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

through its treaty provided the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. There are presently 154 contracting parties to the convention and 1651 wetland sites, totalling 149.7 million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance.
With the collaboration of several actors like: the Water Task Group (WTG), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), WWF, Mission d’etude et d’Amenagement de la Vallée Superieure de la Benoué (MEAVB) in Garoua, The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER), the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), and local NGOs, the Cameroon government has become actively involved in the struggle towards wetland protection. Cameroon ratified the Ramsar Convention on wetlands on 20/07/2006 and has become an active member. Albeit these concerns, it would appear actions against wetland loss in Cameroon are an anachronism in a time when the economic crises, poised by an ever-increasing and wanting population have led to the installation of permanent human groups on wetland sites over which talking about wetland conservation is out of place.

1.4.1: WETLAND DEGRADATION

The loss and degradation of wetlands are two concepts which have been extensively addressed by researchers in different parts of the world .In Cameroon, the utilisation and transformation of lakes in Yaounde was studied by Egbe, (1978).He identified the various lakes in Yaounde and brought out the negative role the introduction of new fish species had on the existing natural ecosystem. His studies also addressed wetland degradation in areas in which artificial lakes were created during the 1950s by French colonial authorities. In the same line, the S.E.D.A,(1973) and Ngwa, (1979) in researching on swamp rice production in the North West Province, looked at the role innovation diffusion (mechanised rice cultivation) had on the milieu of the Ndop flood plain. The studies of the former revealed that the UNVDA had a target of transforming 3000 ha of wetlands into rice fields over a given period of time. It is evident in a U.N.V.D.A,(1991) report that these transformations had been carried out.

Other authors like Vlaar.J.C. et al (1990), underscore the fact that wetlands had no value and needed to be transformed to render them useful. In this study, several early definitions of wetlands were made by Rannet, (1985) and Berton, (1988). However the key