NGO Launches Elephant Conservation Initiative, Conservator Pledges Support

By Sandrine Akeabeh

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Cameroon-based biodiversity conservation and sustainable development non-profit Organization, Voice of Nature (VoNat), has kick-started a project that will contribute to proffering solutions to the perennial deadly human-elephant conflict in the Mount Cameroon Area. The initiative, dubbed “Save the Elephants”, was unveiled recently to the technical team of the Organization and staff of the Mount Cameroon National Park Service in separate meetings that took place online and at the Park Service Office in Buea respectively.

The Africa forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) has increased from 170 in 2009 to 300 in 2019, while the population of its 41 adjacent communities has increased exponentially within same period,  due to the  rich volcanic soils, educational facilities, and most recently, the arm conflict that has rendered other parts of North West and South West Cameroon unsecured.  This has induced competition for the same land, with elephant raids and retaliation by adjacent communities recurrent at the West Coast Cluster of the Park, a situation that has put the future of over 300 African forest elephants within this area in peril, and made biodiversity conservation pretty challenging. The Save the Elephant initiative, therefore, aims to establish an eco-friendly system that will enhance the peaceful co-existence of the Africa forest elephants and communities in the Mount Cameroon Area, most especially in the West Coast Cluster of the Mount Cameroon National Park.

“The initiative is good and comes to support what the Mount Cameroon National Park has been doing. We are available to work in close collaboration with VoNat to ensure the success of the project,” the Conservator of the Mount Cameroon National Park said after following a presentation of the initiative at his Office in Buea.

The first phase of the project, implemented with the support of Lush Charity, runs from March-July 2023. In this phase of the project, alternative livelihood support will be provided to victims of recent elephant raids in the West Coast Cluster of the Park. Elephant conservation sensitization and education sessions will also be carried out in schools and the media, while  a system to limit elephant raids in the area will be introduced.  Meanwhile, a consultative meeting is in view with the technical staff of the Mount Cameroon Park Service to reflect on better ways to implement the project for greater impact.