gms | German Medical Science

Research questions: Humanity have interacted with wildlife time immemorial for many purposes leading to different outcomes around the globe. In Sub Saharan African countries like Cameroon, the Kedjom Keku community have been interacting with several wildlife species in the Abonphen community forest for some sociocultural practices but, the scientific debate on human-wildlife interaction has remained on human wildlife conflicts and disease spill over, limiting the scope of such interconnections. This study aims to answer questions such as:

1.

Which wildlife species have indigenous people of Kedjom Keku interacted with for what sociocultural purpose(s)?

2.

Does human-wildlife interaction spur conservation action and if so, what are the contributions of the local people to the conservation of wildlife and the Abongphen community forest?

3.

What are the challenges to indigenous contribution and conservation of the Abongphen community forest?

Method: Data was procured through a purposive survey of 50 households, 5 key informant and 2 expert interviews to understand the wildlife species indigenous people interact with for sociocultural practices, motivations, contributions and challenges to the conservation of wildlife and the Abonphen community forest. Data analysis and visualisation was done with the help of Microsoft Excel 2013 and qualitative content analysis as well as narratives.

Results: We found that the Kedjom Keku community link their existence to the Abongphen forest and interactions with wildlife are leveraged for some sociocultural practices like the use of Buffalo horns by notables to drink palm wine. This in part motivates the local people to contribute to forest conservation mainly through tree planting (60%) and participation in forest management activities (20%). Through interviews, we also found that the ongoing socio-political armed conflict greatly challenges conservation actions.

Discussion: Though the Kedjom Keku community interacted with wildlife, local actions towards the conservation of the Abongphen community forest were readily apparent but, not those towards wildlife. This could be explain by the fact that the community attaches greater sociocultural values to the forest such as linking their existence to that of the forest. This information is useful for targeted interventions addressing human wildlife interaction and forest conservation. However, whether human-wildlife interaction for sociocultural purposes is more or less susceptible to pathogen spill over does not lie in the ambits of the discussion in this paper but, we belief that a proper consideration of the diverse outcomes of human wildlife interactions is important for an improved and inclusive management approach especially regarding pathogen spill over.