We have traveled from the border of Chad and Cameroon (northeast corner of Cameroon), to the border of Guinea and Cameroon (southwest corner of Cameroon). Night and day. Savannah, dry lands to tropical rainforest. Incredible diversity. Incredible country.
We started our trip by landing in Yaounde. West Africa is so very different than East Africa in many ways. People, language, attitudes, development, cultures etc... Standards are different. Of course it is Francophone, and my years and years of studying French slowly emerged from the cob webs of my memory. God knows what I am saying to people. But I love it, love trying, listening and learning. All our meetings are in French and I thought I was doing pretty well, until one meeting. We were talking about community development projects, how to enable communities to generate income to alleviate pressure on natural resources. I thought for sure they were talking about crocodile farming (yes, that does actually exist). I wrote down in my notes crocodile farming as a means for income generation. My Belgian colleague sitting next to me glanced over at my notes, smirked, nodded his head, leaned over and said “micro-credit program, not crocodile farming.” Crocodile farming...micro-credit program, clearly my French needs serious improvement.
We are here looking at new programs for the organization, savannah/Sahel ecosystems and tropical forests. We are submitting a bid for over 4 M Euro for a program in northern Cameroon with a European partner. I am traveling with three colleagues—a Belgian (who worked for us in Congo), a Dutch (who works for us in Burkina) and a Kenyan. We are joined by a German, another Belgian and Cameroonian.
I find cities like Yaoundé hard to describe. A bit run down, like many third world cities. Tall buildings, shacks, gritty streets, people, colours, music, fruit sold on the sidewalk—anything sold on the side walk. Traffic. Unlike Kenyans, Cameroonians are very forceful, loud, and boisterous. So life in the capital is dynamic. Men and women wear amazing colour print pants, dresses, and shirts. The Muslim wear colourful boo-boos, the long shirt, pants and caps. Our hotel is about $60 dollars a night. Air conditioning. It is filled. You have to bargain with the maid to get a towel—“c’est fini” she says, shrugs her shoulder and walks away. While the service is nothing to write home about, one of best things about West Africa is the French influence left behind fantastic baguettes and croissants. So you can stay at a bland hotel, but when you are served a warm croissant in the am you forget that your hotel room had no toilet seat.
We fly north to Garua, a bustling town. Air Cameroon. I was impressed with the new plane and efficient timing. However, we had the worst landing I have ever had in Africa—as if the pilot woke up while landing. It was basically a nose dive and the sound of the plane hitting the pavement would have woken a hibernating bear. So much for being impressed. We are picked by a Belgian man who operates a lodge in Boubba’ndjidda National Park, right on the border of Chad. “Bonjour, ca’va?” I ask. He tells me he is not so good, 27 elephants have been poached in the last three days. A massacre. South Sudanese, jinjaweed, 50 poachers, on horseback, with Kalashnikov riffles. The Park staff is 7. They are not armed. They do not have a chance. Over the next four days we stay in the Park 12 more are shot. Since we have returned over 150 more have been poached.
The Park Authorities and government leaders have little ability to respond. There is no communication in the field, access is difficult, weapons are few and vehicles minimal. Building their capacity is key to conservation and economic success. We are discussing this, Park viability and sustainability, coordination with Chad, an anti-poaching unit and program, and community development programs.
One day met the Chief of the region. Across Africa we work with various traditional leaders, but this was like none I had ever met. He is important and very influential, and rules over a vast area. He can pick the phone up and speak to the President. (Cameroon has had the same President for 30 years.) The Chief (called the Lamido) lives in a palace, surrounded by tall, sand-stone, Adobe walls, that surround the 5 hectare compound. As we enter, after being summoned, there are people on their knees, wearing long white boo-boos, in honour, praise of the Lamido. As he walks, everyone gets on their knees. He is a very sharp and an engaging man. We discuss the region, the issues, the problems and potential solutions. He is appreciative that we have come to see him and he gives us a goat. This is a first. Usually we bring elders and chiefs goats, but here, he gave us one. The poor goat was tied up in the back of our pick up for a three hour drive after we left. I am not sure what happened to the goat, and am pleased I did not have to eat him, but I am fully confident that he was put to some sort of use, nothing gets wasted in rural Africa.
One of the major issues in this region is the movement of people and livestock from the surrounding countries of Chad, Nigeria and Central African Republic. Hundreds of thousands of people move through these landscapes with livestock seeking better grazing lands, water and access to markets. This increases conflict with people and wildlife and is a difficult issue to tackle. There are “trans-humance corridors”--human corridors that are designed to help facilitate the movement of people across vast lands and to reduce conflict, but these are very difficult to enforce. Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria have a treaty that prohibits any country from limiting the movement of pastoralists. As the Sahara and Sahel continue to move south due to warming patterns and desertification, more and more people are moving, which creates more conflict. Combine population increase and conflicts within neighbouring countries, and the space becomes more confined thereby escalating the problem. People often do not see the direct and obvious correlation between a decrease in natural resources (water, grazing lands) with conflict, serious conflict.
On these trips we meet with local authorities, ministers, traditional authorities, community members, private investors (tourism and hunting concessions), donors (French, EU, on this trip), partnering NGOs...it’s always fascinating.
From the dry north, we made our way through Yaoundé for more meetings, then hopped into a 25-year old yellow Toyota taxi to the coast of Cameroon, the town of Kribi—three hour drive. The roads are pretty good, paved. People sell bushmeat on the side of the road. The beach is lovely, water warm, fantastic fresh fish and a great place for relaxing as well as seeing turtles and other marine species. I am grateful for the couple hours of down time we have on the beach, it feels good to stop and decompress for a little. A deep sea port is being developed just south of Kribi, which will have a significant impact on the town. At night the off-short rigs are bright. Oil comes in from Chad; Exxon won the contract over a French company. Cameroon also has oil. The Chinese (surprise, surprise) are building the port and other infrastructure.
From Kribi we travelled south in a small 4x4 to Campo M’aan, a tropical forest, National Park located on the border with Guinea. Soldiers line the border. They kick back on chairs, some of them sucking on sachets. You know the juice pouches kids drink, the silver ones, with a straw? Well, picture that but filled with whiskey. They are cheap and easily purchased. These were banned in Kenya. Dangerous.
On the way to Campo town we pass pygmy people selling bark for medicine, vast forest on fire—slash and burn practices, and villages dotted across the landscape. The Park has gorillas and chimps and I can’t believe I am in such close proximity to these amazing mammals and will not be able to see them. The forest is so thick that you would not see an elephant 10 feet into the forest. Chimps and gorillas in an area like this with high bushmeat poaching are very skittish, and stay clear of humans. There is a habituation program underway for the gorillas in an effort to encourage tourism.
We visit park authorities, discuss development programs with partners. 200,000 people visit Kribi every year, but less than 150 come to the Park. There is enormous potential. On our way out of the Park its sounds like an explosion under the car. The shank holding the wheels together breaks. Always an adventure. Fortunately we are about 5km from the town. The car crawls into town. We pull up to a mechanic who has a welder. He confirms that he has welded this piece, on this exact car together before. No problem he says. 30 minutes. In Africa usually 30 minutes, means 3 hours, could be 3 days. Shockingly, the car gets fixed and we make our way back to Kribi for some dinner and sleep.
Back to Yaoundé. Our last night we have dinner with a Belgian who is managing a hunting concession. A character, full of stories and ideas. Cameroon has incredible diversity and potential. Mountains, forest, oceans, rivers, savannah. It will be interesting to see how their story unfolds and hopefully we will have a hand in its development.
