Eugene Diyouke, interim coordinator and project manager at the Cameroon Wildlife Conservation Society (CWCS), discussed CWCS’s dual focus during the Blue Economy Conference in Cameroon: ocean conservation and enhancing local community resilience. CWCS has developed management plans for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and is working to involve local communities in defining and managing areas identified as Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs). He emphasizes community participation through consultations and meetings, ensuring that conservation efforts are inclusive and sustainable. Additional initiatives include supporting local women’s associations in snail farming as an alternative to bivalve fishing and restoring degraded ecosystems, with approximately 200 hectares of mangroves since 2008. Finally, the Interim Coordinator highlights CWCS’s openness to partnerships as he sits for an interview with Cameroon Factfinder.
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Cameroon Factfinder: Cameroon is hosting the Gulf of Guinea Commission on the Blue Economy. Why is CWCS here?
Eugene Diyouke (CWCS Interim Coordinator): We have been invited to the Blue Economy Conference to present our activities, which are the conservation of the ocean and the resilience of local communities. We are here with our partners, the African Marine Conservation Organization (AMCO), the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), and Cameroon Ecology (CAMECO), in the stand. We asked our partners to accompany us because we share the same conservation and development objectives of the local population and are working to enhance their resilience.
What activity is CWCS carrying out around ocean conservation?
By establishing and preserving mangrove habitats, we are promoting conservation and restoration. To restore degraded areas, we have set up nurseries. We also encourage people to use improved ovens that use less wood when smoking fish. Through two Oceans 5-funded initiatives, we are enhancing the Marine Protected Area’s (MPA) ability to provide conservation services along the coastline of Douala Edea and Mayangue Na Elombo Campo. The initial project focused on producing a management plan and other documents to improve protected area management.
Why produce a management plan for MPAs?
One of the tasks in the project was to produce a management plan, as the MPAs were created without a plan. We engaged a consultant with the backing of MINFOF, the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, who suggested a management plan. To validate the management strategy, we arranged a workshop with national, regional, and local communities. The plan will be sent to the Prime Minister’s office for approval after it has been validated at the MINFOF level.
But why create the MPAs without a management plan?
The MPAs have been gazetted as protected areas following a data-gathering process, depicting possibilities for conservation. Inland protected areas, not marine protected zones, are discussed in the 2024 forestry law. We have also created guidelines, or directives, for the creation of management plans that fall under the legal purview of MPAs and other successful area-based conservation initiatives, such as OECMs.
The first project was the development of documents. What is the second project?
By designating certain important conservation sites as OECM, the second project engages local communities in conservation. Areas that are not in protected areas but have conservation potential are known as OECMs. Among other partners, we are collaborating on the project with Tube Awu and EJF. 32 OECMs were found in the data, but after investigation, five were rejected since they did not meet the requirements. When an area is declared as OECM, it is not a traditional protected area and is not managed by the government. Although the government is aware of areas such as shrines and sacred forests, these are managed by the population and are not within a protected area. We work in collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry.
In Campo, are you working within the Marine Protected Area or with the OECM for the Ocean 5 Project?
In Campo, we are working with the MPA for the Ocean 5 project; the first project was iDouala-Edea. But we identified the landscape from Douala-Edea to Campo, through Kribi to Bakassi, because marine species do not stay in one place. Concentrating our work only in Douala Edea would be limiting our efforts. Discussions with Ocean 5 led to a second project—an extension of the first one, including the Campo and Bakassi areas. There is a proposal to gazette Ndongore as a marine protected area.
What will change with Ndongore as an MPA?
The majority of earlier organizations neglected to include the population in their activities because they were focused on scientific endeavors. We are working on this, as many of the steps that were overlooked when creating MPAs have been included, such as local population consultation and sensitization. We hold discussions and consultations in the field. We are strengthening the capacities of communities and educating them about marine protected areas. They are being consulted and informed about the plans to gazette the area to gather their thoughts. Every meeting ends with a discussion that will be recorded in the file. They agree that their region should be included in MPAs and will participate in the safeguarding.
Apart from these, what else is CWCS doing?
CWCS also supports local community-based organizations and associations to develop projects and provides training. For instance, we educated a women’s group in Mouanko on snail farming as an alternative to bivalve fishing. The bivalves are under stress, and now they are in danger because the young are being taken, which is bad. Another Mouanko association has received training in waste management and collection. After gathering and sorting waste, they set aside plastic and other non-biodegradable materials and use the biodegradable portion to create manure. In today’s world, plastic is increasingly mishandled. To pick up trash from homes, the organization purchased a tricycle as part of the project.
What are you telling people who come to your stand? What is the blue economy?
When visitors arrived at our booth, we began by discussing the conference’s theme, which is the blue economy, utilizing resources from rivers, lakes, oceans, and water to enhance the local population’s quality of life. Through management plans, law enforcement, and logistics, we reinforce the conservation services’ capability in the absence of a management plan. Donors will be able to offer financing once the protected area is more apparent to them, thanks to the management plan or business strategy. To restore the ecology and all species, we are reforesting. We have already repaired 125 hectares as part of the CAMERR project. The project commenced in 2008, with support from ‘Planet Urgence’ to restore degraded areas within the Wouri estuary. To restore the mangrove ecology, CWCS collaborates with other groups.
Do you want to add anything else?
CWCS is open to partnerships.