Forest Conservation News

The news is not good for the forest and the tree I am studying. The forest is still beautiful but it is increasingly disturbed. Large areas have been subjected to fires (many deliberately set). Most species do not seem to be fire-adapted so you see vast areas covered in bracken fern that come in after a disturbance. One of my plots was burnt and 2/3 of the trees are dead. Harvest has also taken its toll. All of the trees in my control plot (never harvested before - photo to left) were dead. These included most of the largest trees in my study. It seems the former fon (king) got paid off by some bark buyers and he allowed the harvest to begin. Every tree I saw had been harvested. The trees that have survived – so far – look sick with the main branches dead and only small suckers coming out (second photo). But two plots were harvested gently and they will probably do ok. There is also a lot of goat and sheep grazing, much more than I saw in the past. Everywhere you go, there are hundreds of the seedling-eating devils. Wherever there are goats, I find no seedlings. This is probably also true for the other forest species. But data is data and I will work it up and sound the alarm – if anyone will listen, much less do anything about it. The new fon (the former one died recently) asked me to write up a report about what I saw. The jury is still out on his conservation attitudes. Time will tell.

Wilderness Camping

I made three trips up to my highest camp (close to 10,000 feet). It is completely rustic although we "rent" a man’s hut that we use to build a fire to keep warm and the guys cook on – just like they do at their homes. The fire is made inside and the smoke goes out the grass roof. It stays pretty toasty in there. I had never been up there so early in the year and I was surprised at how cold it got at night. Before, it got into maybe the high 40s but it got to freezing this time. Each morning, the tent and everything else was covered in icy frost. The first trip, I was shivering cold during the night. The second trip I brought an extra layer of clothes. So I slept in long underwear, fleece pants and top, wool sweater and jacket. The guys just have a t-shirt and light jacket and use flip flops around the camp! In the photo, the summit and the grassland savanna can be seen in the background.

Left to right are Isaac; Lufsamba, and Joe, my indispensible field assistants. This photo was taken in front of the palace.

Life in Oku


If life in my bungalow in Dschang is like camping, life in Oku was even more rustic but better than camping in the forest. I rented a three-room "apartment" in the village (bedroom, bath, and a third room that served as my parlor, field room, office, and kitchen). It was pretty comfortable once I got used to the "life" going on just outside my window (life begins at 5:30 am here). Families use their houses only for sleeping it seems. Everything else – visiting, preparing food, doing laundry - goes on in the courtyard. People live in compounds, which are a series of buildings. In my case, the buildings were in a square, with my apartment and a series of rooms that they rent on two sides and the family house and kitchen on the other two sides. The kitchen where they have their wood fire for cooking. They also eat and take baths in there. It was interesting to observe this way of life – since I have never lived in a compound before.


This place was luxury compared to 99.9% of the people in Oku. Most people live in mud-brick houses with dirt floors and no electricity or water. I had electricity (with a wall plug for the computer), tiled floors, a flush toilet, and a sink with running water. The water was shut off occasionally so I had to store water in a pail. Once the water was off for three days and I had to decide between water to drink or use it for, ahem, flushing the toilet. The problem was solved when the water came back on but I stored more water after that. I cooked on a one-burner camping stove that burns butane in these little blue canisters (you can find these all over the world). It worked well. I heated water for bathing with a Sun Shower that uses the sun to heat water in a black bag. It heated water well but the air temp is so cool that bathing was a shivering experience. Needless to say, bathing was out of the question in camp, brrr.