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Some 15 more villages around the Mount Cameroon area have expressed their desire to be part of the ERuDeF project for the conservation of threatened trees within the Mt Cameroon area.
They expressed their intention in November, 2013, during a two week survey on predominant tree species and their uses in some 15 villages around the Mt Cameroon area conducted by the Project Coordinator, Ms Asa’a Lemawah. The aim of the survey was to enhance the conservation status of these threatened trees within the area by establishing nurseries to propagate them.
These 15 villages include:Woteva,Bokwaongo,Etome,Bibunde,Sanje,Kotto1,Kuke Kumbu, Mundongo, Ewondo, Bakingili, Likombe, Mapanja,Bomana,Bova 1 and Bova Bomboko
All 15 communities pledged to collaborate with ERuDeF for the establishment of tree nurseries and the subsequent transplanting of the trees in the buffer zones of the National Park and their farm lands for a better tomorrow.
“It is a privilege to have trees restored into our communities and the buffer zones of the National Park…they were dominant/very useful trees within my village-Mundongo, but due to indiscriminate felling, it is very difficult to find them again in this village except further away from the village (in the forest). We have trees like what we call Masonia, Iroko ,Zingana Mahogany,opepe,Cam wood, prunus, Akom, bush mango and azobe” Chief Menge Samuel of Mundongo village said. The people of these15 communities also identified some trees in their respective areas and some of their local uses.
The Conservation of threatened Trees in the Mt Cameroon area is a project of the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) funded by the UK Charity Fauna & Flora International. The five-year project, which started in August 2011 and is being carried out by ERuDeF in collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife entered phase two on September, 2013 with over 10,000 new seedlings envisaged in secured areas in the Mt. Cameroon area. This second phase will run from September 2013 to August 2016.
By Asa’a Lemawah & Adeline Tegem