Found in the Meme Division, Southwest Province, Cameroon, the forest is about 1900 hectares. Poor and uncoordinated land use activities have recently resulted in mass destruction of the reserve's resources. All efforts by the government to protect the reserve have failed. The encroachment caused the destruction of fifty percent of the reserve's natural vegetative cover. In the communities surrounding the reserve, ninety-five percent of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture.
Crop yields are generally low and, consequently, so are the residents' incomes.
As may be expected, severe poverty is rampant in these rural communities. To improve their standard of living, residents employ other income producing activities such as logging, non-timber forest products and hunting. Recent declines in the prices of cash crops on the world market have forced residents to intensify these environmentally detrimental activities. These communities desperately seek a better way of life. In other words, they greatly need development.