GDA Empowers CAMPO Forest Riverine Community
By Elias Ngalame in CAMPO
The forests in the Campo area in the South region of Cameroon forms part of the rich Congo Basin forest. They are vital to people, wildlife, and the environment. The local communities in the Campo area are on the forefront of protecting this invaluable resource and helping curb illegal activities. These forest communities say they are however in dire need of financial and technical support to fight poverty, better protect the forest and biodiversity.
It is against this backdrop that Green Development Advocate, GDA, an NGO in Cameroon involved in forest conservation drive is bailing them out with financial and technical assistance.
A field visit by GDA to these Campo forest communities July 28-31, 2024 permitted for an evaluation of the impact of past support received, its impact on the livelihood of the population, challenges faced and the perspectives.
According to the Program Manager of GDA, Ekane Nkwelle,the NGO has a long history of working relationship with CAMPO forest communities, providing support and follow up on its impact.
“ Forest provide crucial resources for these communities, protecting watercourses, and preventing soil erosion. They are rich in non-timber forest products that provides essential income to especially the women in this area. They also offer essential habitats for wildlife and act as a greenhouse gas sink. So we have to support these communities, provide them with alternative sources of income, so they don’t destroy their rich forest resources,” Ekane Nkwelle said.
Supporting Women Group in CAMPO
Women are among the most vulnerable groups in forest communities in the Congo Basin area. Experts say sustainable forest management projects with an explicit gender lens can help reduce women’s vulnerability by enhancing their socio-economic empowerment, supporting their production and marketing of non-timber forest products where women dominate and by enhancing training and leadership development and alternative income generating activities for women.
Apart from monitoring the progress made after support in the past years from these communities GDA provided technical and financial support to the women groups to abate their vulnerability.
The women group, Association of Riparian Women One Health of CAMPO, abbreviated AFRiSC-CAMPO, received the sum of 500.000 fcfa that they kept in newly opened bank account in CAMPO.
A training session for the AFRiSC-CAMPO women on how to run and manage small self-help businesses also took place.
“ We had to enhance economic gains for the women such as access to income ( small loans) for their selected business activities,” Ekane said.
Integrating Indigenous knowledge
“The people here possess a interesting indigenous knowledge, which we complement with some training. This integrated approach helps to support sustainable forest management”,he added.
The President of AFRiSC- CAMPO women Mengue Medjo NADEGE lauded the support by GDA, noting it will go a long way to help the women engage in alternative income generating activities and not rely on the activities that will destroy the forest.
“The forest is a source of many important things such as medicinal plants and firewood. It is important to manage the forest to ensure we can get what we need from it in the future. The financial assistance and training from GDA will help us better achieve this goal”, she says.
GDA officials say to strengthen community support, they are exploring alternative livelihoods that benefit the local communities without harming the forest. One such initiative is cultivating various food crops, like vegetable plantains, yams, cocoyams, pepper, okra, maize , cassava, etc.
The women were advised on the sustainable use of the resource support put at their disposal.
