Balancing the Rights of Local Communities and the Creation of Protected Areas for the Conservation of Biodiversity Hotspots in Cameroon: Case Study of the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary

Abstract

Despite the significant contribution of protected areas in halting the degradation of natural resources

and conserving biodiversity in Central Africa‚ the proliferation of this mechanism, is also being

questioned by local communities who feel threatened with the dispossession of their lands by

governments in complicity with conservators and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Protected

areas have stirred up conflicts‚ with social and economic impacts that affect catchment communities

who rely on forest resources found within these areas‚ who have seen their livelihood opportunities

eroded. This article closely examines the implications of creating protected areas on the rights of local

communities in Cameroon‚ with a particular focus on the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary (THWS) in

the Wabane and Alou Sub-Division‚ in the South West Region of Cameroon. The article holds that

rather than promote communal land rights and participation in natural resource management‚ protected

areas for and conservation has strengthened state’s supremacy over local communities in the

management of natural resource.