Project Focus: Conservation of genetic resources
Estimated cost: 38’700’000 FCFA (€59’000)
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
1. Title of project
2. Summary
3. Justification
4. Description of region
5. Goal and Objective
6. Target groups
– Local participation
7. Gender
8. Activities and results (output)
9. Time Frame
10. Monitoring and Evaluation…
11. Inputs
12. Sustainability
13. Budget
14. Transparency statement
CHAPTER TWO
Information on the implementing organisation
2. SUMMARY
The Edib forest has a higher diversity of plants than of any other area that has been surveyed in tropical Africa, according to the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in an environment report by the BBC in August 2005 entitled: Cameroon yields plants spectacular” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4162602.stm). According to this report, more than 200 plants in the project zone are at risk of extinction. The edib forest is being threatened by excess demographic pressure on forest products and inappropriate agricultural practices.
This project plans to:
1) conduct a study of sustainable yields,
2) conduct a market study for products,
3) organize central marketing units for some non timber forest products (NTFPs),
4) Develop community monitoring system for NTFPs and develop quality control measures,
5) Reinforce traditional composting practices,
6) Introduce integrated pest management techniques.
This Project proposal foresees:
1) 10 percent of the families in the buffer zone to cover 25 % of their annual cash needs from NTFP harvesting and processing enterprises
2) Farmers are expected to adapt to new sustainable agricultural techniques, thus productivity per unit of area will increase and there will be less need to increase the amount of area planted, therefore slowing the acceleration of the clearing of new lands for family plots.
The requested amount for support: 59’050,Euros.
3. JUSTIFICATION
In the Edib forest region, which lies within the Kupe Bakossi Forest region, the main economic activity is agriculture. More than 200 of Kupe Bakossi’s plants are at risk of extinction, according to the Red List of threatened species maintained by IUCN, the World Conservation Union; and human activities on the regions’ fringes could constrain its future. About 95 percent of the total population is made up of farmers with the following characteristics; low income levels, subsistence farming, inadequate agricultural knowledge, low standards of living, forest dependent among others. Their main cash crops are coffee and cocoa which have seen a drastic drop in the international market for the past few years. This has caused them to exert enormous pressure on the forest, thus abandoning their farms for forest products to complement their family incomes.
The biggest threat to fauna is the destruction of habitat through deforestation. Deforestation of the forest is caused by a number of direct threats, including fire, logging and inappropriate agricultural practices. The over harvesting of NTFPs is also another threat and comes about from a general lack of knowledge, lack of land and resource tenure rights and the need for cash to cover health and education needs. A general lack of cash results from a lack of access to market and from the general state of poverty that is found in the community around the forest zone.
The advancement of the agricultural frontier is caused by the need of migrants and local community members for more land and the application of unsustainable shifting cultivation techniques.
A lack of knowledge of appropriate agricultural strategies arises from limited education and training in farming practices due to an underperforming national agricultural extension service. It should also be added that the area in question is quasi landlocked as the villages are difficult of access by vehicle.