Boumba Bek National Park

Boumba Bek National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Map showing the location of Boumba Bek National Park

Location in Cameroon

Location  Cameroon
Coordinates 02°13′0″N 15°42′0″E / 2.21667°N 15.70000°ECoordinates: 02°13′0″N 15°42′0″E / 2.21667°N 15.70000°E
Area 2,382 km2 (920 sq mi)
Established 17 October 2005
Governing body World Wildlife Fund

Boumba Bek National Park is a national park in extreme southeastern Cameroon, located in its East Province.

History

The park was never logged; according to the World Wildlife Fund's scientific advisor in the region, Paul Robinson Ngnegueu, "poaching is the biggest threat to Boumba Bek."[1] This is a result of the late 1980s economic depression in Cameroon.[2] The indigenous people followed the poachers, attracted by the financial opportunities.[2] They would sell their product through "intermediaries" for money and more hunting supplies.[2]

In 1995, the park was named an Essential Protection Zone, its first official status.[2] It was not formally established as a national park, however, until the Cameroonian government decreed the creation of Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks on 17 October 2005.[1] Its establishment is a result of a summit held by seven central African leaders in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in February 2005.[1]

Cameroon and Gabon are currently working on the TRIDOM project, a conservation initiative leading to a land management plan which will oversee access to and use of forests.[3] It will create a tri-national "interzone" bordered by the Minkebe, Boumba-Bek, Nki, and Odzala National Parks and the Dja Wildlife Reserve.[3] This project is part of a conservation movement toward the zoning and designation of new protected areas.[3]

Geography and climate

Boumba Bek is located between the Boumba and Bek Rivers in southeast Cameroon, from which it derives its name.[1] The site is accessible only by pirogue and several hunting trails.[1] It is sandwiched between the towns of Yokadouma and Moloundou in the Boumba et Ngoko department in Cameroon's East Province.[4] The park is situated from latitude 2˚09 to 2˚20 N and longitude 15˚35 to 15˚50 E.[4]

Sixteen bais, or forest clearings, have been discovered in Boumba Bek National Park.[4] Of these, four are currently being monitored for large mammalian activities.[4]

The park has a tropical climate with temperature ranging from 23.1 to 25˚C with an average annual temperature of 24˚C. Its relative humidity varies between 60 to 90% while annual rainfall is 1500 mm per year.[2] According to the Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture, Moloundou has a rainy season from September to November, a dry season from November to March, a rainy season from March to June, and a dry season from July to August.[2]

Demographics

The area around the park, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, has a population of 33,169 people, mostly comprising ethnic Bantus[4] and, despite being named a minority in Cameroon's constitution of 18 January 1996, Baka Pygmies.[2] These include the Kounabembe, Bangando, Bakwele, Mbomam, Essel, Mbimo, and Mpong-Mpong tribes.[4] Non-indigenous employees of logging companies and Muslim merchants from northern Cameroon make up a sizeable amount of the total population.[4]

Biodiversity

Flora

A majority of the park is semi-evergreen lowland rainforest, along with several patches of closed-canopy evergreen forest.[1] Small areas of seasonally flooded forest, swamp-forest, and grassy savannas ealsoxist within its boundaries.[1]

Fauna

Boumba Bek, according to the Environmental News Service, "encompass[es] a biodiverse group of plants and animals."[1] Chimpanzees, forest antelope, Nile crocodiles and bongos are all found in Boumba Bek National Park.[1] In addition, roughly 300 fish species, three of which are not named, swim in the park's rivers.[1]

The forests of Cameroon contain some of the highest population density of forest elephants of any nation, and Boumba Bek is no different,[1] with an elephant density of roughly 2.5 for Boumba Bek and Nki combined.[5]

Boumba Bek was designated an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.[1]

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 "Cameroon's Two New National Parks Shelter Forests, Wildlife". Environment News Service. 2005-10-17. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Ndameu, Benoit (July 2001). "Case Study 7: Cameroon-Boumba Bek" (PDF). Forest Peoples Programme (Moreton-in-Marsh).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "From the Congo Basin (Letter to the Editor)". World Watch (Goliath Business Knowledge On Demand). 2005-01-01. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "Three National Parks of Southeast Cameroon" (Microsoft Word). World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
  5. ↑ Ngea, Peter. "Wildlife Sanctuary Found in Nki National Park". Field Trip Earth. North Carolina Zoological Society. Retrieved 2008-08-29.