About 500 gorillas and more than 200 elephantsboth species threatened, inhabit this 264,000-hectare reserve.
One week after the elephants they razed his banana plantation close to the park, Simplice Yomen, 47, is unable to recover.
“We are at the limit of our patience,” he says.
Why agriculture is threatened in Cameroon
The elephants open the fruit and they eat “the fresh part” of the trunk, rich in minerals. Also have weakness for cassava, corn, sweet potatoes and peanutssays park manager Michel Nko’o.
In Cameroon, coexistence between humans and animals on the edge of the jungles proves challenging.
Most of the destroyed crops occur near nature reserves.
For Nko’o, the raids have become more frequent since agribusiness groups they began to settle inside the park.
More than 2,000 hectares of forest were cut down to grow palms for Cameroun Vert, a industrial plantation to produce Palm oil which the government initially allowed deforestation of 60,000 hectaresbefore reducing it to 39,000 due to the protests that occurred.
“The elephants that used to live here have no place to go anymore and end up in people’s crops,” said park conservationist Charles Memvi.
affected villages
The territory, near the town of Campo, lost “three to four hectares of crops destroyed, which is a major economic setback for local people,” says Nko’o.
Elephants are blamed for 80-90% of raids. The rest corresponds to gorillas, chimpanzees, hedgehogs, pangolins and porcupines.
Almost all of these species are threatened by habitat loss or poaching.
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The Ministry of Jungles and Wildlife says Cameroon does not have a legal framework for compensate the population after the animal attacks from national parks.
Meanwhile, he tests and studies a insurance system that covers those who lose their life support because of the incursions that come from this group.
Source: Ambito
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