Local fishermen have become allies in the fight against an invasive plant that affects fish and manatees.
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Saving the mysterious African manatee in Cameroon's hotspot
by Léa NKAMLEUN FOSSO
Since he first spotted the African manatee, award-winning marine biologist Aristide Takoukam Kamla has dedicated himself to protecting these little-known and endangered aquatic mammals.
African manatees are found in freshwater along the coast of West Africa, such as in Cameroon's vast Lake Ossa, where the researcher first saw them more than 10 years ago.
But they are shy creatures - to spot them, you have to go out before dawn, when the lake is glassy and still, which is even better for following the trails of bubbles and maybe, just maybe, catching two large nostrils breathing rapidly.
“I was expecting to see them like on YouTube: in clear water, jumping like dolphins... a completely surreal idea,” stemming from publications about manatees in Florida, recalled the 39-year-old Cameroonian, smiling.
His African cousins, however, are very different, and the then-apprentice researcher at the University of Dschang had to paddle for a long time before being rewarded.
Thanks to local fishermen, Takoukam Kamla has now learned to identify African manatees more easily in the dark depths of the 4,500-hectare (11,000-acre) Lake Ossa, which is part of a large wildlife reserve in southwest Cameroon.
They are his “favorite animal,” the subject of his PhD at the University of Florida - and the reason he won this year's prestigious Whitley Award, which recognizes innovative biodiversity work by grassroots conservationists.
Threatened habitat, illegal hunting
American scientist Sarah Farinelli was moved to tears after seeing five African manatees, including a female with her baby while walking around the lake with Takoukam Kamla.
“It's huge! There are certain places in Africa where it's impossible to see them,” said Farinelli, who is 30 and studies marine mammals in Nigeria.
Researchers still have many questions about Trichechus senegalensis: how many there are in Cameroon, how long they live, and when and where they migrate.
African manatees are found between Mauritania and Angola, but “it is a very poorly studied species, around which many mysteries remain,” said Takoukam Kamla.
Sometimes known as the sea cow, the large marine herbivore is listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list.
But the Cameroonian scientist believes that this is “an underestimation of the real status of this species, which is subject to poaching” and whose habitat is “constantly in danger.”
Takoukam Kamla created the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization, which has five laboratories, including in the fishing village of Dizangue, on the shores of the lake.
On Lake Ossa, the animal's only predators are humans - just a few years ago, manatees were still served in the village restaurant.
Today, manatee hunting is banned, and the dish has disappeared from menus. A blue statue of a manatee has even been erected in its honor.
But the threats continue.
Takoukam Kamla, standing on the shores of the lake, points to an artisanal palm oil refinery whose waste is dumped into the water.
Another threat is the positioning of a net along the lake to maximize catches, as it could “trap a small manatee in its mesh,” he complained, getting into a heated argument with a fisherman in his dugout canoe.
“We're Indigenous, we live off it, and we've never had to suffer prohibitions at home,” grumbled the man bitterly.
“If you want to impose bans on us, you'll have to pay us every month.”
Biological combat
Relations between scientists and local communities, whose fishing traditions have been passed down from generation to generation, are complicated.
But an environmental threat that emerged three years ago has brought the two worlds together.
Half of the lake's surface was covered by the invasive giant salvinia - Salvinia molesta - a floating plant that made the lake uninhabitable for both fish and manatees.
To combat it, the scientists used a microscopic insect that feeds exclusively on salvinia and enlisted the help of fishermen.
“They used to take the weevil-infested salvinia and put some all over the lake,” said AMMCO researcher Thierry Aviti.
Three years later, the menacing plant has all but disappeared.
“At a certain point, we were no longer able to deal with the situation,” but the promises were kept, said Dizangue fisherman Thierry Bossambo, marked by memories of long nights without fish.
The bridges built with the fishermen are something that Takoukam Kamla is keen to maintain in order to avoid “parachute science,” a term that refers to scientists leaving their academic ivory towers and arriving in local communities to carry out fieldwork.
And to combat possible poaching, he wants to develop ecotourism in the area.
It's a “priority,” agreed Gilbert Oum Ndjocka, curator of the nearby Douala-Edea National Park, who said that “all stakeholders are allies of conservation.”
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