8,000 Indigenous tree seedlings distributed to the community
360 Community members engaged in land-use planning
10 Specially trained TANGO teams deployed to arbitrate land use and transhumance issues and raise conservation awareness and support
Faro
The Faro landscape in Cameroon includes Faro National Park. The landscape is home to diverse wildlife, including elephants and the largest hippo population in Central and West Africa. Maintaining its rich biodiversity requires a holistic response to challenges including commercial poaching, transhumance (seasonal cross-border livestock herding), illegal fishing, and climate change impacts.
AWF supports the government in managing Faro National Park while ensuring that conservation supports the needs of local communities and Indigenous people. With European Union support, we are delivering an integrated program that incorporates:
- Microenterprise development
- Participatory land-use planning
- Capacity-building in protected-area management
- Training in counter-wildlife-trafficking
- Mediation of community conflicts related to transhumance
Promoting new livelihood models
We have collaborated with the World Agroforestry Center and local people around Faro to establish the Tchamba Rural Resources Center, which functions as a springboard for agroforestry cultivation. The center's nursery has cultivated and distributed to communities approximately 8,000 indigenous tree seedlings, including moringa, anacardium, mangifera, guava, pawpaw, and citrus.
Addressing conflict over natural resources
We support communities around Faro National Park in developing land-use plans, which improve natural-resource management by delineating multi-use zones. We also helped create a local “diplomacy network” of local community members to mediate conflict and foster two-way communication between incoming herders and those already grazing and farming in the area. As a result, groups traditionally in conflict over land use are collaborating to establish corridors and improved grazing areas for seasonal cattle pasture and passage.
