Rescue Orphaned Primates

Your support is making a difference for wild forests and primates!   With help from generous donors like you and a grant from Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, PASA is providing funding for sanctuary educators to conduct meetings with local communities to share knowledge on the value of protecting local wildlife, and to resolve issues that threaten wild primates and their habitats.

We recently received a report back from Limbe Wildlife Center (LWC) in Southwest Cameroon that I want to share with you. PASA funding and training enabled LWC to hold two community meetings this summer, and to evaluate the community work done over the past several years with the Batoke Village in the buffer zone of Mount Cameroon National Park. The National Park was created in 2010 with agreement from surrounding village leaders, but its wildlife continues to suffer from widespread traditional hunting.  LWC has been working with hunters to develop alternative livelihood opportunities that will protect Park wildlife. The most successful project is training 30 ex-hunters to sustainably harvest plants in the forest.  These plants are sold to LWC to help feed the sanctuary animals rescued from bushmeat hunting, the illegal pet trade and habitat destruction.  The project has just been expanded to provide 8 women and their families with an alternative to selling bushmeat. The women sustainably harvest green leafy vegetables, a free activity that has minimal environmental impact. These vegetables are then purchased by LWC as food for the rescued animals at the sanctuary.

PASA funding also gave LWC an opportunity to bring community project members to visit the animals at the LWC sanctuary. This was an extremely successful program. Most of the people had never seen these animals alive before (except the ex-hunters), and the opportunity to witness the animals’ beauty and remarkable behaviors fostered compassion and pride for local wildlife.  Sanctuary Manager Ainare Idoiaga reports, “During their visit to LWC, one community member, Jacob, took his 3-year old son around the sanctuary multiple times in order to show him the special animals of Cameroon. He took the time to tell his son about every species, and explained to him that all of these animals belong in the forest. This passing of information to future generations makes it clear that Jacob truly understands the importance of the forest and its wildlife and is concerned about conserving Cameroon’s natural heritage for future generations.”

Thank you for your generous support, which will enable PASA to provide training, materials and funding for more community programs like these!

• Mt Cameroon Community Meetings (PDF)
  
• Primate trading cards created for local educators (PDF)