Conservation in the community: the Kilum-Ijim Forest Project, Cameroon

BirdLife International has worked for ten years in Cameroon's North-West Pr ovince to assist the local people and government of Cameroon in achieving t he conservation and sustainable management of the last significant remnant of a unique montane forest ecosystem. The Kilum/Ijim forests are almost cer tainly the last remaining habitat for the conservation of two endemic and t hreatened bird species, Bannerman's Turaco Tauraco bannermani and Banded Wa ttle-eye Platystiera lacticincta. The forests have no legal designation as formal protected areas but have been conserved through local concern and kn owledge of the multiple values of an intact forest ecosystem, backed up by the enforcement of traditional regulations, and support from the project to finding solutions to peoples' land use and natural resource management nee ds within and outside the forests. The project is now working under the umb rella of a national Biodiversity Conservation and Management Programme in C ameroon, funded by the Global Environment Facility, to establish the Kilum/ Ijim as the first community-managed forest in the country A brief history a nd background to the project is presented, with emphasis on lessons learned by BirdLife and the success of current efforts to achieve the conservation of the forests through community management. The issues are discussed in t he general context of an integrated conservation and development programme (ICDP).