The statement said after two years of on the ground scientific studies, research and wide consultation, with local communities and administrative authorities, WWF and the government of Cameroon arrived at that decision.

The WWF said the Ebo forest is facing serious threats - poaching and illegal logging - hence the urgency for it to be safeguarded. “Apart from forest elephants, a small but taxonomically intriguing gorilla population and a healthy chimpanzee community, there are nine other diurnal primate species present, including important population of species in serious decline, such as drills and Preuss’ red colobus,” the release noted.

Reinforcing the need for the Ebo Forest National Park, Martin Tchamba, National Director of WWF Cameroon said: “It is important for the key actors to have a comprehensive view of the proposed park. We will like to further raise awareness about the conservation importance of this Congo basin biodiversity hot spot to potential international donors and the local communities living within and adjacent to the Ebo forest as well as uncover important features that occur in the Ebo forest for future strategies that will benefit the nation as a whole.”

Tour

Cameroon government officials, in charge of environment and conservation issues will be joined by a representative of the Dutch government in Cameroon, local community leaders, the media and WWF top brass in the Central Africa sub region, on Monday, July 27 to have a closer view and appreciation of the proposed national park. This will be done via a special fly-over of the area at low attitude.

The Ebo landscape cuts across two administrative divisions - the Sanaga Maritime and the Nkam divisions all in the Littoral region. The proposed Ebo Forest National Park is one of the most important remaining tracts of closed-canopy forest in the Littoral region. It covers a surface area 111, 2880 hectares of lowland and montane forest, with one of the most complete population of a wide variety of forest mammals in Cameroon.

For the past two years and with funding, principally, from WWF Netherlands, ground works to enable the designation of the Ebo forest as a protected area has been coordinated by WWF Cameroon Country Programme Office, through WWF Coastal Forests (SAWA) Programme in Limbe.