Red Data Book & Teachers' Guide, Cameroon

In April 2011, the 'Red Data Book of the Flowering Plants of Cameroon: IUCN Global Assessments' and 'Red Data Plants Species in Cameroon: A Guide for Secondary School Teachers' were launched in Cameroon. 

Publications from the 'Red List Plants of Cameroon' project.

This is tropical Africa's first Red Data book for plants.  Cameroon contains tropical Africa's most species-diverse hotspots for plants; many are rare and threatened with extinction.  In this book 815 species are documented as being threatened using IUCN global assessments, most being assessed for the first time.  Since numerous species occur beyond Cameroon the new assessments are also relevant to Nigeria and Gabon, and as far west as Guinea and east to Congo and Rwanda-Burundi.  Short species descriptions to aid identification in the field, and notes on habitats and threats are given, together with distribution maps and management suggestions to assist better conservation.

This book results from screening all 7850 accepted vascular plant species of Cameroon.  Clusters of threatened species are classified as macro-, meso-, and micro-hotspots and mapped, as a national planning tool, so that future development activity can avoid these concentrations.  New protected areas have been proposed based on macro-hotspots that have no protection currently.

The book was launched in Yaoundé in early April 2011 with representatives of all key Cameroon Government ministries and with local conservation NGOs.

A Guide for Secondary School Teachers on the Red Data Plant Species of Cameroon was launched with the Red Data book from which it was distilled.  Its purpose is to make the information in the Red Data book more widely available, specifically to future generations of school children in Cameroon.  It is being disemminated to schools by FCTV who are also seeking to introduce it into the National Curriculum of Cameroon.

Other printed outputs from the Darwin Initiative supported 'Red List Plants of Cameroon' project (2006-2011) were the Vascular Plants of Cameroon (Onana 2011), three new Checklists for proposed protected areas in different Regions (Lebialem Highlands (2010); Mefou (2011); Dom, Bamenda Highlands (2010) and a new volume (38) for Flore du Cameroun (Eriocaulaceae) (2011).

Project Outputs:

Cheek, M., Harvey, Y. & Onana, J.-M. (2010).  The Plants of Dom, Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist.  Pp 162.  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Cheek, M., Harvey, Y. & Onana, J.-M. (2011).  The Plants of Mefou proposed National Park, Yaoundé, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist.  Pp. 252.  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Cheek, M. & Onana, J.-M. (2011).  Espéces Végétales de la Liste Rouge Du Cameroun: Un Guide pour les Enseignants des Écoles Secondaires.  FCTV (Fondation Camerounaise de la Terre Vivante), Cameroon.

Cheek, M. & Onana, J.-M. (2011).  Red Data Plant Species in Cameroon: A Guide for Secondary School Teachers.  Pp. 15.   FCTV (Fondation Camerounaise de la Terre Vivante), Cameroon.

Harvey, Y., Tchiengué, B. & Cheek, M. (2010).  The plants of Lebialem Highlands, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist.  Pp 170.  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Onana, J.-M. (2011).  The Vascular Plants of Cameroon: A Taxonomic Checklist with IUCN Assessments.  Pp. 195.  National Herbarium of Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroun.

Onana, J.-M. & Cheek, M. (2011).  The Red Data Book of the Flowering Plants of Cameroon: IUCN Global Assessments.  Pp. 578.  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.