A publication of WWF Kudu-Zombo Programme

n° 003 - August 2008

Campo-Ma’an Councils

engage in sustainable

natural resource

management

Wildlife census : Key

species stable despite

poaching

WWF, through the Kudu Zombo program in CampoMa'an, is increasingly positioning itself as the facilitator ofthe emergence of an enabling environment for povertyalleviation, sustainable development, and social andbehavioral change favorable to ecological sustainabilityin the landscape. We lay emphasis on facilitating theemergence of grassroots business enterprises that buildon effective communication and marketing. We also workto positively influence policies in favor of social andecological wellbeing of Campo M'an.

WWF intends to remain attached to its core businesswhich is the conservation of biodiversity. Thoughimproving livelihood is the key strategy for achievingecological sustainability in Campo Ma'an, WWFrecognizes the value of partnerships and coalitions withdevelopment and civil society organizations, businessesand industries, and local municipalities in order to bemore effective and put in place mechanisms forsustainability of our interventions. Our concern is tomake sure that achievements of the program continue tobenefit people and nature even after we exit thelandscape.

During this financial year that goes from July 2008 toJune 2009, more efforts will be focused on establishingcommunity-private sector partnerships, and building thecapacities of local municipalities in planning andmanaging natural resources for sustainable

development. We strongly believe that acting this way isthe gateway to sustainable interventions that willcontinue to deliver good results after program fundingcomes to an end.

Building the capacities (technical, organizational,logistics and financial) of grassroots organizations willremain a crosscutting effort during the lifetime of theprogram. Capacity building aims at enabling local actorsto play a key role in facilitating local communities'dynamics, influencing policies and advocating for sociallysound government and private sector interventions in thearea. The small grants component of the LFP isspecifically designed to build organizational capacities oftarget grassroots organizations.

In order to be more effective and generate sufficientcritical mass necessary to guarantee the sustainability ofprogram's achievements, WWF plans to emphasize onthe following aspects of program implementation during:strengthen and expand ongoing partnerships whiledeveloping and formalizing new or pending ones;facilitate and strengthen community-private sectorpartnerships; Improve WWF engagement andeffectiveness in policy influencing at local, national andglobal levels.

By George AKWAH NEBACoordinator WWF Kudu-Zombo Programme

WWF’s mission is to stop the degradationof the planet’s natural environment and tobuild a future in which humans live inharmony with nature, by:• conserving the world’s biological

diversity• ensuring that the use of renewable

natural resources is sustainable• promoting the reduction of pollution

and wasteful consumption

About WWF

Funding Partners

Kudu-Zombo News - n°003 - August 2008 3

The Secretary of State in theMinistry of Wildlife and ForestryJoseph Roland Matta made the

statement on June 06, 2008 aftercompleting a two-day visit to Kribi andCampo, south of Cameroon. The visitaimed mainly at sensitizing andinforming the local communities,administrative authorities, the privatesector and other development partnerson the importance and the stakes oflarge public investment projectsplanned for the Campo-Ma'an area. Prominent among these projects arethe hydroelectric dam to be constructedon the Memve'ele water falls south ofthe Campo-Ma'an national park, the

Kribi Deep Sea Port, the Kribi Gasproject, the rail way terminal and themarine protected area.

All these projects will be carried outwithin a distance of about a hundredkilometers and, it was in a bid to clearup fears that there will be a conflict ofspace between the projects and apossible displacement of the populationthat the Secretary of State under tookthe visit to Kribi and Campo. JosephRoland Matta assured the localcommunities and the variousstakeholders that the planned KribiDeep Sea Port and the MarineProtected Area under creation forexample are not conflicting. "It is just aquestion of proper space management"he said. "All the decisions about theseprojects will be made in a participatorymanner and the local communities willbe consulted and their concerns takeninto account" the Secretary of Statefurther told the people of Kribi and

Campo.According Dr Martin TCHAMBA ofWWF, there is the need for theCameroon Government, the localcommunities and other developmentpartners to come together within theframework of a micro-zoning process,to reflect on the various land usepatterns to ensure a bettermanagement of space. "As far as thefuture marine park is concerned, theissue is to see how its proposedboundaries could be redefined so thatthey do not overlap with those of theDeep Sea Port" Dr TCHAMBA added.After a visit to the sites of the proposedprojects, the Secretary of State and hiscollaborators made a stop over at theCampo-Ma'an national park where theyappreciated the efforts being made bypark authorities and WWF to ensure theintegrity of the park and promotecommunity development initiatives at itsperiphery.

Planned Kribi Deep Sea Port project and marine protected area:

"There is no conflict between the two forms of land use"

4 Kudu-Zombo News - n°003 - August 2008

Four local councils that makeup the Campo-Ma'anlandscape have been

engaged in a sustainable naturalresource management process.Grouped under the umbrella of aplatform of councils known asPLACUTO, the representatives ofthose municipalities decided tocome together to develop acommon vision and strategy for themanagement of natural resourcesin order to foster the developmentof their localities.

The WWF Kudu-ZomboProgramme facilitated the process of buildinglocal councils capacities in natural resourcemanagement for poverty alleviation. A series ofmeetings organized with mayors betweenFebruary and June 2008, led to thesuccessfully design of a long term vision formanaging natural resources for povertyalleviation, with a strong focus on thepromotion of agro forestry, ecotourism, theestablishment of market chains for forestproducts, the creation of an inter-council centrefor valorisation of forest resources and themarketing of the Campo Ma'an National Park.

A platform (PLACUTO) also emerged to serveas a coordination body for councils ledsustainable natural resources processes. "Thisis a very important achievement as councils ofthe area are poorly organized and lack a clearunderstanding of their role and responsibility insustainable development and natural resource

management" declared George Akwah Neba,Coordinator of the WWF Kudu-ZomboProgramme. "The just created platform will seek to help localmunicipalities take advantage of thedecentralization process to mainstream naturalresource management in their developmentvision and practice' George Akwah Nebaadded. To him, the platform will also lead somepolicy influencing processes as the Campoarea is witnessing rapid change geared bylarge public investment projects without properinvolvement of councils.

The councils did not only adopt a common planof action that spells out priority actions to becarried out in the coming years to reducepoverty through a sustainable use andmanagement of natural resources, but alsopledged 5% of their annual budget for thefunctioning of the platform.

Campo-Ma'an councils join hands to

promote sustainable natural resource

management

For the first time since the Campo-Ma'annational park was created in 2000, acomplete Great Apes and other large

mammals' census was conducted in the park inApril 2008 by WWF in collaboration with forestguards, local and indigenous people. For morethan three months, the census teams led byDésiré Foguekem, bio monitoring officer at theWWF Kudu-Zombo Programme, toured thepark, collecting data on signs of wildlifepresence. Census results give a clearindication on the status of gorillas,chimpanzees and other large mammals in thepark in terms of density, distribution andthreats. The population of gorillas for exampleis estimated at about 675 individuals whilethere are about 400 elephants in the Campo-Ma'an national park. These figures, comparedto those of past surveys, show a stabilization offlagship species in the park. Census resultsalso indicate that poaching activities are stillvery intensive in and around the park despiteefforts made by park officials in terms of forestpatrols. The incidence of poaching on wildlifepopulation shows that the distribution of keyspecies is uneven in thepark. Wildlifeconcentration is higher inthe southern part due tohuman pressure in theupper side of the park. Itappeared during the datacollection that signs ofgorilla presence weremostly found in loggingroads and not in theforest as could beexpected. The reason,according to the analysis

is that logging roads as well as farms are areaswhere fruit trees and other lower stratavegetation grow faster and abundantly. Wildlifeand great apes in particular therefore prefer tofeed in those places where food is abundant.

Another factor worth noting is the proximity ofthe biologically rich part of the park with theMemve'ele water falls on which a hydro-electricdam will soon be constructed. Gilles Etoga,park advisor at the WWF Kudu-ZomboProgramme states that "a simulation of thezone of impact of the Memve'ele dam within aradius of 25 km from the dam shows that thepark's richest part in terms of wildlife, will beseriously affected by the dam construction".This is why he thinks that the projectenvironmental impact assessment plan and theattenuation measures should take intoconsideration the findings of the just endedcensus.

With the updated base line data, it will be easyto plan for the up coming gorilla habituationprocess, the bio monitoring programme andthe five-year Great Apes conservation plan forthe Campo-Ma'an national park.

Kudu-Zombo News - n°002 - Janvier 2008 5

Elephants and African Great Apes, Campo-Ma'an:

" Census shows stabilization of key

Wildlife species “

6 Kudu-Zombo News - n°002 - Janvier 2008

Fifteen poachers felt in the dragnets of forestguards in the Campo-Ma'an national parkafter a series of two anti-poaching patrols

that were conducted in April 2008. The suspectsamong whom three women, were arrested as theytried to smuggle out their booty made up of deadwildlife including totally protected wildlife speciessuch as the giant pangolin and the mandrill. Theyalso had in their keeping eight weapons and alarge quantity of ammunition and other poachingtools.

According to park authorities, the recent arrest ofpoachers is a clear indication that poaching is stilla major concern in the protected area despitetough surveillance measures and otherconservation efforts. "The impact of poaching onthe park's wildlife resources is mainly felt in thenorthern part of the park which borders agro-industries and forest concessions" park authoritiesdeclared. "What is even more disturbing" theyfurther said, "is the little interest these companieshave so far shown in conservation activities in thepark even as it has been clearly established thattheir workers and those living in and around theirconcessions are responsible for the high pressureon wildlife resources".

Available data at the conservation service of theCampo-Ma'an national park show that animportant network of bush meat trade has beenestablished around the park with women playing anincreasingly important role. "Women supplypoachers with ammunition and food and also playthe role of carriers. They equally know the variousretailers to whom they sell the bush meat" said theconservator of the park.

The main cities such as Kribi and Ebolowa and toa lesser extend Campo, Ma'an and Niété are themain markets for bush meat from the Campo-Ma'an area. While continuing with sensitization onthe need to conserve wildlife, park authorities saythey intend to tighten surveillance measures in andaround the park to slow down poaching activities.With the support of WWF Kudu-ZomboProgramme, the park's conservation service willalso continue to strengthen the capacity of forestguards in anti-poaching and bio monitoringtechniques.

For the moment, the fifteen suspects who werearrested in April are detained awaiting trial

POACHING:

STILL A MAJOR CONCERN IN CAMPO-MA'AN

DESPITE CONSERVATION EFFORTS

The one-day training that took place on June 06,2008 in Campo, south of Cameroon, focused on theprovisions of the new criminal procedure code inconnection with the 1994 forestry law in Cameroon.

Organized by the conservatin service of theCampo-Ma’an National Park and the World WideFund for Nature WWF, the training aimed at provi-ding the over 35 forest guards in the area with ade-quate knowledge on the new criminal procedurecode and on ways of ensuring its proper implemen-tation in relation with the fight against poaching.The training, as stressed by park authorities, wasalso out to sensitize wildlife and forestry officials,local organizations and law enforcement authoritieson their role and responsibilities and to facilitate thesetting up of a sound mechanism to ensure animproved collaboration between the various actorsin the fight against poaching.

In more practical terms, the participants at the trai-ning were lectured on the innovations contained inthe new code in relation to the fight against poa-ching, the legal procedure, from the recording of theoffence against the wildlife and forestry law to thetrial and sentencing of the suspect (poacher). ToMagistrate Kamdem Feutseu Charlem Clautaire, itis absolutely important to scrupulously follow thevarious steps of the legal procedure in order toavoid cases of rejection of reports on the offences.

Discussions between the legal expert and partici-pants also focused on the rights of the suspects asenshrined in the new criminal procedure code, theuse of fire arms during forest patrols, the writing ofreports on offences against the forestry law, andtheir forwarding to the state council. Speaking later,the participants were unanimous on the fact that thetraining was worth the trouble. "Before this training,

I never knew that portraying the suspects on televi-sion as we have been doing in the past is not per-missible by the law" Azeme Azeme Nestor, a forestguard said. "I wish to encourage WWF and theMinistry of Wildlife and Forestry to organize more ofsuch training sessions in order to improve ourknowledge on issues of legal proceedings in rela-tion to the fight against poaching" he finally said.

Kudu-Zombo News - n°003 - August 2008 7

CAMPO-MA'AN NATIONAL PARK:

FOREST GUARDS AND

LAW ENFORCEMENT

OFFICIALS DRILLED IN

NEW CRIMINAL

PROCEDURE CODE

The inhabitants of Biboulemam andTya'assono in the Campo-Ma'anlandscape are getting set to begin the

exploitation of their community forests. Bothcommunities have obtained the annualexploitation permit that grants them the rights tosplit and take wood out of their forests for sale."We are delighted to have received the permitthis year, even though we will only have a fewmonths to exploit the forest before the end ofthe year" said a member of the Biboulemamcommunity. "Our main concern now is to get asaw mill and other exploitation tools" he added.Like many communities in Cameroon, theBiboulemam and Tya'assono communities lackadequate exploitation equipment and technicalknow-how to carry out a sustainableexploitation of the forest.

The WWF Kudu-Zombo Programme which hasbeen supporting the communities in theprocesses of acquisition and exploitation ofcommunity forests has offered grants to threecommunity forests managing communities(Akak, Biboulemam and Tya'assono). Thesegrants are part of the programme's strategy toenhance community-based forest enterprisesand ensure a sustainable exploitation ofcommunity forests in the Campo Ma'an area.One local non-governmental organisation alsoreceived a grant to support community forest

initiatives around the Campo-Ma'an nationalpark. This is expected to speed up the processfor acquisition of community forests in theregion in order to increase the number ofcommunity managed forests and control overlands.

WWF is also very much concerned withstrengthening the capacity of local communitieswith the view to transforming existing forestmanagement structures into community forestenterprises. According to Cyrille Ekoumou,Forest Policy Officer at WWF Kudu-ZomboProgramme, "transforming these localstructures into forest enterprises will helpincrease their production capacity, improvetheir sales and of course improve revenuesfrom community forest exploitation".

Community forests are portions of forestsceded to the communities for a 25-yearexploitation period by the State of Cameroon. Amanagement convention that is signedbetween the State (which is the owner of theland and forest) and the local community, spellsout the conditions and the measures to betaken to ensure a sustainable use andexploitation of forest resources. The proceedsof community forest exploitation are meant tofinance development projects at the communitylevel.

8 Kudu-Zombo News - n°003 - August 2008

COMMUNITY FORESTS IN CAMPO-MA'AN:

EXPLOITATION BEGINS SOON IN TWO NEW

COMMUNITY FORESTS

Kudu-Zombo News - n°003 - August 2008 9

Kudu Atube, ana s s o c i a t i o nlocated at Ebodjé

village, on the Campo-Ma'an coastline hit itsown fund raising recordthis year when itcollected close to 1000Euros for sea turtleconservation. The fundswere raised thanks to asea turtle adoption

system that has been put in place by theassociation, WWF and other partners in seaturtle conservation and monitoring. Tourists andother visitors are often encouraged to adopt asea turtle by paying an amount of money(40Euros) to the association. A certificate is issuedto the donor and the funds are used to organisesea turtle monitoring activities on the beachesand to compensate the fishermen whose netsare destroyed by nesting sea turtles. Accordingto Toby Mediko, a member of the Kudu Atubeassociation, despite their good fund raisingperformance this year, the association is still inneed of resources to fully implement itsmonitoring programmme. Observations showthat four species of sea turtles visit the Campo-Ma'an coastline amongst them the olive ridleywhich is the most frequent species. Thesenesting sea turtles are threatened byuncontrolled egg collection and capture ofnesting females for meat.

CAMPO-MA'AN, CAMEROON

" LOCAL ASSOCIATION RAISES MORE FUNDS

FOR SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION “