The people of Kambo-cassi, Hona and Mansa, three villages bordering Deng Deng National Park in the East Cameroon region, have set up three tree nurseries in each locality. This took place from January 22 to February 03, 2025, following training provided by SAILD.
The Deng Deng National Park (PNDD) has nineteen villages on its outskirts, including Hona, Mansa and Kambo-cassi, which are experiencing a highly accelerated level of landscape degradation. In order to contribute to the community restoration of degraded forest areas in these villages, the Support Service for Local Development Initiatives ( SAILD) trained over a hundred people, including around sixty women. Over a three-day period, theoretical and practical training in each village enabled beneficiaries to master the art of setting up trees in nurseries. Three nurseries with a total of 10,600 fruit and forest tree seedlings were created.
Theoretical courses enabled learners to understand the environmental and socio-economic benefits of trees. “We understood that trees help protect the environment through the shade they create. They provide us with fruit that we eat and sell”, asserted Germaine Akila, a woman trained in the Hona village. At the end of the sessions, most participants recognized the need to produce tree seedlings in their villages.
Restoring the DDNP landscape
The newly-trained farmers then put the knowledge they had acquired into practice. “After choosing the site for the future nursery, the participants cleaned it and built a shade house to make the site suitable for the seedlings. They then prepared the substrate in which the plants would grow. A mixture of black earth and chicken droppings. After potting, the seedlings consisted of : 1000 andok, 1000 avocado, 1000 orange, 1000 mandarin, 300 lemon and 1500 cocoa trees were placed in the three nurseries. There are also plans to add Djansang, bitter kola and kola seedlings” explains SAILD agronomist Aristide Tchounkeu.
According to Aristide, the beneficiaries are the main stakeholders in the restoration of the Deng Deng National Park landscape. “Their daily presence in the fields and in various other socio-economic and family activities means that they are in perpetual contact with the plants from the time of reforestation. The survival of the plants after reforestation will depend in part on their actions” he added.
To ensure the follow-up of the seedlings in the nursery, 02 women and 01 man have been identified in each village and have each received work equipment consisting of a pair of boots, gloves and watering cans to carry out their tasks. The support provided by SAILD is part of the “Participatory restoration of the PNDD forest landscape” project, funded by the German GIZ Cooperation.
- Sharon Maché
