Assessing Indigenous and Colonial Forest Conservation Policies on the Kilum-Ijim Forest of the Bamenda Grassland, Precolonial to 1961

Too often in the past, the contributions of indigenous people to forest conservation have largely been ignored or belittled by the colonial administrators. Yet indigenous people controlled most of the world’s natural forest through their traditional practices, and often strong conservation ethics. The study explores the role of the indigenous groups and the colonial government in the conservation of Kilum-Ijim forests. Based on information collected through oral interviews, archival materials, published and unpublished works, the study contends that the original practices in the conservation of forest by communities of the Kilum-Ijim and Bamenda Grasslands forest as a whole have been diluted over the years, following contact with exogenous forces such as colonialism which introduced colonial laws, encapsulated in Ordinances. The colonial powers believed that their policies were superior to local customs and traditions of Africans, as a result; they imposed forest policies, which over the years have gradually seen the disappearance of the hitherto rich cultural heritage. Hence, their involvement in forest conservation, preservation methods, difficulties encountered and the consequences of modern forest policies on the local forests in the Bamenda grassland, constitute the analysis of this paper.