User:EmilyCatherineCollins/Campo Ma'an National Park

Biodiversity
Campo Ma'an National Park is biodiversity hotspot, with a wide range of plant and animal species, including several taxonomic endemics. There are 29 species of plants occurring uniquely within the national park boundaries. A rare and critically endangered species of orchid from the genus Distylodon was discovered in proximity to the park, and further field work is ongoing to assess the occurrence of this species within the protected area. The mammal species include elephants, duikers, hippos, bush pigs, giant pangolins, black colobus, mandrills and leopards. A small population of forest buffalo reside in the southern area of the park. Campo Ma'an National Park also harbours populations of great apes, namely the critically endangered western lowland gorilla and endangered central chimpanzee. Campo Ma'an National Park is considered a priority landscape for conservation of great apes by the IUCN and is the site of an ongoing gorilla habituation project. Funding for gorilla conservation and habituation are supported in part by the World-Bank's Projet Competitivité des Filières de Croissance project . Reptile species reported are 122, and fish species are 165. A survey of millipedes, conducted in 2015, reports 27 species in the Campo Ma'an National Park, the most abundant being Aporodesmus gabonicus. It is also one of the 33 bird identified areas in the southwestern corner of Cameroon, bordering with Equatorial Guinea on the south and the Atlantic Ocean to its west, and has more than 300 bird species. The forest type is mainly closed evergreen canopy, and is described as Atlantic Biafran forest with many plant species in the Caesalpiniaceae family. Total plant species are reported at 256, with 22 species listed as endangered by the IUCN. The forest region containing the Campo Ma'an National park is proposed to have persisted as a tropical rainforest throughout the Pleistocene era, based on the distribution of slowly dispersing plants species and high degrees of endemism. The park is subject to many threats to its ecosystem, mainly due to logging, poaching, agricultural activities and coastal development. Construction of the Memve’ele hydroelectric dam and the Kribi deep-sea port represent additional threats to the biodiversity of the region.

Indigenous Peoples
The region of Cameroon where the Campo Ma'an Reserve is located is traditional territory of two main indigenous groups, the Bagyeli (Pygmies) and Bantu, who have resided in this location for over 4000 years. The Bagyeli are traditionally subsistence hunter gatherers, relying on weekly hunting parties to obtain necessary resources from the forest, including medicinal plants. This group represents the minority of the indigenous people in the area with an estimated population under 10 000. The Bantu people occupy more coastal areas and are primarily fishermen. The Bantu have a larger population, which is divided into smaller groups; the Batanga, the Mabea, the Yassa, the Ntumu, the Mavae and the Bulu. The latter three groups occupy areas farther inland and practise subsistence agriculture. A third ethnic group originating in eastern Cameroon, the Bebilis, also inhabit the area and, similar to the Bagyeli, reside in hunting camps. Currently, there are over 100 villages in the vicinity of the Campo Ma'an National Park.

The signing of the Campo Ma’an GEF/Biodiversity Project in December 1999 introduced new funding for the park, allowing for the enforcement of rules barring the use of natural resources within some areas of the reserve. Prior to this, there were no eco-guards or enforcement which restricted access to the park area. The Integral Protection Zone, covering 2,901 square kilometers is completely off limits to local people and natural resource extraction is prohibited throughout 4196 square kilometers of the region. There have been conflicts between local populations due to restricted hunting access, with one incident in May 2000 resulting in the burning of a disputed hunting camp by ecoguards. In April 2001 a Bagyeli pirogue used to access a region of the protected area was destroyed by ecoguards. There is ongoing illegal hunting and poaching within the reserve area, although between 2011 and 2014 it was reported that human hunting pressure declined by 50 percent. The WWF report on their website that a formal co-management agreement has been signed with Bagyeli people, and currently 15 Bagyeli have been employed as guides and trackers in great ape conservation.