Interviewed By Charly Ndi Chia & Ernest Sumelong
His name is Daniel Taylor. Described as a high realism artist, he was in the Limbe Wildlife Centre recently, to hold a creative art workshop with Cameroonian artists, featuring the Cross River Gorilla. The workshop was part of the Artist For Conservation, AFC, Flag Expedition in Cameroon, a collaborative project of Taylor, AFC and the African Conservative Foundation.Earlier on, Taylor visited the Lebialem Highlands in the Southwest Province, to study, photograph and sketch the natural habitat of the Cross River Gorilla and chimpanzees.The Cross River Gorilla meanwhile, is said to be Africa's most endangered primate with only 250 to 300 individuals left in the wild and risks disappearing within the next 15 years.The Post had a quick chat with the Canadian-born Taylor.
From right to left, Daniel Taylor and Ginette, Louis Nkembi and Arend de Haas:Seeking to cnserve endangered species
The Post: Who are you and why are you in Cameroon? Could it be said that you are here primarily to discourage people from eating bush meat?
Answer: I am one of the Directors of a Canadian conservation foundation and we are supporting conservation initiatives in Africa and we are working here in Cameroon. The organisation is based in the UK, Kenya and Tanzania and for a couple of months now in Cameroon. We are working to protect the great apes and their habitats.
What is your mission in Cameroon?
Daniel Taylor received a Fellowship grant from the Art school of conservation foundation and he is coming to paint the Cross River gorilla in the rainforest. We will go to the Wild Life Centre in Limbe and there, we will paint the Cross River gorilla together with some Cameroonian artists in a workshop. The proceeds from the sales of the paintings will partly go to the Wild Life Centre and the conservation organisation.
Now that you are here, why do you choose to go to the zoo rather than meet and paint them at their natural habitat…the forest?
The problem is, there is a lot of hunting around the areas where they stay and so these chimpanzees and gorillas are so shy and afraid that when they hear or see people, they migrate to very long distances. This is why we cannot go closer to them in order to paint them. At the zoo, it would be easier for the artist to get closer and paint them better.
What are the prospects that you will find the gorillas in the forest and have you been able to establish how many are found in your area of study?
We know that there are gorillas in the area; we are still trying to
establish the number. The Cross River gorillas inhabit the forests of
the Southwest and part of the Northwest. Past surveys and even recent
ones show that Cross River gorillas could be up to 400 highest.
Considering that bush meat is a delicacy and in some cases, the only
source of protein to the people around these areas, what do you do to
keep them from killing the animals and yet, still achieve nutritional
balance?
We are doing so much at the level of sensitisation. We are working together with other conservation organisations to sensitise the people and we have organised workshops involving the local people. There have also been studies which have found out that the meat of these primates have the HIV virus.
Do you exploit this virus theory as an element of fear, to discourage people from eating bush meat?
It is both ways. We are trying to raise awareness because it is an
issue of public health and an element of fear. We want to use certain
people like Members of Parliament and the media to achieve our goals.
It seems the issue of sensitising the local people on how to get a
substitute for bush meat like the domestication of porcupine and other
animals for consumption has ended up in the drawing board, because
there seems to be no defined national policy on this?
Conservation organisations and their different agents are trying to promote this. Though there is a national policy, this policy is yet to be translated into concrete action. But the different conservation organisations like we are, have different areas they are intervening and try to tackle various areas.
Probably at one point in time, all these conservation organisations need to put their resources together, in order to implement the national policy; otherwise the success would be step by step. Some cases may be really difficult, while we may have some success cases like CERUT. We have to go back and see who the poachers are, who the loosers are and so on.
You are from Canada, a rich country whose wildlife has probably been devastated, eaten up as it were to extinction. Would it be morally right for you to stop the poverty stricken Cameroonian whose only source of beef protein is bush meat from hunting and eating gorillas and other game that God has put at his disposal in the forests?
We are going to look at the development needs of each of these
communities. Currently, we are doing community assessment to know what
are their priorities and how we can be able to put together resources.
Daniel Taylor is here, says he would be able to sell prints of his
drawings and the money raised would get back to these communities.
Have you envisaged getting these prints to the villagers so that they
learn from it; know about their environment and know what impact
poaching would have on them?
We are doing it this way; we have started with some kind of documentaries in the villages and in the local primary schools where we show exactly where the animals live, the threats they face. In a couple of primary schools, the children ran a kind of arts workshop, where they had to sketch a gorilla after having known what is going on in the forest.
We want to move across the whole nation and show these documentaries. And when we sell these prints we will give them this money and tell them to do what they said they want to do. In order to move it further still, we are considering grouping some Cameroonian artists to do the arts work with us.
This is because when our friends
will go, they would remain here with us. So, there would be a link
between the local communities, the artists and us.
When you get into the forest, how do you protect yourself from wildlife like gorillas?
Gorillas don't harm people. They do not like the smell of human beings and so when they smell them they get deeper into the forest.
How readily would you shoot in self defence if you were attacked by an animal in the forest? How do you protect yourself from say, gorilla attacks in the first place?
The wildlife law of Cameroon relating to that says in case of any problem you have the right to self-defence. This means if you are attacked, you can defend yourself but you must be able to tell that you were right.
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