Minister Launches Mt. Cameroon National Park

By Ernest Sumelong

Forestry and Wildlife Minister, Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, officially launched the Programme for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Southwest Province, PSMNR-SW, Friday, November 23, in Buea.

Prof. Ngolle Ngolle (middle) listening to SW Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, Philip Takor while Buea Mayor, Mbella Moki, looks on 

The programme consists in the creation and management of a national park around the Mt. Cameroon region, the Korup and Takamanda Parks and the development of 65 villages within the project area.

The PSMNR-SW, which cost FCFA 8 billion, is largely financed by the Federal Republic of Germany through the German Development Bank, KFW, the German Technical Cooperation, GTZ, and the Government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF.

Although a majority of people were enthused about the creation of the park, a defiant group of youths, who claimed they were representing the people of Bomboko Village and other dissenting villages, raised a huge placard demanding the isolation of one of their secret shrines, Isuma, from the park.

The placard read: "Fako Division is entitled to ancestral lineage. When the roots of a tree are taken away, the branches cannot survive. Take all not Isuma. Carve Isuma out of the proposed Mt. Cameroon National Park."

One of the youths, Kombe Monono, from Bomboko Efolofo Village, revealed to The Post that the Mountain has special spots for the Bakweris.According to him, the Mountain is the first home for the Bakweri people, that is, the home of Na Molombe, the King of all the Bakweris.

"The first ancestor of the Bakweri people came from Bomboko. If you read from the archives, you will find out that all the Bakweris are from Bomboko. Isuma is the house, the traditional palace of the Bakweris, found in the mountain. We want development; we do not resist the creation of the park, but let them carve Isuma out of it," Monono argued.

This protest expressed the worries by local chiefs and villagers about the protection of their secret shrines in the mountain area.Earlier this year, when the Divisional Officer, DO, for Buea, Yves Bertrand Awounfac, went around the villages sensitising the local people about the imminent creation of a national park, many of them had raised similar fears.

The people had also expressed worry that they would be deprived the right to carry out their traditional activities around the Mountain to which they have been attached all their lives. But it seems the DO's assurances about the protection of their shrines and the benefits they would derive from the park had not convinced them enough.

Even though some waved aside the villagers' worries as manipulations by some elite for self-interest, many still believe the worries are pertinent.Speaking during the launching, Ngolle Ngolle, allayed these fears and assured the local chiefs that the project has taken into consideration their secret shrines and they would be protected.

He enumerated the benefits the local people would derive from the park to include money from tourism, job creation and development of the area.On the need for sustainable forest management, the Minister said the forest plays a significant role in national development and it is classified third in the country in generating income. He deplored the unorthodox exploitation of the forest and insisted that procedures for forest use must be respected.

He emphasised the importance of preserving the mountain for posterity.Mt. Cameroon is the eighth forest hotspot in the world, with some of the most endangered species, according to the Minister.

"The park would bring development to the people of the Southwest including their culture because there is no development without culture. The programme is designed to protect everything including the secret shrines. No traditional ruler, no people in any community in the Southwest will lose its secret shrines.

We should manage our forest in such a way that we derive benefits from it and our children too, would have a chance. Let the Southwest prepare her tomorrow by properly managing her forest today," Ngolle Ngolle maintained.

On his part, the representative of KFW, Dr. Joseph Ntangsi, told The Post that KFW's involvement is driven by its concern about the improvement of the welfare of the people and to help them use the forest without destroying it. Besides forest and environmental management, Dr. Ntangsi said KFW also intervenes in other areas such as building hospitals, road construction, financing infrastructure of the port of Douala, among others.

To compensate villagers of the concerned area, they will be involved in the management of any development projects which would also have been designed with their consent.
Prior to the launching, Southwest Forestry and Wildlife Delegate, Philip Tabi Tako-Eta, said the programme had started with the Korup Park from 1996-2003; the Mt. Cameroon Project, which involves Bomboko Forest Reserves from 1998-2003, and the PROFA project initiated between 2000-2003, involving the Takamanda and Monte Forest Reserves. GTZ financed all these projects.