Rhumsiki Peak in Cameroon. Wikimedia/Amcaja. Some rights reserved.Take the world’s largest conservation organisation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Most are in agreement that steps need to be taken to protect the environment and conserve endangered species. To this end, WWF is highly active in regions like the rainforests of Cameroon, which are among the last bastions of tropical forest around the world, and home to many endangered species of flora and fauna.
WWF proudly counts the Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks in southeast Cameroon among its key achievements. It can rightly claim that these parks would never have got off the ground without its financial muscle and technical know-how, and that its logistical support for the ecoguards who now patrol the park boundaries has been equally crucial.
Not until it surveyed the vast swathes of territory now enclosed within these parks did WWF discover that almost all of it was used by local tribespeople: Baka “Pygmies” who collect food, medicinal plants and other resources from the forest, which also contains a number of their sacred sites.
