WWF Coastal Forest Programme - Project activities
Vision/ Objectives/ Activities
The biological and mineral riches of the coastal forests environments have propelled these ecosystems to the highest heights of global recognition. But they have also brought with them a veritable threat to their very existence, as the struggle to rush their exploitation is progressively and surely leading to the ultimate extermination of a good majority of them.
WWF Coastal forests Programme sees these issues as its very raison d’être and consequently strives to institute a system of natural resource management that is sufficiently robust to permit local people to rationally and spontaneously adopt and implement sustainable use practices and options, capable of generating profitable incomes and alleviating poverty among the local populations and also permanently checking unsustainable resource exploitation practices.
Programme Objectives
- Expansion and management of the Protected Area network in the Highlands and Coastal Forests of Cameroon;
- Sustainable wildlife use, specifically bush meat trade and conservation of threatened species;
- Support to conservation oriented community based initiatives;
- Support to the creation of community forests and hunting zones;
- Sustainable forest management and certification;
In order to contribute to the significant reduction of the identified threats, the programme seeks to:
- Promote viable partnership with oil drilling companies, agro industries, small scale agriculture, the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and other conservation organisations
- Promote land use planning by establishing a platform and framework for dialogue between actors, elaborating and implementing a land use plan for the Coastal Forests Programme area and improving the knowledge of local communities on applying modern farming techniques.
- Promote sustainable forests management and certification by developing capacities of producers in this respect.
- Strengthen community based institutions and other stakeholders through environmental education and sensitisation by putting in place an effective community based control mechanism aimed at; 1) reducing the exploitation of mangroves as fuel wood; 2) improving the attitudes of stakeholders towards bush meat; 3) apply sustainable hunting methods; 4) Improving and protecting water catchments
- Promote protected areas establishment and management, by putting in place appropriate strategies and implementing viable anti-poaching systems.
- Promote conservation based livelihood activities by building the capacities of communities to carry out alternative livelihood activities, while identifying market outlets for these activities.
- The programme is working towards safeguarding identified biodiversity targets such as Elephants, Drills, Mangroves, Forests, Great Apes, Cameroon montane endemic birds, Water birds.
Marking out the limits of the proposed Kupe reserve
Community based natural resources initiatives are working out well
