Kilum-Ijim Forest Project, Cameroon
CONTACT:
Project Manager, Kilum Ijim Forest Project
P.O. Box 275, Bamenda,
North West Region, Cameroon
Telephone: (+237) 33 36 21 93
The Kilum-Ijim forest is the largest patch of forest in West Africa. The project is found on Mount Oku which is the second highest mountain in West Africa and the Ijim Ridge. The area is made up of three Fondoms, Kom, Nso and Oku headed by the Fons who play an important role in the administration of the region. This project works with 35 communities surrounding the Kilum-Ijim Forest.
The main objective of the project is the maintenance of the biodiversity, extent and ecological processes and the sustainable use of the Kilum-Ijim forest by the local communities.
To achieve these objectives a four-pronged strategy has been put in place as follows: a permanent system for the monitoring of the effectiveness of forest’s management, an effective and participatory community-based forest management system for the conservation and the sustainable use of the forest, the communities, traditional rulers and the government agencies have the capacity to implement community forest management, the livelihoods of the local population are improved, thereby contributing to the conservation forest.
The communities around the forest may require assistance from the project with the development of rules for the use of the forest and production of management plans, the physical demarcation of forest limits, the production of inventories that will ascertain exactly what is in the forests and also exactly how the resources have been managed in the past, put a legally recognized organization in place to manage the forest and navigate the legal process which must be followed for each community forest.
The most outstanding achievement of the project is the conservation of the Kilum-Ijim Forest. The main actor in the Project is Birdlife International collaborating with the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry together with the communities around the forest.
The Project is being funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF/UNDP) and the British Department for International Development (DFID).
Kilum-Ijim Forest Project, Cameroon