Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (PAND)

Managing Institute:
Birdlife International

Project Code: 012-680-012	Start Date: 01/04/1994	End Date: 31/03/1996
Commitment: £185,100	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - JFS

Project Background:
The Republic of Cameroon encompasses nearly 0.5 million square kilometres (47.5m hectares) of land area spanning 10 degrees of latitude just north of the Equator. In 1990, forest and woodlands were estimated to cover 53% of the national territory with more than half of this figure representing tropical moist forests. Recent information on forest concessions indicates that in 1990-91, 6.36m hectares or 25% of the remaining forest estate were under under licence for timber exploitation (down from a maximum of 8.1m hectares in 1980-81). The human population density of 23 persons per square kilometre is the highest among the countries which share the West-Central African rainforest zone.

The project would enable Government to consolidate and upgrade the management of protected areas of Cameroon with high global priority for biodiversity conservation. Thsee areas include the coastal Guinea-Congolean refugium (Campo-Ma'an, about 5,000 square kilometres); the eastern highlands (Mt. Kilum, 120 square km and Mt. Koupe, about 300 square km); and Mt Cameroon (350 square km), including but not limited to the Etinde and Mokoko Forest Reserves. The project would underwrite studies necessary to identify priority protection zones within the Congo Basin lowlands of eastern Cameroon (Lobeke, about 4,500 square km; Boumba Bek, about 2,300 square km and Nki, about 2,000 square km) and produce management plans for critical core areas integrated within a network of multiple-use management zones. The project would strengthen national capacity for research and management in three areas: (1) ecological monitoring and management of the forest biota; (2) local land and forest management planning and (3) community-based management of protected areas. The project would also systematically assess the conservation priority of other areas and identify the investment and recurrent cost implications of protecting them. Reconnaissance surveys would be undertaken for the mangrove swamps of the Rio de Rey and Douala-Edea region, the Takamanda highlands and Bakossi Mountains.

Several bilateral donors and international NGOs are already involved with most of the existing and proposed project reserves - the DFID and the European Community with Mts. Kilum and Koupe respectively; the BMZ through GTZ and the DFID with Mt. Cameroon; NYZS The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) with Lake Lobeke; and the WWF with Boumba Bek. The project will be closely co-ordinated with this ongoing assistance.

Project Objectives:
The objective of the project is to prevent the degradation and to conserve the ecological integrity of the Mount Kupe forest and to protect the livelihood of the local community.

Intended Outputs:
Awareness of the benefits of the forest, and its significance locally and internationally raised, so that local people will support the idea of conserving it.

Protected status for the Mount Kupe forest negotiated and boundaries of the protected areas gazetted.

A detailed land-use management plan for Mount Kupe negotiated and established.

Sustainable forest industry and agroforestry on and around Mount Kupe promoted.

The flora and fauna on Mont Kupe thoroughly surveyed and their inter-relationship studied. Ecological studies of threatened species competed.

A conservation education programme established to promote environmental awareness as widely as possible in the south-west and Littoral Provinces in which Mount Kupe falls.