The second official charity for the Adventurists Africa Rally is an excellent organisation based in the finish line country of Cameroon – the Cameroon Wildlife Aid Fund (CWAF).
CWAF is a UK registered charity that runs the Mvog-Betsi zoo and Mefou National Park in Cameroon, in conjunction with the Cameroon government.
CWAF aims to ensure Cameroon's primates have a healthy future.
Working with the government, local communities and other ecological groups around the world, we hope to show people the amazing diversity of wildlife in Cameroon, and explain exactly how and why it should be protected.
CWAF operates two sites in Cameroon in co-operation with the"Cameroon Ministry of Environment and Protection of the Nature":
-- Mefou national park
-- Mvog-betsi zoo
CWAF are also one of the projects associated with the Field Conservation Worldwide project at Bristol Zoo, UK. Here is a description of the problem from the Bristol Zoo website:
“Gorillas and chimpanzees are being hunted, killed and sold for meat. No one really knows the scale of the killing but, in just one district of Cameroon in the western part of Africa, an estimated 800 gorillas are shot for meat every year. To add to the horror, when the adults are killed their young are taken and sold as pets, but they often die of starvation or disease in a few days. Bristol Zoo Gardens is working with the Cameroon Wildlife Aid Fund (CWAF) to try to stop the killing, and to care for the orphans of the trade.
It's called bushmeat. Gorilla, chimpanzee, baboon, pangolin, mangabe - the list goes on. All of these animals are wild and many of them endangered. Some animals are hunted and sold legally, but hunting endangered primates including gorillas and chimpanzees is illegal.
Gorillas and chimpanzees are protected species, but the bushmeat trade is the biggest threat that they face. 90% of the chimpanzee population has already been lost, and, without major conservation efforts, it is feared that all the apes in Cameroon could be wiped out within the next few decades.”
Read the full article on the Bristol Zoo website here
More information about CWAF is on its way to the Adventurists Africa Rally website.