Who we are The Centre for Nursery Development and Eru Propaga-tion (CENDEP) was created in 1999 as a farmer group and legalized as a Common Initiative Group (CIG) on the 19th July 2000. Her mission is to assist and/or train local people in the domestication, sustainable production and market-ing of Non Wood Forest Products (NWFPs) and agricul-tural products of economic importance and in the sustain-able management of natural resources”. CENDEP’s activities cover principally the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. In the NW Region our activities are aimed at addressing issues of climate change indirectly. This is through our Analogue Forestry program through which we are assisting local communities to estab-lish permanent forests to buffer extreme weather events and also to act as carbon sinks. The interest and participa-tion of the local population is driven by their assurance on the water supply services of permanent forests. In the SW Region our activities are centred on domestica-tion and development of the value chain for Eru. Eru is a perennial crop which starts to produce after 3-5 years, and then can be productive for 30-50 years. Value chain devel-opment activities are carried around the Mount Cameroon Region and in the buffer zone of the Korup National Park. Sustainable agriculture and environmental education ac-tivities are carried out in the two regions.

CENDEP Newsletter (CN)

CN is a bimonthly update of the field activities of CENDEP.

Editors

Wirsiy Eric Fondzenyuy (Knowledge Management Officer) Periementah Kutocheh Ndzemfemmegho(Forest and Nature Conservation Officer) Jelke Brandehoff (Intern, Hogeschool Zuyd, Maastricht School Of International Communication)

Contact:

CENDEP

Samco Quarter, Bonadikombo-Mile 4

P.O Box 742 Limbe, SW Region CAMEROON

Tel: +237 77 62 72 17 /+ 237 77 76 75 61 Email: cendep2001@yahoo.com; info@cendep.org Website: www.cendep.org

Editorial 3

The CENDEP-ICCO Part-nership: lessons and chal-lenges

4

Bafut Watershed Restora-tion & Protection

10

RISE-UP LAUNCHES ERU DOMESTICAITON IN NI-GERIA

11

Volunteering @ CENDEP 14

Internship @ CENDEP Forest House Commercials

16 17 18

Inside this issue:

Editorial

By the time we were distributing the February 2011 issue of this Newsletter, we received

news that ICCO, our principal donor was unable to continue supporting us as a result of

the installation of a right-wing government in The Netherlands recently. In this issue we

analyze our partnership and share with you the lessons learnt as well as the challenges

ahead of us. As a consequence, Forest House received firm instructions to step up sales

and contribute to CENDEP extension activities or risk losing access to high quality prod-

ucts (honey and eru) they have been associated with in the local market.

As a follow up to the visit of, Mr. Niyi Adegun, Vice chairperson of the Rural Infrastruc-

ture Services for Under-Served Population (RISE-UP) to CENDEP in 2009, our team of

eru domestication specialists conducted a training on eru domestication in the Boki local

government area of the Cross River State, of Nigeria from March 1, 2011 to March 22,

2011 . The three week training was supported by the United Nations Development Pro-

gram and conducted by CENDEP in collaboration with RISE-UP.

Despite the erratic nature of the rains, the farmers of Mughie , Akofugubah and

Adiemokong villages in the Bafut Fondom in the Northwest Region of Cameroon are pre-

paring for the massive planting of the trees they have been raising since October 2010.

This is through a Rufford Small Grants Foundation funded project to restore and protect

degraded water catchments in the Fondom using analog forestry techniques. The first

batch of 5000 trees is made up of 10 different species and shall be planted in May and

June 2011. This planting is expected to continue till August as more seedlings mature.

On internship, Max Frieda, a fourth year Political Science student at the University of Washington in Seattle arrived to do his internship with us. He has been exploring avail-able literature relevant to his work and visited small village communities around the Mount Cameroon National Park. Jelke Brandehof a student from the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences is making good progress with the development of the marketing communication plan for Forest House. She just submitted her interim report to her school supervisor. She is disappointed at ICCO being unable to continue supporting the work CENDEP and Forest House are doing and has been able to get her school authorities to support our work through a fundraising event to be organized by students. On volunteering, Mr. Bongaman Massimo Wongbi and Limshu Augustine Nyuydzela, narrate their experiences two months after they joined CENDEP. Youndjie Koleoko Gabriel

Chief Executive Director

The CENDEP-ICCO Partnership: lessons and challenges

On February 25, 2011 ICCO, one of our principal donors, announced their departure from

Cameroon and thus their inability to support our work. This was as a result of the decision of

the right-wing government that was installed in The Netherlands recently to cut down on

development aid and thus support to ICCO. ICCO was not allowed to scale down in a grad-

ual way and the decision took effect from January 1, 2011. It was the second time in 10 years

that CENDEP was losing a principal partner. As it was in 2002 when the Mount Cameroon

Project came to an end leading to an end of support from the DFID-Cameroon government

joint project, the ICCO departure signified the coming of a period of uncertainty considering

CENDEP’s inability in the past 10 years to get a strategic partner out of the Dutch Commu-

nity. The future of CENDEP as well as the people she works for became uncertain considering

CENDEP’s engagements.

ICCO and CENDEP started working together in 2006. The relationship ended in the course

of the consolidation of our partnership through the development of a five year program

within the framework of the Cameroon Sustainable Forest Management Program (CFSFMP)

whose implementation was already delayed. The CSFMP was a program of a coalition of

ICCO partners in Cameroon and CENDEP was a stakeholder in the coalition of Value Chain

Development.

ICCO was one of the partners with whom CENDEP has had long relations. The CENDEP-

ICCO partnership was a fruitful one with remarkable results in the development of the Eru

chain, considered as an interesting learning case for other partners in the Value Chain Coali-

tion in Cameroon. A business enterprise was created to process and market farmers produce.

The enterprise, though at its infancy, offers employment to six local people and 2000 small

scale farmers are able to find a market for their produce. It was thus, definitely, not the time

to kill the dream of Mr. Koleoko Gabriel and Chebo John, and other founding members of

CENDEP, who in the early 2000 made endless trips on foot to the Limbe Botanic Garden to

seek knowledge to overcome the challenges in domesticating Eru that has come to signify

CENDEP. We therefore resolved that no matter the circumstances, we would come out of

the uncertainty stronger than we were before! This resolution is being followed to the letter

by our committed team of students and volunteers.

2006-2010

The organizational scaling up of CENDEP initiated through the CENDEP-ICCO partnership

has to continue. This organizational scaling up refers to the process of strengthening CENDEP’s internal capacities, allowing her to take new responsibilities. CENDEP’s initial goal

was to scale up eru domestication by small scale farmers with

the aim of providing an alternative source of income. “Eru, is a

forest climbing plant and a very well liked ingredient in the dishes

prepared in Cameroon and Nigeria and for many African people

that have moved abroad.” CENDEP adopted two approaches

achieve this, namely conservation and value chain develop-

ment (new role). The conservation approach adopted was that of “Conservation through Cultivation”. The process

adopted to accomplish this was that of building the capacity of

the farmers on how to establish and manage their farms as well as how to sustainably manage the wild stocks of the vege-

table. The aim was to increase production beyond subsistence

levels so as to market surpluses. In terms of conservation, there has been success especially in ex-situ conservation through the

establishment of eru nurseries and pilot farms that now serve as sources of seed materials for

seedling production. The Key elements of the value chain approach were:

a. market analysis to see if increased production could be translated into financial and social gain. b. capacity building of farmers on eru domestication (training and follow up), c. farmer organization d. transformation and e. linking the farmers to interested buyers supplying the local and international markets

with the raw or transformed vegetable

ICCO ’ s ROLE IN THE SCALING UP OF CENDEP

Scaling up in CENDEP began in 2002 when CENDEP lost her then principal donor, the

Mount Cameroon Project. The organization was faced with the challenge of securing funding

to continue their extension activities. A decision was taken to admit new members who had

skills that did not exist in the organization such as fund raising through proposal writing.

There were quick results thanks to the input of Bothends, a Dutch NGO, that provided assis-

tance in proposal writing as well as introducing the group to sources of funding. For example

in 2004 CENDEP had a grant from the US embassy in Cameroon for the Construction of a

nursery for the multiplication and distribution of Eru seedlings in Bonadikombo village. This

happened almost simultaneously with an IUCN NL support of a project on the ex-situ culti-

vation of Eru in 2004-2005. In this period we were basically producing and distribution

seedlings and training farmers on how to establish and manage their farms.

The Eru plant

Our approach changed in 2006 following a visit from a staff member of ICCO Netherlands.

The visit took the staff member to former trainees of the organization especially those trained in the 2004/2005 period. In the follow up communication with ICCO, they noted

their concern on CENDEP’s capacity to accept new roles especially their market oriented ap-

proach which would later be transformed into value chain development. Rather than back out CENDEP opted to partner with local organizations with expertise in marketing issues like

ALISUD. ICCO played a significant role in building CENDEP staff capacity so that they would

handle new tasks related to their work. This was through training on value chain develop-ment, critique of annual/project reports and advice and coaching by consultants. Through

our expanding network we received coaching in business plan development especially from

the BiD Challenge network and ICCO consultants. This resulted in the development of a fundable business plan for the commercial component of CENDEP, which we expected

would be financed though in the 2011-2015 period through the Cameroon Sustainable Forest

Management Program. Growth challenges included the need to separate commercial and non commercial functions of the organization

Meeting with Joost Box: Debate that initiated the creation of “CENDEP

COMMERCIAL” now “Forest house”.

Forest House “In January 2007 ICCO effected a Value Chain Development mission to her partners in Cameroon and identified some of the activities of CENDEP as potential commercial activities. A recommendation was made for CENDEP to separate her commercial activities from the charitable ones. Efforts to separate the two components began in 2006 but were hampered by lack of start up funds and capacity to manage commercial activities. CENDEP commercial was created and continued to be run together with CENDEP.

The key economic activity carried out by CENDEP commercial was processing and marketing of eru. The initial intentions for processing and marketing, however, were to do a feasibility study and hand over these activities to a trained farmer organization. This was not achieved because of lack of capacity and limited means at the disposal of the farmers/farmer groups. This role was taken over by Forest House. The enterprise was created in June 2009 and le-galized in September 2009. The goal of the enterprise is to assembly, package and distribute organic food products and crafts starting with dry eru/eru seedlings and honey whose pro-duction CENDEP is promoting. Start up funds for Forest House were provided by ICCO through the Eru Chain Project contract with CENDEP. In addition to the material and finan-cial support Forest received technical capacity building from ICCO especially through coach-ing that permitted it to refine her business plan. This business plan was submitted for a competi-tive selection of development initiatives under “Business in Development (BiD)” and approved by the BiD Network Approval Committee for presentation to BiD Network's investors and funds.

This plan was modified to accommodate another non wood forest product, Savannah Honey, whose value chain CENDEP is promoting in the NW Region of Cameroon. The busi-ness plan is the basis of a 3-year subvention that Forest House requested from ICCO for the period 2011-2013. Forest House currently has four full time, one part time and two volun-teers and her activities are beneficial to over 1500 bee farmers and 500 Eru farmers. Through ICCO support Forest House has made significant progress in professionalizing its marketing operations. It has a well documented business plan, carries out advertisement of its products albeit on a small scale, in forums like trade fairs, agricultural shows, man to man contacts, radio and TV and placement of the product in supermarkets and general provision stores. It has identified the segments in its target markets and has developed its products for the different markets. At the production end, CENDEP has organized and trained bee and eru farmers and is still working to develop their capacities in bee farming. Forest House buys from these trained farmers and therefore can guarantee the quality of honey and eru it procures. On the other hand the farmers have a ready market for their product. Unfortunately this partnership is on the balance with the withdrawal of ICCO”

Up to 2007, CENDEP was comb-

ing commercial and charitable ac-

tivities, what was unacceptable to

some funders especially ICCO.

Through regular communication

and monitoring/support visits by

the donor/donor consultants

(2006/2007), the commercial ac-

tivities such as production and mar-

keting of eru seedlings, processing

and marketing of eru leaves were

identified and the institutional

structure of the organization re-

viewed to allow for the commercial activities to be handled by a separate legal entity. This

was so that development aid should not be used to distort an emerging commercial market.

In order to enable CENDEP to clearly define her role two staff from the organization were

trained on value chain development (2008 & 2009) and later received coaching to assist the

organization to meet her objectives (2009). This review permitted CENDEP to position her-

self as chain supporter (capacity building for small holder farmers) and not chain supporter

and actor at the same time.

ICCO considered the production and marketing of eru

seedlings as a commercial activity

Since 2006 ICCO was one of the key players that contributed in the development of

CENDEP. During this period the capacity of CENDEP staff has been built through a series of

trainings, workshops and coaching to enable CENDEP to address the needs of her target

population. During the same period CENDEP staff attended other short courses financed by

different donors such as IUCN NL that led to an overall improvement in the performance of

the organization. These included training on:

A. financial management for NGOs

B. grant management

C. analog forestry

D. carbon trade through the REDD+ mechanism

At the beginning CENDEP specialized in training farmers on eru domestication but over the

past ten years she has developed expertise in the following areas:

Analog forestry

Environmental Education

Sustainable agriculture and

Value chain development

Organizational scaling up is not without risks especially for organizations that depend on

funded projects. Trained staff some times leave the organization for various reasons creating

a vacuum, thus it is important to put in place a policy that allows for back up positions or

that motivates staff not to leave.

In order to succeed in scaling up other organizations elsewhere, mentors should develop cri-

teria on the types of organizations they want to scale up. Based on CENDEP’s experience

these criteria should include:

Practical knowledge in a specific field

Links with research/other institutions ready to provide proximity support

Groups of volunteers with limited means but with a skill and a zeal to contribute some-

thing for the welfare of humanity (CENDEP’s mission as detailed by the founders was

“help us to share with others”!)

Openness (willingness to admit new members to address challenges)

Results & Lessons learned from the partnership

Lessons learnt

Supporting young organizations to scale up

The mentor should then do needs assessment and proceed on a capacity building program as

well as advocating/lobbying for the group. Mentor should periodically evaluate to see if set

objectives are being met i.e. put in place a monitoring plan and communicate this to the partner. Departure should not be abrupt. We understand the disappointment of ICCO that

resulted from changes in their government policies.

When the partnership started ICCO doubted if the CENDEP had the capacity to take on new

tasks. This resulted in a capacity building plan for CENDEP. Our capacity to perform new

functions has gradually been built and is improving with time. The secret of growth of CENDEP lies in consistent donor support, vision of its founding members and motivation of

its team members. We are proud that at the end our case was considered an interesting

learning case for other organizations and that the partnership has enabled us to meet our ini-tial goal “Help us to help others!” The partnership resulted in improved manpower for CENDEP. We are able to pursue develop-

ment initiatives in the South West, North West & Eastern Regions of Cameroon. But the depar-

ture of ICCO will forever be a vacuum because of our small size and inability to compete with big conservation/development organizations like for example WWF, whose agenda some of the

time is research. The application of this research is often undertaken by the small Civil Society Or-ganizations like CENDEP through partnerships. Without ICCO and IUCN NL support the eru do-

mestication technology would have remained in shelves at the Limbe Botanic Garden where it was developed and the results we achieved would not have been talked of today.

The failure of ICCO to access adequate funds from the Dutch government will spell doom for

many small Civil Society Organizations in the south; and unfortunately this is happening when some donors are consolidating partnerships with their partners in the south in order to ensure

long term support for sustainable impacts.

Through organizational scaling up CENDEP has been able to put in place a social manufacturing

enterprise for the collection and marketing of non timber forest products whose production CENDEP is promoting using a value chain approach. Part of the proceeds of the enterprise is ex-

pected to be plowed back for conservation work in the local communities where the raw materi-als for the enterprise (honey and eru) come. Unfortunately ICCO is unable to support this initia-

tive. Despite our disappointment we greatly appreciate working with ICCO staff. They maintained simplicity and straightforwardness in their statements and have been sociable, interacting freely

with us during their stay in Cameroon. There never has been any “bossy” attitude from any of ICCO staff during their visits.

Adieu ICCO! Wirsiy Eric Fondzenyuy Knowledge Management Officer CENDEP.

Sustainability of the experience

Conclusions

Bafut Watershed Restoration & Protection

By Youndjie Koleoko Gabriel

Despite the erratic nature of the rains, the farmers of Mughie , Akofugubah and

Adiemokong villages in the Bafut Fondom in the NW Region of Cameroon are preparing

for the massive planting of the trees they have been raising since October 2010. This is

through a RSG funded project to restore and protect degraded water catchments in the

Fondom using analog forestry techniques. The first batch of 5000 trees is made up of 10

different species and shall be planted in May and June 2011. This planting is expected to

continue till August as more seedlings mature.

The delay in planting has been due to an extended dry season this year, which caused

problems in maintaining the nurseries. So in the last two months community members

have been working very hard to keep seedlings in the nurseries while at the same time,

sowing new seeds to replace those that were damaged or lost as a result of the

drought. With the arrival of the rains more private nurseries were established to enable

the community to meet her set target in tree planting. These farmers were supported with

seeds of different species, polythene bags as well as some technical advice. Farmers who

are not farming on the peripheral zones of the water catchments were supported with agro

-forestry species donated by the New Forests Project in Washington DC. These species

are expected to enrich the soil and provide fodder for cattle when they mature.

The major challenge the project is facing so far is the absence of an income generating

component. This was not included during the project design and we hope to be able to

do this in a follow up project as the current project will end in September 2011.

Despite the harsh weather conditions, a good number of seedlings survived and will be

planted, 3 farmers established private nurseries to produce seedlings for own use and sale

to the project, others took the initiative to collect close to 3000 Red mahogany seeds to

replace seeds that did not germinated in the community nursery.

The breakdown of our camera made it difficult for us to get pictures of our field activities.

See you in two months with more news from Bafut.

Background to the training In 2009, Mr. Niyi Adegun, Vice chairperson of the Rural Infrastructure Services for Under

-Served Population (RISE-UP) came to Cameroon on a learning visit to CENDEP.

RISE-UP is a not- for-profit organization with head quarters in Lagos Nigeria.They target

poverty alleviation through sustainable vegetable and medicinal plants production, processing

and marketing by the poor. As a follow up to the visit and considering both organizations’

common vision of conserving biodiversity, promoting income generating opportunities for the

local people, the two organizations voluntarily came into agreement in September 2009 to

amongst other things facilitate learning visits between both organizations’ target groups,

transfer relevant technologies between the two organizations, seek financial support for joint

projects to extend knowledge and technical capacity of both organizations staff. In particu-

lar CENDEP would assist RISE-UP by providing trainers and technical advice on sustain-

able management of non timber forest products especially eru, locally called eruru/afang in

Nigeria. RISE-UP would in particular facilitate the access of Nigerian markets for

CENDEP’s target group. This agreement was the basis of the three week training on eru

domestication supported by UNDP and conducted by CENDEP in collaboration with RISE-

UP in the Boki local government area of the Cross River State, of Nigeria from March 1,

2011 to March 22, 2011.

The CENDEP team left Cameroon on February 28, 2011 on board the Coastal Maritime

Vessel called “Endurance”. At Calabar-Nigeria we were received by the vice chairperson

of RISEUP Africa, Mr Niyi Adegun and some of his collaborators. Immigration formalities

lasted a couple of minutes and we left for Wula Ekumpuo village in the Boki Local Gov-

ernment Area where the training was scheduled to take place. We were welcome by the

village Chief Damian Ariaa). The chief expressed over joy at the privilege given his

community to benefit from development initiatives that would improve the welfare of his

subjects. He promised to do his best to make sure that the objectives of the training are

met.

RISE-UP LAUNCHES ERU DOMESTICATION IN NIGERIA

Prior to the arrival of the trainers from CENDEP four sites had been earmarked for the

establishment of the eruru nurseries. Chief (Damian Aria) led a delegation of some vil-

lage notables to the proposed nursery sites in the company of the trainers. Of the 4

sites visited, 3 were

disqualified. The rea-

sons were explained.

An ideal site had to

be accessible and in

a location where oth-

ers can see what is

happening in their

community. These

conditions were met

in a settlement di-

rectly opposite the

chief’s house. The

site was donated by

Mr Charles Ofre.

Its security and management

was guaranteed by its location.

The village chairman mobilized

some youths who gathered local

materials that were to be used

subsequently.

The launching of the UNDP GEF-

Small Grants Program financed

training took place on 05th March

at the Wula Ekumpuo Community

Town Hall. It was attended by a

cross section of the population,

traditional authorities, and represen-

tatives from other communities in

the Wula Village .

Launching of the training at the Wula Ekumpuo Community Town Hall

Trainer (Mr. Ngah Presley) demonstrates how to manage a propagatorr

Also present were some government authorities, representatives of civil organizations and NGOs such as, DIN, ADA, Ministry of Environment as well as donor agencies like UNDP, MPP9 which is a European Union sponsored development project. The theme of the launching was “Community capacity building for environmental protection, natural resources conser-vation and increased income”. All development actors present gave a speech in relation to the launching of the afang (eruru) domestication in Wula village. The chief of Wula Ekumpuo thanked the UNDP for financing the training project. The representative of the Cross River State Commissioner of Environment narrated the efforts of the Nigerian Ministry of Environment to promote the ex-situ cultivation of eru in some communities. This happened 8 years ago and did not succeed because farmers who were able to produce eru plantlets were unable to successfully nurture them to planting stage. He congratulated RISEUP for bringing in experts from a far distance but “near neighbors” to train the communities in eru domestication. The invited guests made a stop at the nursery site where a question and answer session took place. Trainees were very enthusiastic and chanted songs which showed their deter-mination and commitment to learn the new technology. They sang songs like “I am more than a millionaire just because I grow eruru”. This song was like an energizer which kept every one active during the various phases of the training such as composition of the rooting medium, collection of eru vines from the forest etc. The difficulty in obtaining eru vines demonstrated the problem of eruru scarcity in the community. Two teams each led by a trainer spent more than 3 hours each in the forest in the search of eru vines but were unable to gather the required amount. The chief’s daughter, Rita Aria, was heard saying “I fell 10 times in the forest in the course of our search for eruru vines. We have to put in our best to make sure we cultivate eruru in our farms to bring to an end this type of suffering”. Another participant said “If we don’t do something to cultivate eruru, there will come a time when only the very rich people would afford to consume it”. After the training proper four other rooting propagators were constructed in the Tourist Ho-tel Wula. They were constructed to serve as backup to the one used in training the community and to cater for the plantlet needs of the locality. Due to difficulties in obtain-ing eruru vines, a lady from the community by name Sarah was contacted to supply eruru vines for the 4 newly constructed propagators, each of capacity 250 cuttings. RISE-UP would ensure this is done. However, the training exercise did not go without its own hitches such as insufficient sup-port from the village youths and late arrival some construction material and poor carpentry which was only corrected later on. Report compiled by: Youndjie Koleoko Gabriel Niyi Adegun & Ngah Presley

Dear Readers,

We started working in CENDEP as volunteers in February 2011. Despite our university studies we

did not join CENDEP because we wanted money. This does not however mean that we did not

like money. We were briefed of the financial situation of the organization but we decided to still

work for CENDEP because we were interested applying the knowledge we acquired in school and

also learning from the dedicated team of CENDEP. This team come from different cultures and

from different parts of the world. Our learning process started from the interviews we had prior to

our admission as volunteers. It has been two months since we started working and we would like

to share with you our experiences.

From the very onset we were made to understand that the forest plant eru otherwise called Gne-

tum spp signifies CENDEP. Our first task was to learn about eru especially how to propagate it

using vine cuttings. The nursery attendant Mrs. Ebombe Beltha, a farmer and founding member of

CENDEP, gave us lectures on eru seedling production and eru farm establishment and manage-

ment. Most of this was in theory but we were able to see everything she described.

This was the first phase of the training. The second phase consisted in applying the lectures. This

was with a group of eru farmers located in the Bakingili village in the outskirts of Limbe. In this

community we were able to have a feel of what agricultural extension is. Our teacher was the

head of CENDEP, Mr. Youndjie Koleoko Gabriel. Together with the farmers we harvested eru vines

from the group farm and prepared the cuttings used in producing eru plantlets. These were in-

serted in the propagators. We were also able to do potting of the rooted cuttings that we replaced

in the propagators. We are very eager to see our eru cuttings produce roots for as we were told

this is one of the most difficult stages in the production of eru plantlets. In the course of carrying

out this activity we remarked that the Bakingili Eru Group led by Mr. Pius Ekuka are a good

partner of CENDEP. It would appear the climate in their locality is more favourable for the rooting

of eru cuttings than in Mile 4, Limbe, the CENDEP head quarters. Thus the group produces the

rooted cuttings and Forest House, the commercial wing of CENDEP does the weaning, hardening

and marketing. It was a particularly happy day for us as we were able to put into practice the

knowledge we had in office.

Volunteering in CENDEP

Limshu Augustine N & Wongbi Bongaman Massimo

We are currently weaning the plantlets and looking forward to returning to the community to monitor

the cuttings we planted in the propagators. We were pleased to have the opportunity to interact

with farmers and to suggest solutions to their problems especially those on member participation in

group activities.

We did not only learn about eru. We had an in-house training on bee keeping and were given

reference literature which we are exploiting. One of the staff of Forest House Mrs. Lemnyuy As-

sumpta attended a workshop on mush room cultivation and did a short training for us who could

not attend. We are using the handouts she brought from the training and she is available to an-

swer some of our questions.

Because CENDEP had lost funding we were introduced into proposal writing. We were encour-

aged to put together our ideas into the development of real projects. It is too early to say how

much we learnt but we think that our knowledge on project writing is not as it was when we just

joined CENDEP. Being an art we expect to grow and to be able to develop a fundable project for

CENDEP in the future when our writing abilities must have improved well.

We also assisted Forest House in the processing and marketing of their products as well as col-

lecting customer feedback used in the development of the marketing communication plan being de-

veloped by the Forest House intern, Jelke Brandehof. We shared our skills in the analysis of the

data from the field.

We cannot end without appreciating the openness with which we have been received in CENDEP.

We have been part of the weekly planning meetings and our ideas counted just like those of oth-

ers despite our short stay. We lived the challenges of running an organization without funds. We

meet a team that was not ready to quit despite all the odds. We also saw a glimmer of hope in

the collective efforts of interns, volunteers, members and staff of CENDEP. We would have loved

to be more frequent in the field but this has not been possible. We understand and hope the

situation will change in the months ahead.

Stay and in touch. We shall keep you updated as to what we learn and how we think this

knowledge can be helpful for us and CENDEP.

Hello,

My name is Jelke Brandehof . As could be read in the March issue of CENDEP Newsletter I am

currently doing my internship with CENDEP. I am a Dutch student from the Zuyd University of

Applied Sciences. It is my first time coming to Africa and I have already fallen in love with Cam-

eroon, even though it is very different here than in Holland. Through this article I want to give

you an idea of how I am experiencing Cameroon and the cultural differences I have been coming

across.

I have been here now since the end of January, and I will be staying until the end of June. In

the beginning I was really surprised to see what Cameroonians are able to carry on their heads:

bags filled with wood, plantains, water etc. The neck muscles of the Cameroonians must be so

strong! I was unable to lift a 20 litre gallon of water to get water for a shower in the morning.

And do you know? I can now lift it! Furthermore I could hardly believe my ears and eyes the

first time I witnessed the bribery of a gendarmerie officer. Little did I know that a couple of weeks

later I would have to do it myself because the copy of the passport I was traveling around with

was not valid enough. The gendarmerie officer took all my information and still calls me from time

to time, just to ‘’greet his white friend’’.

Some things I really like about Cameroon are the weekends. I love spending time in Semme

Beach with my host family, or enjoying the nice African foods from the Limbe market. In my

opinion there is no better dish in the whole world than fried plantains with mushrooms in tomato

sauce and (sweet) potatoes! I am definitely going to miss those very much by the time my in-

ternship will be over and the time has reached to head back to the Netherlands.

The work I am doing with CENDEP and the Forest House also appeals to me very much. My co

-workers and supervisors are a great group of people who are very motivated to improve the liv-

ing standards of Cameroonian farmers. That is why I was very upset when I heard that ICCO had

to stop its funding activities due to a decision to cut on development aid made by the

‘’fantastic’’ right-wing government that was installed in The Netherlands recently. Therefore through

this article I would also like to ask everybody to keep your eyes and ears open, and if you think

you might know an organization or institution that might be willing to help CENDEP with its funding

issue please do not hesitate to contact us! At my level I have been able to convince my school

to do fundraising for CENDEP through a project to be carried out by third year students.

I would like to wish you a very nice day in the beautiful country of Cameroon, or anywhere in

the world where this news letter reaches you!

Kind regards,

Internship in CENDEP

Jelke Brandehof

Matilda Chibuike Walimbe

Manager Forest House

Forest House is a Non Governmental Business Enterprise and a subsidiary of

CENDEP Cameroon. Forest House processes and markets non timber forest

products whose production CENDEP is promoting.

“We reinvest part of our profits in community efforts aimed at rehabilitating and

conserving forest ecosystems”

Dry Eru Eru Seedlings

Honey

Contact FOREST HOUSE SAMCO JUNCTION BONADIKOMBO MILE4 C/O PO BOX 742, LIMBE TEL: 00237 75 97 93 94 EMAIL: foresthouse_business@yahoo.com