About the importance of this Green Project of Limbe Wildlife Centre and other successful conservation projects that I experienced closely, I recently talked on Dutch National Radio with Four Freedom Award Winner and philanthrope Sander de Kramer.
You can listen here to the radio show and from 01:28:00 my conversation with Sander.
In the coming period I will highlight several projects in my blogs. Projects that I have visited myself or in which I am closely involved somehow.
Nature conservation and education
A large number of wildlife rescue centers do much more than rescue and rehabilitate animals these days. They also have nature conservation projects. With which they work together with the local population to protect wild animals
and – also their own – habitat. And environmental education programs, which they implement in elementary schools, to teach future generations the importance of nature conservation. Super important, because only taking care of animals is addressing of the symptoms, but not the cause.
But the projects are also time-consuming and cost intensive. But time and money are precisely what rescue centers barely have. Nevertheless, they put their heart and soul into it – and with success – with the ultimate result being coexistence between humans and animals.
In this blog, I’m going to talk about a very special project in Cameroon that successfully combated the eating of wild animals, also known as ‘bush-meat’.
The Green Project of Limbe Wildlife Centre.
Alongside deforestation and the illegal trade in wildlife, bush-meat eating is the biggest threat to the survival of many wild animals such as the great ape.
In the city of Limbe in Cameroon, there was even a public market for bush-meat. The entire community of Batoke, which is in the vicinity of Mount Cameroon National Park, participated in this: the men hunted the animals and the women sold the meat at the market.
In 2005 Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC) – a rescue center for Gorillas, Chimpanzees and other primates – decided to do something about it. And with success. Not only for the great apes but also for the empowerment of women in society, the so-called “carriers” of the project.
LWC taught the women how to harvest wild plants in a sustainable way, which are of great nutritional value for gorillas and chimpanzees, among others. Together with these women, they also set up a system that now allows them to provide vegetables to the animals in the center throughout the year. The families now have a steady source of income. And hunting in the national park has decreased by more than 30% in recent years.
Batoke Family Nature Club
In 2019, LWC added another element to the project: education.
Every month, the education team organizes an event in Batoke for the whole family. They learn about water management, plastic waste and composting. And which wild animals and plants live in their environment – and why they need to be protected. I myself participated in one of the family days in 2019 and made a short video of it.
Also check out or download LWC’s report on the Green Project below.
Support the Green Project!
This year LWC is starting a compost project to provide organic manure to the Batoke community. In this way they can make their agricultural activities even more sustainable.
But the corona pandemic is a hard blow also financially to almost all wildlife rescue centers worldwide. While it is exactly now that it is so important to not only continue projects like these, but even expand them!
Support is therefore even more important now than ever!
Please consider to DONATE for the Green Project here!
Many many thanks for your support!
And I will personally make sure the money is transferred directly to LWC for the benefit of the Green Project.
