More than 200 local residents of the Deng Deng National Park (PNDD) are now independent of the protected area’s natural resources in the eastern region. This is what emerges from the capitalization film of the PNDD Conservation Optimization project conducted by SAILD since March 2023.
Fifteen minutes were all it took for images and sounds to perfectly symbiotically retrace the achievements of the Support Service for Local Development Initiatives (SAILD) as part of the project to optimize conservation of the Deng Deng National Park through capacity-building of local communities in agroecological practices; abbreviated OC Deng Deng. The organization worked from March 2023 to November 2024 in three villages bordering the PNDD, including Liguim, Lom 1 and Tête d’Eléphant in the Lom-et-Djérem department of East Cameroon. The aim was to strengthen the communities’ agricultural systems and enable them to have secondary income-generating activities, with a view to limiting deforestation in the park.
For the project team, these objectives have been achieved. The data bear this out.
“We have mapped over 550 hectares of land within the protected area. 7,000 trees have been planted, i.e. 3,500 forest trees and 3,500 fruit trees around the villages near the PNDD. We have trained 109 beneficiaries in five agro-ecological practices, 88 of whom have received support in the form of agricultural equipment and seeds. A further 55 were trained in small-scale poultry farming, 33 of whom received six hens and a rooster for each household. We trained 55 local residents in beekeeping, 15 of whom received beekeeping equipment and beehives, five per village” asserted De Souza Feudjio Kengmo, Forestry Engineer, SAILD.
To ensure the sustainability of these actions, “SAILD has set up local participatory management committees to establish a framework for discussion with local populations on compromises and management of the protected area. The aim is to set up awareness-raising initiatives, support communities and crack down on illegal logging, so that they remain independent of the forest’s resources”, added Clarisse Fombana, coordinator of the OC Deng Deng project.
Great satisfaction for beneficiaries
For local communities, the project has been a great help: “Before, I didn’t know how to treat chickens in an ecological way. The training I received from SAILD enabled me to learn how to treat my chickens without having to go to a pharmacy, using what I have on hand locally and at a lower cost”, enthused Philippe AMIA, a poultry farmer beneficiary. Similarly, Esther Diza, a beneficiary farmer in Lom 1, confessed: “SAILD taught us how to produce fruit trees. We put the tree seedlings in bags. Then we watered them, and gradually they began to give small leaves, and when there were weeds we removed them”.
Deng Deng National Park covers an area of 68,264 hectares in the East Cameroon region. It includes nineteen surrounding villages whose populations rely heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods. “Through our monitoring missions, we have observed that the Park is under attack from deforestation and degradation. Our research led us to understand that the main causes of deforestation were linked to the agricultural activities carried out by local communities.
This is particularly true of villages located less than three kilometers from protected areas. Combined with this, these communities were practicing slash-and-burn agriculture, which was not conducive to the sustainable management of the area they had been granted”, confided Clarisse.
The project initiated by SAILD has thus helped to reduce the threats to the protected area. “We thought it was important to help communities find new ways of producing in small areas while respecting the environment. So we opted for the dissemination of agroecological practices. This has helped to reduce agricultural pressure on the PNDD, and to offer viable economic alternatives to local populations, thus ensuring more equitable management of natural resources”, explains Aristide Tchounkeu, agricultural engineer, SAILD.
The documentary produced in November 2024 by SAILD thus marks the end of the Deng Deng National Park Conservation Optimization project funded by IUCN through the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Programme (BIOPAMA).
- Sharon Maché
