Conservator Throws Weight Behind Project to Conserve Great Ape of Mount Cameroon with Community Kids

The Conservator of the Mount Cameroon National Park, Mr. Charles-Innocent Memvi Abessolo, has pledged unflinching support for Voice of Nature (VoNat)’s project to conserve the great ape and other endangered species of the Mount Cameroon Area with Community Kids and youths dubbed Keep the Apes Alive.

***Mount Cameroon National Park Conservator and VoNat team discuss collaboration efforts on Keep the Apes Alive project ;*** *Photo credit: Ndimuh B. Shancho*

In a courtesy visit made to the Park Service within the framework of the great apes conservation project, Mr. Memvi Abessolo was particularly impressed with VoNat’s strategy of engaging kids in species conservation. “I love your initiative and the fact that it is involving kids and youths. We are also engaged in environmental education in schools and communities. Working together with you will be of great benefit to the park and species conservation,” the Conservator said.

Mr. Memvi Abessolo pledged unflinching support to VoNat, and promised to link the Organization with other units of the Park Service to facilitate the implementation of the project: Conserving Endangered Ape of Mount Cameroon with Community Kids. He underscored the need to synergize efforts with other conservation organizations in the Mount Cameroon Area for the long-term conservation of species in the Mount Cameroon National Park.

**Conservator of Mount Cameroon National Park, Mr. Memvi Abessolo.** Photo credit: Ndimuh B. Shancho

The conservator recommended that VoNat formalizes ties with important conservation and environmental stakeholders and sectoral ministries including but not limited to the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. The VoNat team promised to prioritize the formalization of partnership with different conservation stakeholders in the Mount Cameroon Area in its 2022 plan of actions.

The project: Conserving Endangered Ape of Mount Cameroon with Community Kids is being implemented with support from the New England Biolabs Foundation and Idea Wild. It started in November 2021 and will end in August 2022. It is hoped that through it, at least 50 youngsters will be reconnected to nature, and their appetite to take action against the depletion of endangered species in their communities triggered. Meanwhile, pro-conservation traditional knowledge will be preserved and handed down from generation to generation, and the success of other conservation programmes in the Mount Cameroon Area enhanced.

By Ndimuh B. Shancho