Community based Conservation...
The loss of forest in Cameroon has been measured at an average of 220,000 hectares per annum. Cameroon is also rated as 144 on the UNDP Human Development Index. For the rural poor, the forest is their most important source of resources; furthermore, it is also a source of rich biodiversity. Cameroon is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and is ranked as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.
The Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR) in south eastern Cameroon is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve and is also a World Heritage Site based on its wildlife diversity. However, the rural communities around the DBR are among the poorest people in Cameroon, with the majority of people living below the poverty line of $1 income per day. The presence of the DBR acts as a barrier to resources such as hunting and agricultural development.
There is hence a well-observed paradox occurring in that the people living beside a protected area do not benefit from global conservation aims and efforts, but rather suffer the burden of them by restrictions on the communities’ historical mode of livelihood.
FCTV, in partnership with Livng Earth (UK) has been working to ensure thar local communities and indigenous groups are able to voice their concerns over the way that natural resources were being managed by the local implementing agencies, and that they have the capacity to implement community based management and protection systems that benefit both them and 'their' forests.
Click on the project links below to find out more about how FCTV has been working with forest based communities to engage them in conservation and development actions.
This project, which is ongoing, aims to implement a great ape conservation education programme around the Dja Biopshere Reserve and to identify ways that local communities are able to collaborate with law enforcement and conservation agents within the region, so that an accepted, practical ‘early warning system’ that utilises local knowledge may be implemented.
This project, which ran between 2006 and 2008, helped local communities, living around the Dja Biosphere Reserve, to better engage with government and conservation agencies in order to encourage their active participation in conservation efforts.
This project, implemented between 1999 and 2002, worked within the context of the forestry law at three levels; to strengthen the capacity of community groups to manage their forests sustainably, to strengthen the institutional capacity of NGOs and to build capacity at government level to support and advocate community forestry.
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