Limbe Botanic Gardens, Cameroon: Search and Rescue of the Threatened Species of Mount Cameroon

RBG Kew with Limbe Botanic Gardens, Cameroon, seek the means to rescue some of the threatened endemic forest species found on Mount Cameroon.

The Omphalocarpum drive, Limbe Botanic Gardens, March 2006 (Yvette Harvey)

Kew successfully proposed to ODA (now DFID) that Limbe Botanic Garden (LBG) be renovated and used as the base for what became the Mount Cameroon Project (1990-2003).  LBG soon became the best known and most visited Botanic Garden in West-Central Africa.  Less well known is that it also has an excellent herbarium and library for the identification of the plants of the Mt Cameroon area which contends as Tropical Africa’s most species diverse area for plants, many unique to the area.  With the withdrawal of DFID funding in 2003, LBG’s conservator has successfully lobbied the Ministry of Forests for funds and in the last period, Kew has donated essential materials and equipment, and supported training and study visits to Kew by LBG staff, while supporting grant applications.

Going forward the objective is to maintain these efforts and to seek the means to rescue more of the endemic forest species around the mountain that are threatened by increasing clearance for plantations, timber, market gardening, tourism and oil exploration.  Limbe Botanic Garden has the capacity and has begun to safeguard and propagate such species for reintroduction to safe sites, and to educate the visiting public and school groups.  More resources are being sought to continue this work.