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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 2
From this report, (WWF 2004), a data base on wetlands based on a global wetland area estimate of 12.8 million km2 revealed a global annual economic value worth US$ 70 billion. This value is declining with the ever increasing human pressure on world wetlands and justifies the fact that since the 1900s, more than 50% of world wetlands have been lost to other uses like agriculture and/or infrastructural development.
Cameroon, like many other countries in the Inter-tropical zone, is home to a number of significant wetlands. Some important wetland sites in Cameroon are found in the North (in parts of lake Chad and the Waza logone floodplain) and dams like the Songloulou, Maga, etc; in the Littoral zone (Limbe and Wouri estuaries, Bakassi and Rio del Rey Creeks and marine waters up to 6m deep along the gulf of Guinea); in the western highlands (Ndop flood plain in land fresh water wetlands, the Bamendjim dam, the Mape dam, Menchum river basin, Mboh and Santchou Floodplains and crater lakes like the lake Oku, Awing, Wum and Barombi); and in the south, they exist around the forested swamps (Forpah C.N. 2004).
Wetlands of Ndop Cetral Subdivision (NCSD) are found within the Ndop flood plain. This floodplain is estimated to have an area of 4000km2 and directly sustains a population of 200,000 inhabitants of whom 70% are involved in activities like agriculture, fishing, grazing, hunting and gathering (Forpah C.N.2004). Ndop Cetral Subdivision comprises of four villages which are all constituted of wetlands. This area is also made up of two main wetland types based on Ramsar classification criteria. These are the fresh water wetlands; characteristic of the flood plains and the man made wetland type (principally the Bamendjin reservoir). The existence of these wetlands has led to the practice of several activities which range from agriculture, fishing, grazing, wine tapping, hunting and gathering, irrigation, fibre extraction etc. The increase of such anthropogenic activities has however led to the loss and degradation of wetlands from this area.
1.2. Spatio-Temporal delimitation and justification of theme
As seen on figure 1, Ndop Central Subdivision is located between latitude 5°37’N to 6°14’N of the equator and between longitude 10°23’E to 10°33’E of the Greenwich Meridian. This region is found in the North West province of Cameroon and precisely within the Ngoketunjia Division, where it is bordered to the North by Babessi sub division, to the south by Balikumbat subdivision, to the west by Tubah subdivision and to the east by Bangorain subdivision in the west province.
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