Historically, these forests were protected through customary law as sacred sites for traditional rituals. However, population growth and a lack of sustainable land management regulations have tested the strength of customary laws.
“Intensive farming and overuse of pesticides have damaged the soil and polluted nearby waterways,” says Jacques Waouo, Team Manager at Rainforest Alliance in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. “Sixty per cent of the sacred forests have been lost in the last 30 years. Now, there are only small pockets of trees set amid coffee, maize and bean farms.”
Conservationists estimate Cameroon must protect 7,600 hectares of land across the regions of Mount Bamboutos and Mount Bana-Banganté-Bangou.
To help meet this ambitious plan, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have teamed up with the non-profit Rainforest Alliance and the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development of Cameroon, among others, on two forest conservation projects.
Advancing women’s rights through community-led landscape management in Mount Bamboutos and its sister project, Championing community-led landscape management in Cameroon, aim to strengthen the economic and social rights of women and young people through the promotion of sustainable, community-based land management.
Nature loss, civil strife and climate change also disproportionately affect women and girls, who have fewer resources to adapt to changing conditions. Gender inequality means that although women in Cameroon play a key role in growing crops, livestock farming and processing forest products, they are often denied equal access to education, financing, land rights and training in sustainable land management practices.
To address the problem, the two projects are working to ensure women have equal leadership opportunities in land management and better access to economic opportunities. By training them to process non-timber forest products into goods such as soap and avocado oil, the projects aim to encourage women in the region to become financially independent while also gaining skills to become better custodians of the forests their livelihoods depend on.
“Women are the backbone of society,” says Fomado Virginie, who teaches sustainable agricultural practices. “We have to educate women on how to conserve the forests so they can [earn income] from products that have been made from the forests.”
The UNEP-backed projects are benefiting more than 3,000 people, including 1,500 women and youth. Many are involved in female-led local enterprises that process farm and forest products or renewable biofuels.
Another major aim of these projects is to enhance the legal protection status for key biodiversity areas. Some 7,600 hectares of biodiversity-rich land are marked for protection across the Western Highlands and South Region.
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