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. 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. At that summit the WWF warned that high prices for bushmeat, ivory and animal skins fuel the illegal trade in endangered species, and animals are now being over-hunted and then sold locally and around the world. Today, you can find bushmeat on the menu in Cameroon and the Congo and as far afield as Paris and Brussels.