View of the forest of southeastern Cameroon, reflected in the Boumba River
Lobéké Forest Region, Southeastern Cameroon
Ecological Context
The southeastern corner of Cameroon is a densely forested region interlaced by vast rivers and their tributaries. The equatorial forest is notable for its spectacular diversity in flora and fauna, including elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas, leopards, bongo, sitatunga, as well as many species of monkeys, birds, and other animals. The region also hosts valuable tree species that are exploited for tropical hardwood timber, as well as tropical cash crops such as cocoa. Because of a very long history of economic exploitation, beginning with colonial concessionary companies in the late 1890s and continuing throughout the twentieth century, the people of this region have remained impoverished. The far southeastern corner of Cameroon falls within the Department of Boumba-Ngoko, which is the poorest administrative department in the nation in terms of per-capita income. Yet this region contributes close to 15% of GDP to the Cameroonian treasury, as a result of the harvest of timber.
Ecological Context
The southeastern corner of Cameroon is a densely forested region interlaced by vast rivers and their tributaries. The equatorial forest is notable for its spectacular diversity in flora and fauna, including elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas, leopards, bongo, sitatunga, as well as many species of monkeys, birds, and other animals. The region also hosts valuable tree species that are exploited for tropical hardwood timber, as well as tropical cash crops such as cocoa. Because of a very long history of economic exploitation, beginning with colonial concessionary companies in the late 1890s and continuing throughout the twentieth century, the people of this region have remained impoverished. The far southeastern corner of Cameroon falls within the Department of Boumba-Ngoko, which is the poorest administrative department in the nation in terms of per-capita income. Yet this region contributes close to 15% of GDP to the Cameroonian treasury, as a result of the harvest of timber.
Saline clearing called "Petite Savanne," traditionally known as Djalombe, which is now within the Lobéké National Park.
Clearings are scattered throughout the thick forest, offering mineral-rich niches for wild animals to forage. For local people, such forest clearings have provided traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds for generations. Now at the heart of the Lobéké National Park, such resource-rich clearings areas are off-limits to local people's subsistence activities, including hunting, fishing, and even gathering of forest products such as honey, caterpillars, wild mangoes, and gobo nuts.
Conservation and World Heritage
Sign denoting boundary of the Lobéké National Park (2018)
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Because of the pressures of tropical forest resource exploitation by commercial interests, coupled with the intense poverty of the region, three national parks were established during at the turn of the twenty-first century to protect this forest region. Just to the east of Dioula village is the Lobéké National Park, which effectively sets the most abundant hunting, fishing, and gathering regions beyond the reach of Baka, Bangando, Bakwélé, and Mbomam people. Two national parks to the west of the main road, Boumba-Bek and Nki National Parks, result in the enclosure of the villages between Salapoumbé and Moloundou in the area near the main road. The three national parks in southeastern Cameroon have been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, increasing pressure on local people to avoid utilizing the forest that surrounds their villages. And yet, UNESCO provides no funding to support the livelihoods of local communities.
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Although conservation organizations such as WWF, which administers Lobéké, Boumba-Bek, and Nki national parks, strive to achieve goals that balance wildlife conservation with socioeconomic development, the reality is that local communities in southeastern Cameroon have seen vanishingly little support from these international organizations. Indeed, village leaders from throughout the region held WWF to task in July of 2020, convening a meeting that included the Minister of Wildlife and Forests, demanding explanations for the lack of engagement with local communities after nearly 25 years of its work overseeing the Lobéké National Park.
As a result of the curtailment of local people's access to the forest, continued logging in community forests, fluctuating, unpredictable, and extreme weather changes, local families have come under increasing nutritional stress over the past three decades. It is this sense of crisis that precipitated the women of Dioula to come together to formalize Essoungue as a tool for stabilizing -- and even improving -- the livelihoods of all families.
As a result of the curtailment of local people's access to the forest, continued logging in community forests, fluctuating, unpredictable, and extreme weather changes, local families have come under increasing nutritional stress over the past three decades. It is this sense of crisis that precipitated the women of Dioula to come together to formalize Essoungue as a tool for stabilizing -- and even improving -- the livelihoods of all families.
Cultural and Socioeconomic Context
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The southeastern corner of Cameroon is home to forest communities that live far below international indicators of poverty, living on an estimated $0.28 per day. Four distinct language groups co-reside in southeastern Cameroon: Bangando, Baka, Bakwélé, and Mbomam. Among these four communities, Bangando constitute the majority group, reaching approximately 45% of the population; the Baka community constitutes approximately 35% of the population; Bakwélé individuals reach approximately 10%; Mbomam make up 5%. These four local communities are complemented by a significant number of immigrants, reaching approximately 5% of the population. The number of immigrants has increased in recent years because of refugees arriving from the Republic of Congo, which endured civil war during the 1990s, and from the Central African Republic, which experienced sectarian violence and conflict during the 2010s.
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Mbomam woman preparing mosele fish (with chili peppers -- delicious!) at her forest garden (1996)
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Subsistence and Livelihoods
Women of Dioula in the forest near their garden (1995)
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Local people engage in a variety of economic activities. The mainstay of economic production is the cultivation of subsistence crops (bananas, manioc, maize, peanuts, chili peppers). 30% of people also grow cocoa. However, given the remoteness of the region, cocoa growers have been beholden to the prices extracted by cocoa merchants, who buy up sacks of cocoa at prices far below market value. Many tree crops are interspersed with subsistence crops such as avocado, mango, maize, manioc, hot peppers, as well as medicinal plants. Local people also engage in hunting, gathering (kumbi and other forest leaves, mushrooms, caterpillars, termites, snails, bark, medicinal plants), and fishing to provide necessary proteins and a seasonably varied diet. Stable paid employment is rare. Health care throughout the region is difficult to access, expensive, and unreliable. Infant and child mortality rates are high, leading to correspondingly high rates of fertility. Fifty percent of the population is under 15 years old; 70% of the population is under 30 years old.
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Children in Dioula (2019)