Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the process forward (i rst and foremost) possibly combined with some
form of 'subsidy' to enable national government and local communities to
conserve a resource of global signii cance into the future. As a result the
present project strategy for sustainability is based on achieving sustainable
institutions for the long-term management of the forest. This will work
at three levels - that of community institutions (FMIs), the traditional
authorities and the government. As suggested above in relation to pro-
tection activities, each of these levels needs to work ef ectively for forest
management to succeed. It was envisaged that these three institutional
elements would be supported i nancially in the long term through a trust
fund (CAMCOF - CAmeroon Mountains COnservation Foundation) to
support sustainable management and conservation of forests through-
out the Cameroon Highlands, with an initial focus on the Kilum-Ijim
Forest and Mount Cameroon. However, despite considerable investment
from the Global Environment Facility and the UK's Department for
International Development towards project development, CAMCOF
failed to get the necessary support and the Foundation has been closed.
Sustainable i nancing for conservation and sustainable use in the region
remain unresolved issues.
Monitoring and evaluation coni rms project success
For much of the
past 19 years there has been no formal monitoring scheme in place to
measure the conservation success of project interventions in the Bamenda
Highlands. An initial survey of the extent of the montane forest carried
out in 1983/84 noted the rapid rates at which montane forest in the region
was being cleared for cultivation, and concluded that without rapid
intervention the remaining Kilum-Ijim forest would be destroyed by the
year 2000. The fact that the forest remains is an important measure of
success, especially considering the continued loss and degradation of
other montane forests, including Forest Reserves, over the same period.
Monitoring of forest extent using satellite images and aerial photogra-
phy has shown the impact of the project's interventions. They show that
between 1958 and 1988 (that is, pre-project) more than 50 per cent of the
forest was lost. This was followed by a period of forest regeneration and
in the period 1988-2001 the forest extended by 7.8 per cent of the 1988
area. This extension of forest cover has taken place largely through forest
regeneration on cleared areas within the boundary that was demarcated
in 1988.
In 1994 a conscious change in approach was made to ensure that the
success of the project in terms of conserving the key bird species in the
forest (a key conservation target) could be reported. A thorough analysis
of the conservation objectives helped to dei ne what the project hoped
