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More about Oku and the Kilum-Ijim Forest Project

The forests of the Bamenda Highlands in NW Cameroon are a centre of endemism and of global importance for biodiversity conservation. Rapid forest clearance in recent decades means that the Kilum-Ijim forest, at 20,000 hectares, is the largest remaining forest in this region, and its conservation is probably the last possibility for the continued survival of two endemic bird species, the Bannerman's Touraco and the Banded Wattle-eye.

The forest is also important to local people, as a source of firewood, water, timber, fibres, medicinal plants, fruits and other forest products, and for its role in local traditions and culture. Over 200,000 people live near enough to the forest to walk there and back in a day and so the pressure is enormous.

Because of the role of the forest in local economy and culture, forest conservation, to be successful, has to involve local people and address their needs.

  The project crew
Project Crew The Kilum-Ijim Forest Project has been in operation for over 14 years and is executed by Birdlife International in collaboration with the Cameroon Ministry of the Environment and Forests (MINEF) and above all with the local communities themselves, who have identified their training needs and been able to develop at their own pace.

Funding for the project currently comes from the Department for International Development (Civil Society Challenge Fund) and GEF-UNDP. All partners in the project work to conserve the forest through an approach that combines conservation with development. The aim is to conserve the biodiversity of the forest by giving local people both the impetus and the means to achieve this for themselves, with the project acting as catalyst and facilitator. The communities have established Forest Management Institutions and created Community Forests that they themselves manage, including the production of a management plan. Over 40 villages are involved in working with the Projct which is now in its final phase and due to finish by the end of 2004.

Recognising the intense pressure on the forest, largely to make new farms, the project is also implementing a programme which will improve livelihoods in ways compatible with forest conservation and very often dependent on it. For example, the project has introduced improved bee-keeping methods, brought new, high yielding varieties of crops to the area, helped develop soil conservation techniques on farms, and provided assistance to local user groups in marketing and sustainable use of forest products, such as timber used for carving and the manufacture of paper using fibres collected from in and around the forest.

The group making this paper are now completely independent from the Project and have two managers who work directly on the production of the cards and also market them. They are assisted by up to twenty assistants employed on a casual basis. A local artist is contracted when needed to produce new designs. The paper is made by two groups, totalling 107 people, mostly women and the raffia wallets are made by up to 90 men. All the above people have benefited financially from the income generated from the paper making, enabling them to pay towards schooling and medicine in an area where the population lives mainly by subsistence agriculture. This enhancement of rural livelihoods means the villagers have less need to encroach into forest land for farming and other destructive activities.

Since conservation work began in 1987 the boundary of the forest has been respected and there has been no further forest clearance since that time. Communities have demonstrated their resolve to conserve and manage the forest, and have taken steps to prevent outsiders from poaching forest products, often at considerable risk of personal injury.