-Discloses what many people don’t know about the Mt.CMR National park
BY IKOME CHRISTIE-NOELLA EPOSI IN BUEA
Geared toward conserving biodiversity, promoting ecotourism and supporting community development, the Mount Cameroon National Park is a biodiversity hotspot very rich in diverse flora and fauna and also hosts great ecotourism potentials that need to be promoted.
Located in the South-West region of Cameroon, the park seeks to safeguard the animal and plant species and their habitats, regulate the hydro geographical regime of the area, explore potential sources of revenue through ecotourism, safeguard the forest, contribute to the amelioration of the livelihood and the socio-economic conditions of the surrounding populations, promote employment and to promote the image of the country as far as biodiversity preservation is concerned.
The conservator of the Mount Cameroon National Park, Memvi Abessolo Charles in an interview granted to The Sun Newspaper revealed that the Mount Cameroon National Park is “heaven on earth” as it has the best natural attractions ever. He noted that the management of the park is composed of six programs; administration and finance, sustainable finance mechanism, protection unit, collaborative management unit, research and monitoring unit and the ecotourism development unit, “MCNP is a protected area whose main preoccupation is the conservation of biodiversity. We have projects such as the bee-keeping project, piggery, and nursery projects”
He mentioned that what many people fail to understand is that about 70% of the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope is carried out in the Mount Cameroon National Park reason why they are out to sensitise the communities about conservation, the park in general and the infrastructure it possesses, “We have all the touristic attractions here at the Mount Cameroon National Park so no need for people to go out of the country. We have the entire infrastructure to accommodate visitors in our park” he stated.
Talking about some challenges faced in the park, the conservator noted that human-wildlife conflict is a major challenge, “Bringing the communities to understand the objectives of conservation, poaching in the park, illegal logging in the park, and farming are other challenges we face.”
He urged the community to equally stop setting fire in the park, stop unsustainable collection of non-timber forest and uncontrolled harvesting of honey in the park.
The park, he said is working on a program to develop the sustainable finance mechanism so that they can be able to work without support from any other party. As per the human-wildlife conflict, the park conservator added that some mitigation measures have been implemented such as the scary mission, the pepper-fencing, installation of bee-hives to avoid/prevent the human-wildlife conflict.
Created through Decree No.2009/2272/PM on December 18 2009, the Mount Cameroon National Park is equally host to some natural attractions such as wildlife (Elephant, Chimpanzees, drills, Francolin), Vegetation (Lowland forest sub montane forest, Montane forest, Montane grassland, Alpine grassland) and land forms( Lava flows, crater lakes, waterfalls, craves, valleys, springs). The MCNP has a total surface area of 58,178 ha and is located between 4.055-4.378 N and 9.031-9.294 E.