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Theme: THE DEGRADATION OF WETLANDS AND ITS SOCIO ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS IN NDOP CENTRAL SUBDIVISION, NORTH WEST PROVINCE CAMEROON

Page 56

little left of their initial appearance. Tables 6, 7 and 8 show the evolution of surfaces occupied by farmlands.
From these tables, it is observed that the tendency is towards an increase. From 1963 with a farmland area estimated at 11.14 Km2, this figure attained about 66.93 km2 by 2002. Bearing in mind that the fact that over 80% of the population of Ndop Central Subdivision are farmers who solely or partially depend on agriculture for subsistence, it is possible that in the years to come no unoccupied wetland area in this subdivision would not have been occupied by farms. Based on this hypothesis, projections on the evolution of farmland surfaces were obtained and presented as seen on table 16.
Table 16: Projected evolution of farmlands into wetlands.

                  Source: projected from table 7 with 1.43km2/year rate (2.56%)

From table 16, it can be seen that, given the same period of analysis in this study (.i.e. 39 years), farmlands would have attained up 112.7 km2. Based on the fact that wetlands originally occupied 315.54 km2 in 1963, it logical to believe that by 2040 when farmlands could have increased to 112.7 km2, there will be virtually no wetland area that has not been transformed to farmland or rice fields.
Photo 7 shows wetlands that have been transformed to farmlands and are usually cultivated with crops like maize; cocoyams, groundnuts, beans, vegetables, yams, potatoes, pumpkins etc. These crops are cultivated in a similarly alternate manner on the farms, which are never let to fallow; hence the regeneration of the natural values and functions of wetlands are almost impossible.
 

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