Dja Periphery Community Engagement Project (DPCEP)

Project Background
The Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR), covers an area of 5,260 km². It is located in a transition zone between the forests of southern Nigeria and south-west Cameroon and the forests of the Congo Basin. DBR is 243km south-east of Yaoundé, and 5km west of Lomie. The Dja River almost completely encircles the reserve, forming its natural boundary, except to the south-west. There is a population of about 6,000 people living in the buffer zone and in the transition area of the biosphere reserve.

DBR was created in 1950, was designated as a biosphere reserve in 1981 and became listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The Reserve contains important populations of chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants and buffalos.

The project is part of Cameroon’s National Great Ape Survival Plan (NGASP), which is part of the global initiative Great Ape Survival Partnership (GRASP)

Living Earth Cameroon, with technical assistance from Living Earth UK, are working in partnership with Bristol Zoo Gardens to deliver this project.

Research carried out by LEF and Bristol Zoo Gardens in 2003 indicated that communities around Dja Biosphere Reserve are inclined to disengage from wildlife protection efforts because a) they see no benefits to them from the process, and b) there is no mechanism for their participation in the development of policy.  As a result, these key stakeholders remain passive observers (and indeed perceive themselves to be ‘victims’) of efforts to stop unsustainable take of bushmeat.  Unless communities engage fully in conservation efforts, particularly those to protect high-value and endangered apes, their chances of ultimate success are significantly reduced.  Giving local people a voice in wildlife protection policy will have additional benefits in giving them confidence to participate in the wider democratic process.

Project Objectives
To assist local communities living around the Dja Biosphere Reserve (DBR) to engage more effectively with the government of Cameroon and biodiversity protection agencies, in order to foster enhanced understanding of each stakeholder’s concerns and thus to render more effective conservation activities, particularly the protection of great apes.

Baka People who live on the periphery of the Dja Reserve

Project Activities

• Training of Cameroon Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MINEF) front-line staff in effective participatory communication techniques and capacity building.

• Identify communities’ internal communication networks, and then use them to facilitate dialogue between the communities, government and conservation agencies, and to promotes sustainable development within the communities.

• Environmental education booklet on Great Apes and conservation produced and distributed to 250 primary and secondary schools in East and Centre provinces.

• 250 primary school teachers trained in the use of environmental education materials

• Isolated communities will be linked to ongoing development initiatives to provide alternative incomes to poaching and the bushmeat trade.

• Information about project disseminated through local and national television, radio and newspaper media.

This programme is joint collaboration between Living Earth Cameroon (LEC) and Bristol Zoo Gardens (BZG). LEC manage the project on a daily basis by providing in-country management and administrative support to the community facilitators, while BZG have overall responsibility for delivery of the project. MINEF also play an important role in giving support to its overseas partners in delivery of the project, and to ensure that the outputs of the project help shape the accompanying measures for the implementation of the management plan for the DBR.

Programme Funding
The programme is initially funded for 3 years (Jan 06-Dec 08) jointly by the Foreign Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) Global Opportunities Fund (GOF) and the European Commission (EC).

For more information on this project contact;
Dr Nouhou Ndam - Programme Coordinator, Living Earth Cameroon