In the heart of northwestern Cameroon, bees are beginning to bring hope to local communities.
The air is abuzz with them as our organization, Support Humanity Cameroon (SUHUCAM), has been helping implement beekeeping, tree planting and other sustainable means of livelihood across the region.
Beekeeping symbolizes more than honey production. It is a means for grassroots livelihoods, which is especially important in Cameroon due to the challenging economic situation, with 55 percent of the population living under the poverty line.
Land degradation and climate change make these economic issues worse, especially for women in the Mbororo community.
SUHUCAM is an organization focused on building inclusive, self-sufficient and sustainable communities and a world where people live happily in harmony with one another and with nature. They inspire local action to restore local ecosystems and conserve biodiversity. Most importantly they do this while empowering local livelihoods to enact widespread change.
The creation of SUHUCAM and the GLFx Yaoundé chapter
SUHUCAM was founded in 2018 as a development and environmental organization. Our vision is to build inclusive, self-sufficient and sustainable communities and build a world where people live in harmony with one another and with nature.
We were selected in December 2021 to host the GLFx Yaoundé chapter. It is currently operating in two Regions in the Northwest and Central Regions of Cameroon, but its flagship restoration project, the Bamunkumbit Integrated Community Forest (BICFOR), is located in the Ngoketunjia Division in the Bamenda ecological highlands of Northwest Cameroon.
The BICFOR restoration initiative was launched in 2019 to restore the ecosystem and biodiversity functions of the degraded remnant montane forest of Bamunkumbit while enhancing the livelihoods of the local and Indigenous populations in adjacent communities.
Our restoration activities include tree planting, promoting natural regeneration, sustainable agriculture, alternative livelihoods support, capacity building and policy advocacy.
So far, SUHUCAM has planted over 25,000 trees. Not only does this help reforest the region, but it also helps provide alternative livelihoods because many of the species they plant include kola nuts, avocados and oranges, which have high economic value. SUHUCAM has distributed these trees to over 500 smallholder farmers.
Pairing sustainability with livelihood opportunities
The BICFOR restoration initiative is fully backed by the community. We have had over 300 community volunteers supporting the restoration initiative with 16 of them serving as permanent field volunteers.
When we launched the initiative, we primarily focused on tree planting. Two years later, we realized that the local population was losing interest in the restoration activities and the number of community volunteers supporting our work drastically reduced.
They needed an activity to alleviate poverty and create economic opportunities within their communities. After organizing a series of sensitization and consultative meetings with local stakeholders, we initiated alternative livelihood activities to address economic and social demands, strengthening resilience and enhancing adaptive capacities to climate change impacts.
We initially worked with 30 Indigenous Mbororo women. Women are the most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. Aside from being a minority group in Cameroon, they also depend entirely on natural resources for their livelihoods, living on hilltops with little access to basic facilities like education, health and potable water.
Before our intervention, these women were not involved in any form of economic activity and had no voice in decision making in their communities. Only two of the 30 women had received any formal education.
Supporting Mbororo women
In 2023, we scaled the number of beneficiaries to 65 women from 65 households. We organized training workshops on organic vegetable cultivation, entrepreneurship, basic marketing and bookkeeping and donated farm inputs like hoes, cutlasses, wheelbarrows, sprayers and protective shoes and clothing.
We set up a demonstration farm and engaged the beneficiaries in cultivating organic vegetables like carrots, huckleberry, cabbage and onion.
To ensure the sustainable and continuous self-determination of Mbororo women, we founded the Ma’ate Mbororo Women Common Initiative Group (MAMWO-CIG), the first formal grouping of women in the targeted communities of Awing, Bamunkumbit and Balikumbat.
At the end of 2022, Jenabou Issah, the secretary of the MAMWO-CIG, expressed gratitude, explaining that the farms had been very beneficial to them. She used some of the vegetables to feed her family and sold the rest.
In 2023, Mariama Isah, a member of the Awing community we work with, used the proceeds to venture into sheep farming. Today, she has three sheep.
“This year, I only cultivated cabbage and onion because there is a bigger market,” she says. “I made some profit, which I used to buy a sheep. I will continue using my profits to buy more sheep because they are easy to keep.”
Beekeeping brings hope to many
In 2023, we launched beekeeping activities primarily as an income-generating activity for the 16 volunteers supporting our restoration initiative.
This year, through the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) funded project titled: “Tree Planting and Livelihood Development to Restore and Manage Ecosystem Services in the Fragile Ecological Landscape of Bamunkumbit,” we have provided training and donated beekeeping materials to 30 women and young people from pastoralist and farming communities.
The objective of this activity is to help local communities earn a sustainable income that also benefits their natural environments. We also intend through this activity to incentivize and engage pastoralists and smallholder farmers in land restoration and environmental protection. So far, we have donated beehives, bee suits and smokers to three restoration groups.
Participants were thrilled with the new skills and tools. Local bee farmer Ache Ernest, who had previously struggled with poor yields and unsafe methods, expressed his excitement: “Every year, I could harvest like 20 liters of honey. I sell a liter at XAF 2500 (USD 4.16). This was not enough to take care of my financial needs. I am very happy with this opportunity. I am going to engage more in beekeeping so that I can raise money and go back to school.”
Another farmer, Alot Christopher, shared similar enthusiasm: “I am very happy and grateful for these donations. With the bee suits and beehives, I will now harvest honey at any time of the day. I will also be able to monitor to know when my honey is ready for harvesting.”
Promoting agroforestry
We have also promoted climate-smart agricultural practices like agroforestry and provided capacity building. So far, over 500 farmers are integrating agroforestry practices in their farming systems with trees donated by SUHUCAM/GLFx Yaoundé.
We have conducted training on the “Plants issues des fragment” (PIF) technique, an innovative approach for banana and plantain suckers multiplication through vegetative techniques. This will enable restoration groups to establish commercial nurseries with a focus on banana and plantain suckers to enhance food security in the Northwest Region.
Plantains and bananas are widely consumed and commercialized in these communities, but production has declined drastically due to disease, soil degradation and the climate crisis.
To ensure that we amplify the voices of grassroots actors, we have grouped beneficiaries into three restoration groups: the Mbuanumbua Common Initiative Group, the Mayo Ma’ate Common Initiative Group and the Anushini Common Initiative Group.
In total, four restoration groups have been created, and all are now fully operational.
Looking ahead
The long-term goal of these groups is to inspire grassroots restoration stewardship in the Bamenda Ecological Highland Area, create a beekeeping cooperative, and train members in bee product processing, packaging and marketing to access a larger market.
We are also excited to create more opportunities in sustainable agriculture and the sustainable management of non-timber forest products.
Through our initiatives, we enhance food security, reduce extreme poverty and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities. We help foster collaboration between pastoralists and smallholder farmers to mitigate conflicts between farmers and wildlife, boost the bee population and help reforest the region.
We are committed to a greener, brighter future.
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