Regeneration of forests and agroforestry farms
Global Hand Cameroon has been actively working with community members in the Bomboko village of Kotto II to develop their new plant nursery. This project is designed to provide an alternative income source to group members and ensure reliable access to affordable fruit, timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). The nursery will provide not only economic benefits, but also important environmental benefits to the area. Some of the trees that are grown in the nursery will be sold, while others will be used for watershed protection and reforestation projects in old cocoa farms and in Mount Cameroon National Park.
The nursery has the capacity to grow 21,000 seedlings, which will include mahogany, azobe (red ironwood tree), cedrela, bitter kola, bush mango (sweet and bitter), country onion, orange, lemon, grape, soursop, pear, plum and cocoa. The fruit trees will be vegetatively propagated in order to facilitate early production and diversify farmers’ incomes. The majority of the timber and NTFPs will be planted in the park, on farmlands, and along the park boundary.
To fully realize this project, nursery members are working hard to ensure that the project is well designed and well run. We have identified three committed nursery officers who are making every effort to mobilize, animate, coordinate and report developments of the nursery activity. At the moment, shade construction is 80% complete, over 19,285 seeds have been sown in the nursery bed, and 8,665 germinated seeds have been potted into polythene bags. We expect that by June 2025 the nursery will be able to supply over 20,000 young plants.
Planning the design of the new Kotto II tree nursery
