Boumba Bek National Park

Boumba Bek National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Location in Cameroon
Location	Cameroon
Coordinates	02°13′0″N 15°42′0″E
Area	2,382 km^2 (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 and 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 also exist 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, 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 African 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. "Cameroon's Two New National Parks Shelter Forests, Wildlife". Environment News Service. 2005-10-17. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
2. Ndameu, Benoit (July 2001). "Case Study 7: Cameroon-Boumba Bek" (PDF). Forest Peoples Programme. Moreton-in-Marsh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
3. "From the Congo Basin (Letter to the Editor)". World Watch. Goliath Business Knowledge On Demand. 2005-01-01. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
4. "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. Archived from the original on 2012-02-15. Retrieved 2008-08-29.