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| SURUDEV Director Kari at Bongom Onion Bio Farms |
A Bamenda
based organization has been awarded over $ 17000 to carryout biodiversity
conservation in the Oom-Wum forest in Menchum Division of the North West
Region.
The project
which is aimed at conserving the Pan troglodytes ellioti in the Oom-wum forest
also engages adjacent forest users in alternative income generation activities,
tree planting, sensitization of some 10.000 community members with chimp
posters, junior secondary school students with chimp handbooks, reconnaissance
survey of Chimp nests among other activities. Kari Jackson says this is the
only generation that is feeling the impacts of climate change and that
something has to be done about conservation practices if not this generation
will have nothing to hand to the next one. “How can we fight the phenomenon of
poaching, illegal logging, poor farming, forest encroachment without involving
those whose mindsets are still a threat to these forests and its biodiversity?
Remember you cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you
inform them and you help them to understand that these resources are their own
and they must protect them” Kari added. He also expressed gratitude to the
commitment of the Arcus foundation, for supporting SURUDEV efforts in
encouraging biodiversity conservation in the Bamenda highlands. He said that
SURUDEV Bio Farms-Bongom continues to inspire youths and communities in
practicalities in mitigating climate change. “After harvesting our onions of
over 10 tons, we have earmarked to kick start water melon harvesting next week.
Sales are encouraging and we intend to train more widows in the upcoming season
and plant more 2000 trees”. According to Kari Jackson, the bio farms have
enabled them to raise enough funds to be able hire office spaces in Bamenda and
Nkambe. He said SURUDEV will equally be launching a new and more flexible web
site www.surudev.org, was
well as kickstart an e-newsletter as well as a print newsletter. These, he
emphasized is aimed at highlighting the works of SURUDEV, other international
and local environmental news that is vital for the community. And he concluded
that this year was a very successful year for SURUDEV “and we hope to do better
next year given that we served some communities with over 10 projects and hope
to improve on our services and the number of communities too”.
Pictures below show the results of the first onion harvested at Bongom thanks to the efforts of SURUDEV Bio Farms (Farmers introduced to the marketing gardening of a crop they thought could never grow in their area)
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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