Great Ape Conservation

Great Ape Conservation Programme...

The outlook for the survival of great ape species in the TRIDOM is bleak, with external threats from logging and poaching, and with local populations powerless to protect what they see as “their” forest.

The Great Ape Conservation in the Dja-Minkele-Odzala Tri-national forest (‘TRIDOM’) project, implemented in partnership with Living Earth (UK) and Bristol Zoo Gardens (BZG), validate the claim of those living in and around the protected forest areas that they share the objectives of conservationists in protecting valuable forest resources from powerful outside interests.

Project Background:
This project builds on the work of the Dja Periphery Community Engagement Project (DPCEP) and is funded by US Fish and Wildlife Service. Through DPCEP, relationships have been established in several communities around the Dja Biosphere Reserve, with two key messages being identified that are central in this application for example:

The villagers have stated that the greatest threat to apes, other species and their forest habitat comes from outsiders – often allied to powerful interests – from their community.

The villagers would like to support law enforcement and management of ‘their’ forest, but feel helpless and uncertain how they can contribute.
(DPCEP output, January 08)

This Great Ape Conservation project will address these issues by promoting a model of comunity based conservation, one which recognises the value of local communities and seeks to engage them in developing long-term solutions to the challenges that the TRIDOM region and other protected areas face.

Project Objectives:
Specifically the project aims to:

Develop and implement a great ape conservation education programme in schools around the Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR) in Cameroon.

Identify ways that local communities are able to collaborate with law enforcement and conservation agents within the region, such that an accepted, practical ‘early warning system’ that utilises local knowledge may be implemented.

The main project output is the publication of 500 teachers packs which, with training in their use, will allow local teachers to present relevant and engaging conservation lessons to schoolchildren living around the Dja Biosphere Reserve and enable them to understand the plight of great apes in the region. A strong process of awareness raising and consensus building underlies the development of the output.

Working with local communities...
By closely involving local populations in the development of content for schools teaching materials, the project will ensure that the voice and perspective of this key set of stakeholders is heard in the wider conservation debate and that school children are presented with lessons on conservation that are relevant to their reality and which allow them the opportunity to take action themselves.

Local community involvement will also help poor communities under great environmental and economic pressures to determine the value that they place on forest and wildlife conservation, and will further an ongoing process of trust-building between this often-ignored stakeholder group and outside agencies.

These two processes – gaining recognition of their concerns by the outside world and articulating the value of conservation to them – will serve as entry points for fully involving communities in enforcement and protection systems. The project will introduce communities to different systems and potential roles they can play in protecting their environmental heritage.