The construction of a new enclosure in the village of Badadaye, Cameroon, as part of the lion guards project.

One of our objectives of the new phase of the lion guards project, funded under the Large Carnivore Initiative by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative and the Prins Bernhard Nature fund, was to construct an new enclosure for livestock in a village near the border of Waza National Park (Cameroon), in order to limit the losses due to the predation of the lions and other large carnivores. The village of Badadaye was chosen for the reason of recent assessment studies into the losses of livestock in the bordering villages of the Waza National Park.

These studies show that the highest number of livestock losses due to the predation was in the village Badadaye. Another reason for choosing this particular village is that this local community consists of one ethnic group, which greatly enhances the success of the management of the enclosure. The idea of the project was presented by the park manager of Waza National Park, André Ndjijdda and Bachirou Mohamadou to the Badadaye village council on Saturday 7 January 2012. After a lot of discussion, the village council agreed on the construction of the boma and a document of approval was signed by all representatives. In the period of several days all the necessary equipment, materials and workmen were transported from Maroua to Waza National Park. For the construction of the enclosure local workmen were used. The work was conducted over a couple of days. The maintenance of the enclosure will be carried out by the local community. Through their representatives they thanked Leo Foundation and the CEDC for making this possible.

This enclosure will hopefully set an example for all the villages surrounding the National Park. We are searching for new funding sources to make it possible to construct or improve boma’s in these villages. The monitoring of the human-carnivore will continue and the effect of the newly built boma and the number of livestock killed will be surveyed. For more information concerning the construction of the enclosure, click here.