The project has the full permission and cooperation of the Cameroon government and is overseen by an Intraministrial Committee for Research on A. korupensis. Working in collaboration with the government of the source country is valuable because at present few legal regulations address bioprospecting of plants for non-timber use in Cameroon. International NGOs can show the way to sustainable forest management. Field work started in 1986, and this complex project is designed to protect and manage the Korup National Park. WWF aims to integrate it into the local economy and regional developments plans.
Wild animals depend on the shrinking forests for habitat.
Wildlife management can include sustainable land use and conservation in the region. In East and Southern Africa, tourism centered on wildlife viewing contributes in a major way to national economies, through foreign exchange and employment. In much of West Africa, wildlife in the form of bushmeat provides an important protein supply in the local diet, but in recent years the bushmeat trade has been highly commercialized. Recent studies by the FAO and others have indicated that much of the bushmeat trade is unsustainable. At a 1999 forest summit in Cameroon, five African heads of state signed the Yaounde Declaration pledging to protect vast tracts of forest in the Congo Basin, Central Africa - the second largest tropical forest in the world.