Equator Initiative Case Studies Local sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities Cameroon ITOH COMMUNITY GRAZIERS COMMON INITIATIVE GROUP Empowered lives. Resilient nations.
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Equator Initiative Case StudiesLocal sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities
Cameroon
ITOH COMMUNITY GRAZIERS COMMONINITIATIVE GROUP
Empowered live
Resilient nation
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UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE CASE STUDY SERIES
Local and indigenous communities across the world are advancing innovative sustainable development solutions that wo
or people and or nature. Few publications or case studies tell the ull story o how such initiatives evolve, the breadth
their impacts, or how they change over time. Fewer still have undertaken to tell these stories with community practition
themselves guiding the narrative.
To mark its 10-year anniversary, the Equator Initiative aims to ll this gap. The ollowing case study is one in a growing ser
that details the work o Equator Prize winners – vetted and peer-reviewed best practices in community-based environmenconservation and sustainable livelihoods. These cases are intended to inspire the policy dialogue needed to take local succ
to scale, to improve the global knowledge base on local environment and development solutions, and to serve as models
replication. Case studies are best viewed and understood with reerence to ‘The Power o Local Action: Lessons rom 10 Years
the Equator Prize’, a compendium o lessons learned and policy guidance that draws rom the case material.
EditorsEditor-in-Chie: Joseph Corcoran
Managing Editor: Oliver HughesContributing Editors: Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Erin Lewis, Whitney Wilding
Contributing WritersEdayatu Abieodun Lamptey, Erin Atwell, Toni Blackman, Jonathan Clay, Joseph Corcoran, Larissa Currado, Sarah Gordon, Oliver Hughe
Wen-Juan Jiang, Sonal Kanabar, Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Rachael Lader, Patrick Lee, Erin Lewis, Jona Liebl, Mengning Ma,
Mary McGraw, Gabriele Orlandi, Juliana Quaresma, Peter Schecter, Martin Sommerschuh, Whitney Wilding, Luna Wu
DesignOliver Hughes, Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Kimberly Koserowski, Erin Lewis
AcknowledgementsThe Equator Initiative acknowledges with gratitude the guidance and inputs o Itoh Community Graziers Common Initiative Group
photo credits courtesy o Itoh Community Graziers Common Initiative Group. Maps courtesy o CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia.
Suggested CitationUnited Nations Development Programme. 2012. Itoh Community Graziers Common Initiative Group, Cameroon. Equator Initiative C
Study Series. New York, NY.
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PROJECT SUMMARY Through participatory planning and mapping exercises, theagro-pastoralist Itoh community conserves land aroundthe Kilum mountain orest or grazing and agriculture. This orest ragment had previously been under threatrom encroachment or timber harvesting and clearing oragriculture. It is the largest remnant o montane orest inthe Bamenda Highlands o Cameroon’s Northwest Province. These orests support a high diversity o unique ora andauna, including two endemic bird species, and providea range o ecosystem services or the mountain’s localpopulation.
Activities have ocused on an area reserved or grazing,around which the community’s two ethnic groups havecollectively planted 30,000 trees to demarcate boundaries,protect local water sources, and provide odder or livestock.Some o these multipurpose tree species have had medicinaland ethno-veterinary uses, reviving traditional approachesto treating human and animal ailments.
KEY FACTS
EQUATOR PRIZE WINNER: 2004
FOUNDED: 1992
LOCATION: Itoh, Northwest Region
BENEFICIARIES: 60 members of the Itoh community
BIODIVERSITY: Reforestation of a 140-ha grazing area
3
ITOH COMMUNITY GRAZIERSCOMMON INITIATIVE GROUPCameroon
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background and Context 4
Key Activities and Innovations 5
Biodiversity Impacts 6
Socioeconomic Impacts 6
Policy Impacts 6
Sustainability 7
Partners 7
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he Kilum mountain orest is the largest remnant o montane orest
n the Bamenda Highlands o Cameroon’s Northwest Region. It
upports a high diversity o ora and auna, including two endemic
ird species, and provides a range o ecosystem services or the local
opulation. The orest orms a critical watershed or the 100,000
eople who arm the mountain’s slopes, acts as a natural deence
gainst soil erosion, and provides a wealth o orest products
ncluding uelwood, building and thatching materials, medicines,
nd honey. The mountain slopes also provide land or arming and
vestock-rearing, activities that or decades have sustained the local
ommunities o the village o Oku. Increasing competition or land
etween tribal groups, however, has heightened pressure on the
mountain orest’s borders. Overexploitation o its resources and
ncreasing deorestation led to increased protection eorts during
he late 1980s and 1990s.
Communal grazing areas
With restrictions on the use o resources available to the communities
ordering the orest reserve, the Kilum Mountain Cooperative Union
was created in 1992 to mobilize the population o Oku to explore
ustainable options or balancing crop arming and the rearing o
oats and cattle. This cooperative comprises six settlements spread
round the orest reserve, each possessing a communal grazing area
hat has been demarcated by government and traditional authorities
o serve as an alternative grazing pasture or livestock.
Confict resolution in Itoh
One o these six communities, Itoh, is made up o 60 memberselonging to two ethnic groups. The Itoh communal grazing
rea covers about 140 hectares o land between the rivers Ntio
nd Mih, which emanate rom the Kilum mountain orest. The
ommunity grazing area is used by both the native community –
redominantly agrarian households living around the communal
razing area in surrounding villages – and the Mbororo, who settled
n the community grazing area over 30 years ago and are mostly
astoralists. This has occasionally led to conrontations between the
wo groups as a result o destruction o crops by cattle belonging to
he Mbororo, or encroachment on grazing land by armers in search
additional land or cultivation.
he Itoh community was the setting or a creative initiative thatought to reduce this conict and alleviate the livelihood constraints
mposed by the ban on land use within the orest reserve. Central to
his was improving the efciency o the use o the limited resources
vailable in the grazing area and in the surrounding villages through
he integration o crops and livestock, maximising the productivity
both livelihood activities.
Rotational grazing and ‘living ences’
With assistance rom national and international partners, the g
established a ‘living ence’ around its communal grazing
improved the diet o livestock by planting high-nutrition gra
and adopted a rotational grazing system to allow the recovery o
pasture area. Initiative members also planted some 30,000 tre
and around the site. These trees have served various purposes o
Itoh community: they have medicinal properties, have served as
or bee hives, and provide vegetative cover or a water catchm
area. A central eature o the initiative was the establishment
permanent water source or livestock. The decision to inst
separate water source or access by the village, providing the
clean water supply to the school, health centre and market, pro
to be a crucial side-benet that convinced community membesupport the initiative.
In general, strategies or improved resource management
raised livestock-related income by increasing the amoun
available livestock orage, improved protection o adjacent
and watershed areas, and greatly reduced conicts betw
pastoralists and armers.
Background and Context
Prunus aricana, an Aromontane tree species used by Fulani herders or it
medicinal properties, among other uses. Photo: Charles Rakotovao
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Key Activities and Innovationshe project involved a variety o national and international experts
who advised community members on improved practices, ocussing
on maximising eective land-use in and around the common grazing
rea. Researchers rom the Institute o Agricultural Research or
Development (IRAD), a Cameroon state research organization under
he authority o the Ministry o Scientic Research and Innovation,
dvised on modern livestock production, tree nursery techniques,
ence construction, pasture improvement, and the management
nd use o medicinal plants in the treatment o livestock diseases.
he ‘living ence’ was planted to prevent livestock rom straying onto
eighbouring arms and to guard against agricultural encroachment
on grazing pasture. The grazing land was subsequently divided into
paddocks or cattle, goats and sheep, to enable animal grazing in
otation. Improved orage species were also introduced along with
vestock production inrastructure (including a cattle dip) while
water supply systems were constructed or use by human and
vestock populations.
Making the most o medicinal plants
Among the multi-purpose tree species planted were the Aromontane
ardwood pygeum (Prunus aricana). This multi-aceted species is
raditionally used in north-west Cameroon as uel wood, charcoal, or
poles, hoe and axe handles, in honey production, protecting water
atchments, or marking boundaries, and especially or its medicinal
properties or both humans and animals. It can be powdered into a
ea or genito-urinary issues, allergies, inammation, kidney disease,
malaria, stomach ache, ever, chest pain, and heart burn. It also has
alue on international medicinal markets, and its harvest is careully
egulated within Cameroon. Its bark can be locally harvested andold in small quantities, however, providing arming households with
n additional source o potential revenue. Other tree species planted
ncluded calliandra, erythrina, gmelina, acacia, and leucaena.
Capacity building in veterinary medicine & disease con
International partners to the project provided urther training
capacity building. Sta rom the United Nations Developm
Programme/Arica 2000 Network in Cameroon supervised pr
activities and gave trainings in group and arm management.
institution was also responsible or identiying and coordina
external expertise that contributed to the project, included tra
in ethnoveterinary medicinal practices. These practices have pr
immensely successul in the Northwest Province o Cameroon, w
Fulani herders manage more than 400,000 head o cattle. In re
decades, the evolution o the Fulani rom nomadic to semi-nom
and transhumant livestock owners has created signicant challe
or controlling outbreaks o livestock diseases. The introductio
orthodox veterinary medicine during the 1940s ailed to reach s
remote areas, while causing knowledge o ethnoveterinary prac
to be lost. Since the late 1980s, Heier International/CameEthnovet Project has helped to reintroduce many o these prac
including the use o medicinal plants to treat livestock.
These activities yielded remarkable results. Among the
signicant impacts was a reduction in the destruction o
by cattle and the encroachment o crop armers onto gra
land by almost 100 per cent. Other short-term gains include
improvement in cattle eeding through the use o improved o
species (such as Brachiariagrasses,Stylosanthes, andTripsacum la
or Guatemala grass) and pastures; a reduction in land degrada
and overgrazing through rotational grazing methods; the prov
o potable water to the livestock and human populations in
around the grazing area, reducing the transmission o water-bdiseases rom livestock to humans; the protection o the water
within a 150-metre radius o the orest; the reduction o tick-b
diseases among livestock populations; and an improvement in
social relations between the two ethnic groups, who have
brought together in common cause.
Mbingo Ridge, Bamenda Highlands. Photo: www.aricanadvance.org
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ImpactsBIODIVERSITY IMPACTS
The 140-ha Itoh grazing area was previously devoid o trees. Planting
over 30,000 multi-purpose trees changed the biophysical appear-
nce o the land, creating a wooded ecosystem. The trees provide
hade to livestock, and serve as medicinal plants and odder. The tree
belt planted within a 150-metre radius o the water catchment area
has substantially improved protection o the watershed. Community
members have also witnessed an increase in the number o bee hives
n the area, thanks to the planting o trees like calliandra, leucaena
nd acacia. Strategies introduced or improved land management
have also been replicated in neighbouring communities, and by Itoh
group members in their own households.
mprovements in the pasture options or local herders have in turn
educed pressures on the Kilum orest reserve, allowing regenera-
ion o wooded land. The conservation o Cameroon’s montane or-est is o global importance as it constitutes one o over 40 endemic
bird areas in Arica identied in 2002 by Birdlie International, and
epresents the last hope or survival o several species unique to the
ecosystem. These include the endemic Bannerman’s Turaco (Tauraco
Bannermanni ) and Banded Wattle-Eye (Platysteira Laticincta).
SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS
The initiative has generated a variety o sources o income or its
beneciary community, diversiying the livelihoods o households
hat were previously over-reliant on agriculture or pastoralism or
ubsistence. For instance, the sale o orage seeds rom calliandrarees planted by the initiative provides the community with an
verage annual income o USD 500. Some o the trees used or ence
onstruction and paddock subdivision are medicinal, providing a
eserve source o income or community members. The trees also
erve as orage or livestock in the dry season when most o the
vegetation is dry and eed resources are scarce, while owering
ree stands planted in the grazing area have allowed armers to
upplement pastoralism incomes with the sale o honey, making
his a more viable livelihood activity by bringing bee hives closer to
arming households.
The group has been able to increase their stock o cattle and goat
with the savings rom the judicious management o project resourc-es provided by donors. The beneciary group harvests an average o
20 litres o milk rom their cattle herds, which is shared among them
or household consumption. Annually, an average o three cattle
nd ve goats are culled and sold, with the income shared equally
mong the community members to pay or children’s education.
The supply o clean drinking water has reduced water-borne diseases,
while medicinal plants harvested rom tree bark treat both livestock
nd human diseases. The improved availability o water has also had
he benet o demonstrating the value o ecosystem conservation to
local residents, enabling savings in medical expenses and heal
households.
Empowerment o women
The project’s gender dimension is reected by the membership o
group. One third o group members are emale – these women
part in all project activities. Improved water availability and red
distances or orage collection have particularly benetted
women. In a pioneering initiative promoted by the project, wo
are also beginning to be empowered to inherit livestock, de
local customs that traditionally dictated that livestock pass to
amily members. In addition, women members have benetted
training in all aspects o the project, including modern cattle-rea
techniques, tree nurseries and tree planting, ox arming, pa
improvement, and capacity-building project management skill
POLICY IMPACTS
In its range o benets or local people, the Itoh initiative has se
as a model or conict resolution and sustainable land managem
or pastoralism within the Northwest Province o Cameroon. Thi
long been a challenge or government authorities and NGOs w
ing or sustainable development in the region, who have oten
helpless to prevent the rapid deterioration o pasture areas du
overgrazing by growing cattle populations and overexploitatio
expanding human settlements.
The Itoh community has demonstrated that through the puo a common vision, conicts can be overcome by shared wor
mutual benets. In the case o this initiative, water turned out t
the key resource that brought peaceul co-existence between s
groups within the community.
The eort to protect the water source located within the grazin
serve against encroaching armland has changed the perceptio
the armers themselves who, at the outset o the project, perce
the livestock grazing land and the project as a threat to their
survival. The supply o PVC pipes to the community by the may
the Oku Rural Council to extend the water supply rom the pro
area to surrounding social structures – including primary sch
a health centre, and the village market – has helped the comnity to understand the importance o resource management
conservation.
In return, the project has received the support o traditional vi
authorities, who have promised to impose sanctions on those m
bers o the community who do not respect the protective meas
put in place in the grazing area, and specically in the water ca
ment area. Meanwhile the village population has continued plan
trees to protect the water source and reinorce encing around
grazing land, indicating a high level o local support or the initia
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Sustainability and ReplicationSUSTAINABILITY
Capacity building and personal empowerment
argeted capacity building o the beneciary population by the
roject’s national and international advisors has allowed the
eneciaries to master the various techniques necessary to sustain
he initiative. Evidence o this can be seen in the implementation o
cquired techniques and strategies in the households o individual
roup members. Training in ‘group dynamics’ has ocussed on
ood governance, participatory approaches to local development,
nd the transparent management o resources. The resulting high
evel o accountability and transparency has helped to strengthen
eneciaries’ individual commitment to the initiative. Group
members hold regular meeting to assess their activities and
laborate new work plans and strategies.
Social participation and the strengthening o social bonds
he initiative has led to the development o new social bonds within
he community, uniting two previously antagonistic social groups in
ommon interest. This prioritising o building the social abric has
lso illustrated the crucial importance o achieving high levels o
ocal ownership o community development initiatives.
Environmental and economic sustainability
Through the ongoing aorestation process, the initiative contrib
to the ecological sustainability o the Kilum Mountain orest res
and reduces degradation o the environment, while provi
substantial and sustainable sources o income or its benecia
The demonstration o the linkages between these benets has
undamental to the sustainability o both.
PARTNERS
The initiative has been able to successully mobilize a div
range o technical, nancial, and material contributions
its participating institutions, demonstrating the importanc
diversiying partnerships or delivering in dierent areas o expe
and comparative advantage.
• The European Union: The EU provided USD 45,000 or the
project activities o the Itoh initiative. These unds were use
purchase materials and equipment such as barbed wire or
construction and arming tools, as well as paying or specia
labor or capacity building trainings.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/Arica
Network - Cameroon: This national network o developm
proessionals supervised project activities and prov
technical assistance through capacity building o the bene
population in project management and group dynamics.
institution was also responsible or recruiting necessary extexpertise to strengthen the capacity o the beneciarie
various technical aspects o the project, coordinating a port
o nancial and technical assistance.
• Institute o Agricultural Research or Development (IR
This Cameroon-based institute supplied technical assist
in modern livestock production techniques, tree nu
techniques, ence construction, pasture improvement and
management and use o medicinal plants in the treatme
livestock diseases. Thanks to the training provided by t
experts, group members are currently able to implement t
practices without external assistance.
• The Ministry o Livestock: Sta rom the zoological, tech
and veterinary centre have assisted the group in contro
livestock diseases and have provided training in basic veter
care.
annerman’s Turaco (Tauraco Bannermanni), endemic to the Bamenda High-
ands. Photo: Roger Fotso/BirdLie
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onnecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better lie.
The Equator Initiative brings together the United Nations, governments, civil society, businesses and grassroots organizati
o recognize and advance local sustainable development solutions or people, nature and resilient communities.
©2012 by Equator Initiative
All rights reserved
FURTHER REFERENCE
BirdLie International (2008) Community conservation action is showing success on Mount Oku, Cameroon. Presented as part o
BirdLie State o the World’s Birds website. [Online at: http://www.birdlie.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/253Accessed 22-05-2012