Posted on October, 22 2017

Baka and Bantu community elders highlight the importance of protecting biodiversity 

Indigenous communities like the Baka have lived in and around the forests of the Congo Basin for centuries. They know every twist and turn and are incredible storytellers about life in the forest and the value of nature to our life, health and well-being. But industrial-scale poaching is leaving many pockets of their inspiration – the dense rainforests - silent and bereft.
 
Between 2014 and 2016, elephant populations within and along the margins of protected areas in Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, declined by 66 per cent. While the sharp fall in elephant, numbers is slowly but irreversibly altering the forest and its ecosystems already, their loss is also being felt by members of the local and indigenous communities.
 
Mbwapeh, 67, a Baka community elder who grew up practically rubbing shoulders with animals, can now only tell nostalgic tales to his children. “My children might not have the same opportunity to rub shoulders with elephants as I had when I was young. For one to see elephants these days, you need to go deep into the forest where they keep a safe distance from human presence,” he says. The current massacre of elephants for ivory in the Congo Basin revolts Mbwapeh who, in 2006, led the first WWF team to the Ikwa forest clearing, inside Nki. In the Baka dialect, Ikwa means ‘a place where elephants converge to feed’.
 
Mbwapeh remembers moments from his childhood when he used to ‘play’ hide and seek with elephants fondly: “I learned from my father how to trail elephants and find out their hideouts. That is the reason why I was the one who was able to lead the WWF team to Ikwa,” states Mbwapeh.“We saw so many elephants in Ikwa that day. I cannot tell how many there were altogether, but I know they were so many, including gorillas and chimpanzees,” he says. Sadly, should current rates of poaching continue unabated, there may soon be no elephants left to count. On average, one African elephant is illegally killed every 25 minutes.
 
“As a young man living with my parents, we practically lived with animals, especially elephants. Gorillas and elephants lived so close by; all we had to do to scare them away was to light a fire. Seeing them today is a matter of luck and a lot of efforts,” says Felix Mimbamidom, a local Bantu chief in the village of Koumdom II. Mimbamidom fears the younger generation will not have the opportunity to see animals as he did.
“That is why I appreciate the work of the park’s conservation service that is relentlessly trying to tackle poaching in a bid to protect these animals. We need to protect these species, especially the elephant for our children,” he adds.
 
Protecting the remaining elephants and other threatened wildlife species in the Congo Basin is a big challenge for governments and conservation organizations as organized crime syndicates deepen their reach into wildlife poaching and trafficking. In Nki national park in eastern Cameroon, elephant numbers plunged from 3,167 in 2012 to a mere 565 in 2015. But, there is still hope.
 
For Kouamé Paul N’GORAN, Coordinator of the Biomonitoring Programme for WWF in Central Africa, there are reasons to be optimistic. “With the findings from the wildlife inventories, governments have the means for decision making in order to stop the hemorrhage. Some have started doing so after a presentation of the results,” N’GORAN says. 
“The Cameroon government is currently revising its wildlife and forestry law to toughen sanctions on defaulters. Should these efforts continue, elephants and other wildlife species in central Africa could be safe again,” concluded N’GORAN.  “
 
Illegal trade in wildlife, including timber and fish comprises the fourth largest global illegal trade after narcotics, counterfeiting of products and currency, and human trafficking, and is estimated to be worth at least US$19 billion per year.