The Task
force and Technical Committee charged with the elaboration of the management plan of the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, have recommended the need for potential corridors around the Sanctuary to be identified. This recommendation was made during the Second Taskforce and the Third Technical Committee meetings that took place in Mbalmayo from August 11to August 14 2018.
With the support of Rainforest Trust, Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, organised the Second Taskforce and Third Technical Committee meetings, and were to present the feedback of the Sub Divisional validation meetings as well as update the roadmap for the elaboration of the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary Management Plan. The meeting was also necessary to review the implementation of the recommendation from the Second Technical Committee meeting and first Taskforce meeting as well as make recommendations, for the improvement of the draft Management Plan and the way forward for the next steps.
Chaired by the Director of Forestry and Wildlife at the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Mr. LEKEALEM Joseph, the meeting was characterized by, amongst others, feedback of the village to village sensitization meetings and Sub-Divisional validation meetings for Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary management plan validation. In this report, the Conservator of Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, Thomas Admin Njimin, disclosed that all meetings were successful with the draft Management Plan validated by Alou and Wabane Subdivision, despite delay and challenges induced by the Anglophone crisis.
At the end of this presentation it was recommended that the Consultant charged with following up development of Management Plan for Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, consult all the stakeholders at the local, divisional, regional and central level in order to take into consideration their views. It was also resolved that a management strategy be put in place, for the common used zone. Meanwhile The Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) should facilitate partnership with other stakeholders to set up scholarship scheme in local communities. Continue sensitisation and communication was also to be carried out with the local populations on the validation process.
At the level of the Taskforce meeting, the draft management plan of Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, was reviewed with some recommendations made for improvement. One of such recommendations was that vernacular names of the ethno-botanic species and vernacular names of animals identified be added in the text.
The Technical Committee members also used the meeting to further update a roadmap to guide the elaboration process of the management plan of Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary and its peripheral zones.
The Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary is one of Cameroon’s newest protected areas created in 2014 by a Prime Ministerial Decree for the conservation of some close to 40 Cross River Gorillas, over 150 Nigerian Cameroon Chimpanzees, unknown population Drills and other biodiversity species. Last August 2017, the Cameroon Government through the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), constituted a Technical Committee, which has been engaged in the development of a management plan for this protected area.