The Campo Ma’an National Park was created in 2001 as a compensatory mechanism of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project’s Environmental Compensation Plan.
Located in the South of Cameroon, near the Atlantic Ocean, the Campo Ma’an National Park covers 264,064 hectares. It features two main types of relief: mountains and plateaus cover the northern part and hills and small valleys cover the southern part. The overall altitude is less than 200 m. The Park features the evergreen Guineo-Congolese rain forest, which is green all year round. It is accepted that this area was home of Central African species during the last Quaternary glaciation. This contributed to its great fauna and flora diversity. In fact, the species inventories carried out to date give the following indications: 1,500 plant species (114 endemic), 80 large and medium mammal species, 390 invertebrate species, 249 fish species, 112 reptile species, 80 amphibian species, and 302 bird species. With this large number of birds species, this area is classified by Birdlife International as “Area of importance for bird conservation.”Among the mammals species of the Park, some species are of great importance and are sometimes considered as threatened; 23 species are on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, such as the giant pangolin (Mains gigantean), the African elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), the lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), the buffalo (Synerus caffer nanus), the panther (Panthera pardus), and the mandrill (Madrillus sphinx).
The Park also features the beaches of Ebodje and Campo, which are home for marine turtles. Marine turtles encounter nesting areas that satisfy their egg-laying needs.
FEDEC’s activities in Campo Ma’an National Park aim to provide long-term financial support for the maintenance and enhancement of biodiversity. To achieve this objective, FEDEC works in partnership with African Wildlife Foundation, which is FEDEC’s executing agency for five main programs:
- Protection and land-use planning of the Park
- Fight against poaching
- Monitoring and research the dynamics of important wildlife species
- Ecological and socio-economic monitoring and research
- Ecotourism development