It is in line with this spirit that the WWF Coastal Forest Programme, fondly referred to as the SAWA Programme, decided to work with the Mbororo community of the Muanenguba area. Hence, a Livelihood Support Initiative was crafted by WWF SAWA Programme to assist the Mbororo Women's Group in the Muanenguba area. This is one of the over a hundred Community Based Organisations, CBOs, supported by the WWF SAWA Programme. Janet Molisa Mukoko, Communication Officer for WWF SAWA Programme told this reporter the essence of the Livelihood Initiatives.

“The CBOs that we support in the Bakossi Landscape Area, are those organisations that carry out activities that support conservation. The Mbororo women are carrying out an important activity, which is organic farming. They use the dung of their cattle to fertilise their farms. This is a very good initiative that we promote as conservators. They live around a very important watershed in the country”, Molisa Mukoko said.

A people, who have settled in the Muanenguba area for over 75 years because of its large savannah vegetation and good climate, the Mbororos are dominantly cattle breeders, whose activities have a direct impact on the proposed Muanenguba Integral Ecological Reserve. According to the Site Manager of the Bakossi Landscape Area, Theophilus Ngwene, the Livelihood Initiative programme is intended to support communities that have direct or indirect impact on protected areas, especially village groups and associations that carry out activities that promote conservation and improve their livelihoods.

“After a thorough need assessment, relevant groups are usually given material, technical, financial and institutional support to increase productivity and improve on their livelihood. In the case of the Mbororo Women's Groups, that we found out they have difficulties transporting their organically produced food crops such as Irish potatoes, beans, corn and onions, to Bangem, covering a distance of 9 km, we offered them two-well adapted push trucks. We also made available for these women 1,100 metres of barbed wires to use as part of a protection mechanisms of their farms. This will help deter their cattle from trespassing into their farms,” Ngwene explained.

To other communities, who go contrary to conservation tenets, Mukoko had this advice: “The forest is all we have. It is there that we have food, water, medicine and all we live for. The forest is the main source of our livelihood. The forest should be left naturally. Not that it should not be exploited. But that should be done sustainably. That way, posterity will also benefit from what God gave to all of us”. Ngwene was convinced that their message of sustainable forest management is given a heed.

“WWF in collaboration with the government of Cameroon, have gone round the villages that make up the Bakossi Landscape Area and sensitised the inhabitants. Now, they see that it is a very important exercise. These people attend all the meetings we hold. This is a demonstration of their interest in conservation activities”, Ngwene added.

The Bakossi Landscape Area is part of the Cameroon Highlands ecoregion, comprising grassland patches of 900m elevation. Its importance include; Biological, Socio-cultural and Hydrological. However, some environmental threats have been noted. These include; unsustainable bush meat hunting, unsustainable timber and non timber forest products exploitation, forest encroachment, water catchments depletion through forest clearance and bush burning for agriculture.


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