – chapeau!

Nkolenyeng: A Community Forest under Pressure from Logging, Mining and Natural Reserves

Just arrived in Yaounde in the calm and pleasant GTZ house, we are informed by our local partner, the Centre pour l´Environnement et le Développement (CED): Get ready, the first field visit starts tomorrow. Here we go!

We are amazed by the effectiveness and professionalism of this Cameroonian NGO, contradicting stories we hear from other foreigners about their local partners. Still, also this NGO does depend on local partners: On the day of departure, the car rented does not show up until the afternoon, so we spend the morning in CED´s airy office, surrounded by green spaces, exploring the solar cooker and the community-made natural foodstuff and body care products.

Finally, we leave with 2 cars and 8 people to Djoum for an overnight stop, before continuing to the Nkolenyeng Community Forest the next day, just about 30 km North of the border with Gabon.

The Community of Nkolenyeng consists of around 550 villagers, majority Fang (Bantu), minority (about 60) Baka, an indigenous forest people, known for its average small statue. The Community managed to obtain their own official Community Forest, squeezed around a road by logging concessions in the North, and a natural reserve as well as iron mining concessions in the South. Looking at a forest map of Cameroon you see large areas representing the logging concessions and the tiny stretches along the roads: potential Community Forest, mostly on poor land with poor forests.

The villagers in Nkolgenyeng have established an ambitious management plan. Cacao plants in an agroforest and very limited selected logging with sustainable methods (e.g. without heavy machinery, wood transport without vehicles) are currently the main sources of income, combined with small subsistence farming by the Fang and honey production and hunting by the Baka. Now, they work on establishing detailed biodiversity and carbon inventories to receive in the future payments for environmental services such as carbon sequestration. The forest is managed by a community committee consisting of Baka and Fang, man and women.

Plants and animals to be found in the area are plentiful, including several primates amongst them gorillas and chimpanzee. If you are lucky, you can see elephants passing by.