Bakossi National Park
Encyclopedia
The Bakossi National Park (BNP) is a protected area within the Bakossi Forest Reserve
, created by a decree in early 2008.
The park covers 29320 hectares (72,451.2 acre), and was justified on the basis of preserving plant diversification.
, running inland in a northeasterly direction from Mount Cameroon
.
The mountains have an area of about 230000 square kilometres (88,803.5 sq mi) and typical elevation of 800 metres (2,624.7 ft) to 1900 metres (6,233.6 ft). The highest peak is Mount Kupe at 2064 metres (6,771.7 ft).
The mountains contain what may be the largest area of cloud or submontane forest in West-Central Africa.
The area includes the national park and the proposed Muanenguba ecological reserve to the east and Kupe ecological reserve to the south of the park.
The climate has a dry season between November and March, and a rainy season from April until October.
The hottest month is January and the wettest month is August.
The temperature ranges from 22 °C (71.6 °F) to 32 °C (89.6 °F),
Rainfall is between 3 metres (9.8 ft) and 4 metres (13.1 ft) annually.
Humidity is between 70% and 85%.
The mountain slopes are mainly covered by fertile volcanic soil in which crops grow easily.
The Bakossi landscape area includes a wide range of habitats at different heights.
Staff from Kew Gardens and the IRAD-National Herbarium of Cameroon worked on preparing an inventory of plants in the Kupe-Bakossi region between 1995 and 2005.
The area had not been known to have particularly rich diversity of plant life.
The botanists found 2,440 plant species, a huge number.
Of these, one in 10 species was new to science. 82 were strictly restricted to the area and 232 were threatened with extinction according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2001 criteria.
One of the most interesting of the newly discovered species is Kupea martinetugei
(Triuridaceae), a new species of saprophyte that completely lacks photosynthetic tissue. The species is part of a new genus and a new tribe.
It is critically endangered, so far found only in two sites, each just a few square metres in area.
The area is home to important large mammals that include the drill
, African forest elephant
, chimpanzee
, and Preuss's red colobus
.
The World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF), which facilitated creation of the park, has engaged in geospatial mapping of the distribution of key large mammals in the park.
They are concentrated in the north and south of the park, perhaps due to greater availability of food and shelter and lower levels of hunting and farmland encroachment.
's Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species.
The local communities were involved in the process, and over eighty villages signed the legislative support for the Park's creation.
Some boundary changes were recommended, as were rules to define and preserve the legal rights of the communities.
It was expected that sacred forest areas would be incorporated into the park, expected to be legally created in 2005.
After some delays, the Bakossi National Park was created in 2007 and officially inaugurated early in 2008 by a decree signed by Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni
and Minister of Forests Elvis Ngollengolle.
The signature followed shortly after the December 2007 release of the film "The Mists of Mwanenguba", which documents the importance of conservation in the Bakossi mountains. The film was viewed by the Minister of Forests and the Paramount Chief of Bakossi in January 2008.
Unusually for national parks in the region, the main justification was to conserve plant diversity.
Creation of the park resulted in an improvement of the funding level of the area by WWF Sweden in mid 2008.
The WWF-CFP announced a strategy for introducing conservation-based income generating activities.
This was handicapped by lack of organization and record-keeping in the local communities, inappropriate agricultural activities, lack of proper benefit sharing, gender insensitivity and other issues.
Nevertheless, there were hopes that the Village Forest Management Committees would come to play an essential role in initiating and maintaining sustainable forestry management practices in the park as long as the needs of the villagers were respected.
A 2011 report noted that outstanding tasks included completing the establishment process, demarcating boundaries and finalizing the management plan.
Eco-guards had to be recruited, trained and equipped, and the community educated in conservation and involved in ape surveys.
but the population also includes Mbo
, Manehas, Bakem, Baneka and immigrant Bamiliki people.
In the last few decades there has been rapid growth in the human population.
The indigenous people practice logging on a small scale, with the wood used for construction of homes and for making furniture, and harvest forest plants. This has minimal impact on the environment.
They cultivate cocoa and coffee as cash crops and grow plantain, cocoyam, cassava, beans and pepper for their own consumption and for sale. Encroachment on wildlife habitats is a concern.
Most of the people hunt for bushmeat, which is an important source of protein.
A 2003 report said this activity had reached unsustainable levels and was putting large mammals at stake.
More than 200 of the plant species in the park at risk of extinction.
Kew Gardens has worked with the community to help them understand the value of conservation.
The local people have taken the lead in preserving the forest from illegal logging and clearance for farming.
Traditional beliefs have played a part in helping preserve the ecosystem.
Sacred forests and groves in the national park have significantly higher plant species diversity than in nearby Mount Cameroon.
However, most of the people of the area are poor subsistence farmers. Falls in the price of their coffee and cocoa cash crops have caused them to increase use of nontimber forest products to earn money, creating huge pressure on the forest.
As of 2011 a project was being planned to convert over 70000 hectares (270.3 sq mi) of unprotected land in the region into oil palm plantations. The project has been justified as providing a sustainable source of income for the people of the region. Concerns are that clearance of forests to make way for the plantations will serious affect the livelihood of the local people who depend on forest products, and that a massive influx of low-paid plantation workers will result in a sharp and unsustainable rise in illegal logging and hunting in protected areas such as the Bakossi National Park.
Conservation groups have identified the Blackstone Group
as one of the main investors in what they call the "Cameroon deforestation drive", which they say will be an ecological disaster.
The US-Based Herakles Farms is also associated with the project, which originally included 132 hectares (326.2 acre) of the national park itself.
Bakossi Forest Reserve
The Bakossi Forest Reserve is a reserve within the Bakossi Mountains in Cameroon, home to many rare species of plants, animals and birds.The Forest Reserve in turn contains the Bakossi National Park, created by a decree in early 2008....
, created by a decree in early 2008.
The park covers 29320 hectares (72,451.2 acre), and was justified on the basis of preserving plant diversification.
Location
The Bakossi Mountains are part of the Cameroon LineCameroon line
The Cameroon line is a chain of volcanoes.It includes islands in the Gulf of Guinea and mountains that extend along the border region of eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon, from Mount Cameroon on the Gulf of Guinea north and east towards Lake Chad....
, running inland in a northeasterly direction from Mount Cameroon
Mount Cameroon
Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ....
.
The mountains have an area of about 230000 square kilometres (88,803.5 sq mi) and typical elevation of 800 metres (2,624.7 ft) to 1900 metres (6,233.6 ft). The highest peak is Mount Kupe at 2064 metres (6,771.7 ft).
The mountains contain what may be the largest area of cloud or submontane forest in West-Central Africa.
The area includes the national park and the proposed Muanenguba ecological reserve to the east and Kupe ecological reserve to the south of the park.
The climate has a dry season between November and March, and a rainy season from April until October.
The hottest month is January and the wettest month is August.
The temperature ranges from 22 °C (71.6 °F) to 32 °C (89.6 °F),
Rainfall is between 3 metres (9.8 ft) and 4 metres (13.1 ft) annually.
Humidity is between 70% and 85%.
The mountain slopes are mainly covered by fertile volcanic soil in which crops grow easily.
Biodiversity
The Bakossi Landscape Area is part of the Cameroon Highlands ecoregion.The Bakossi landscape area includes a wide range of habitats at different heights.
Staff from Kew Gardens and the IRAD-National Herbarium of Cameroon worked on preparing an inventory of plants in the Kupe-Bakossi region between 1995 and 2005.
The area had not been known to have particularly rich diversity of plant life.
The botanists found 2,440 plant species, a huge number.
Of these, one in 10 species was new to science. 82 were strictly restricted to the area and 232 were threatened with extinction according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2001 criteria.
One of the most interesting of the newly discovered species is Kupea martinetugei
Kupea martinetugei
Kupea martinetugei is a species of plant in the Triuridaceae family. It is endemic to Cameroon. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:...
(Triuridaceae), a new species of saprophyte that completely lacks photosynthetic tissue. The species is part of a new genus and a new tribe.
It is critically endangered, so far found only in two sites, each just a few square metres in area.
The area is home to important large mammals that include the drill
Drill (mammal)
The Drill is a primate of the family Cercopithecidae , closely related to the Baboons and even more closely to the Mandrill.-Description:...
, African forest elephant
African Forest Elephant
The African Forest Elephant is a forest dwelling elephant of the Congo Basin. Formerly considered either a synonym or a subspecies of the African Savanna Elephant , a 2010 study established that the two are distinct species...
, chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
, and Preuss's red colobus
Preuss's Red Colobus
Preuss's red colobus is a red colobus primate species endemic to the Cross-Sanaga Rivers ecoregion. An important population occurs in Korup National Park, Southwest Province, Cameroon, but the species' distribution is localized...
.
The World Wide Fund for Nature
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
(WWF), which facilitated creation of the park, has engaged in geospatial mapping of the distribution of key large mammals in the park.
They are concentrated in the north and south of the park, perhaps due to greater availability of food and shelter and lower levels of hunting and farmland encroachment.
Organization
A field consultation program for gazettement of Bakossi National Park was completed in 2004, jointly supported by the World Wildlife Fund's Coastal Forests Programme and the San Diego ZooSan Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, is one of the most progressive zoos in the world, with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species...
's Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species.
The local communities were involved in the process, and over eighty villages signed the legislative support for the Park's creation.
Some boundary changes were recommended, as were rules to define and preserve the legal rights of the communities.
It was expected that sacred forest areas would be incorporated into the park, expected to be legally created in 2005.
After some delays, the Bakossi National Park was created in 2007 and officially inaugurated early in 2008 by a decree signed by Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni
Ephraïm Inoni
Ephraïm Inoni is a Cameroonian politician who was Prime Minister of Cameroon from 2004 to 2009. He was a long-time aide of President Paul Biya and is a member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement...
and Minister of Forests Elvis Ngollengolle.
The signature followed shortly after the December 2007 release of the film "The Mists of Mwanenguba", which documents the importance of conservation in the Bakossi mountains. The film was viewed by the Minister of Forests and the Paramount Chief of Bakossi in January 2008.
Unusually for national parks in the region, the main justification was to conserve plant diversity.
Creation of the park resulted in an improvement of the funding level of the area by WWF Sweden in mid 2008.
The WWF-CFP announced a strategy for introducing conservation-based income generating activities.
This was handicapped by lack of organization and record-keeping in the local communities, inappropriate agricultural activities, lack of proper benefit sharing, gender insensitivity and other issues.
Nevertheless, there were hopes that the Village Forest Management Committees would come to play an essential role in initiating and maintaining sustainable forestry management practices in the park as long as the needs of the villagers were respected.
A 2011 report noted that outstanding tasks included completing the establishment process, demarcating boundaries and finalizing the management plan.
Eco-guards had to be recruited, trained and equipped, and the community educated in conservation and involved in ape surveys.
Threats
The region is mainly inhabited by the Bakossi peopleBakossi people
The Koose people live on the western and eastern slopes of Mount Mwanenguba and Mount Kupe in the Bakossi Mountains of Cameroon...
but the population also includes Mbo
Mbo people (Cameroon)
The Mbo people are an ethnic group of Cameroon. They live in the Mbo plain, Littoral Region, Moungo Division, Nkongsamba and Melong subdivisions and in the West Region, Menoua Division, Santchou Subdivision and Upper Nkam Division, Kekem Subdivision....
, Manehas, Bakem, Baneka and immigrant Bamiliki people.
In the last few decades there has been rapid growth in the human population.
The indigenous people practice logging on a small scale, with the wood used for construction of homes and for making furniture, and harvest forest plants. This has minimal impact on the environment.
They cultivate cocoa and coffee as cash crops and grow plantain, cocoyam, cassava, beans and pepper for their own consumption and for sale. Encroachment on wildlife habitats is a concern.
Most of the people hunt for bushmeat, which is an important source of protein.
A 2003 report said this activity had reached unsustainable levels and was putting large mammals at stake.
More than 200 of the plant species in the park at risk of extinction.
Kew Gardens has worked with the community to help them understand the value of conservation.
The local people have taken the lead in preserving the forest from illegal logging and clearance for farming.
Traditional beliefs have played a part in helping preserve the ecosystem.
Sacred forests and groves in the national park have significantly higher plant species diversity than in nearby Mount Cameroon.
However, most of the people of the area are poor subsistence farmers. Falls in the price of their coffee and cocoa cash crops have caused them to increase use of nontimber forest products to earn money, creating huge pressure on the forest.
As of 2011 a project was being planned to convert over 70000 hectares (270.3 sq mi) of unprotected land in the region into oil palm plantations. The project has been justified as providing a sustainable source of income for the people of the region. Concerns are that clearance of forests to make way for the plantations will serious affect the livelihood of the local people who depend on forest products, and that a massive influx of low-paid plantation workers will result in a sharp and unsustainable rise in illegal logging and hunting in protected areas such as the Bakossi National Park.
Conservation groups have identified the Blackstone Group
Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is an American-based alternative asset management and financial services company that specializes in private equity, real estate, and credit and marketable alternative investment strategies, as well as financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions ,...
as one of the main investors in what they call the "Cameroon deforestation drive", which they say will be an ecological disaster.
The US-Based Herakles Farms is also associated with the project, which originally included 132 hectares (326.2 acre) of the national park itself.