Community livelihoods versus biodiversity conservation. Constraints to sustainability of the Santchou forest reserve in the Western highland region of Cameroon
Elvis Mbeng, University of Dschang (CM)
Not only has the overall demand for land for agricultural production, urban expansion and other activities increased but also has the community need or demand for land for conservation as revealed by government policies. Certain predictions (McDonald and Boucher, 2011) foresee that global protected land might increase more in the next 20 years than they have in the last. This needs have as objective the conservation of biodiversity but to the local population, these areas have been their home for many generations on which they have based their livelihoods, culture and identity. It is thus not very surprising to note that biodiversity continues to decline (Aili et al, 2016) and reduces in the long run the capacity of these protected areas to maintain their roles and human wellbeing. The intimate relationships which exist between the local population and protected areas have been explored as farmers and forest dwellers are the users of protected areas as well as lands connecting these areas, what has not been extensively addressed are other options to equitable reconcile sustainable livelihoods within and around protected areas. In protected area categories where agricultural activities are undertaken whether allowed by the law or not, there is need to consider productive activities which provide livelihoods in an equitable and environmentally friendly way. This is because the local population always tend to encroach on the resources of these areas taking into consideration the fact that resources around are scarce and the population tend to view protection areas as a way of depriving them of their land especially if participatory methods are not effective or were not put in place during the creation of these areas. The objectives of our study is to analyze the forms of indigenous exploitations, the current mode of community management and its effects on biodiversity conservation. In addition to this, the contributions of exploitation of this protected area to community livelihoods will be discussed coupled with propositions on a sustainable model for its management. Our research questions focused on the effects of an agro-industrial exploitation of protected areas by the local communities on biodiversity conservation on one hand and on the other, its influence on community livelihoods with the Santchou reserve as case study. Have this protected area achieved its conservation objectives and how has community participation or its absence contributed to the attainment of the objectives? Are the current conservation models sustainable or what are the flaws to sustainable conservation? We are thus advocating the proposal that though much effort has been invested in terms of conservation, there is little tangible evidence to support achievement of these projects.