Ecological Adaptability and Slope-Trait Considerations for Water and Soil Conservation on the Vulnerable Oku-Kom Plateau in the Western Highland of Cameroon

Abstract

The Oku-Kom highland morphological and human stronghold of West Cameroon with rich volcanic soils has attracted farmers and breeders thereby rupturing the mountain ecological equilibrium through slope gulling and mass movements. Overwhelmed, the indigenes adapted unsuccessful regreening approaches but without slope gradient considerations. This paper identifies native and exotic plant species whose growth traits and ecological adaptability rates can be combined with varied slope gradients to permit devegetated slopes to regain natural greenness. The methodology involves field survey and observations, slope measurement on the fields correlated with the topographic map, identification and spatialization of landscape degradation phenomenon. It then matches agronomic regreening efforts and cultural specialised measures to current trends in land use and slope gradients to suggest local and exotic grass and tree species to be combined with crops that are most suitable for each slope. The results then present an optimum slope gradient-specie combination. This could be a new approach to halt landscape degradation on fragile tropical mountains especially those plagued by long dating degradation histories like the Oku-Kom tropical highland.

An Analysis of Human Survival Strategies in Difficult Environments: A Case Study of the Kom Highlands in Cameroon

“…Temperature ranges from 15°C to 38°C with average temperature of 24.5 to 29.7°C. Average annual rainfall stands at 2400 mm per annum and humidity of 82% with two seasons [8]. Fundong is the head quarter of Boyo Division (the Kom Highlands).…”

“…Over the years, other studies [8,14] have shown that although environmental conditions have an influence on human and cultural development, people have varied possibilities in their decision to live and survive within a given environment. This idea gained grounds with the advent of technological advancements which seemed to have "tamed" the harsh physical environment and made it conducive for human habitation and survival.…”

Modelling Alternatives for Highland Soil Structural Degradation and Erodibility, Bui Plateau, Cameroon

“…Assessment of soil exposure to external stressors and ensuing degradation is of prime importance to the implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) strategies. Some significant number of studies on land degradation on the Western Highlands of Cameroon have variably been limited to diagnosis of the cause-effect analysis of watershed-forest degradation as provoked by man [14]- [17] and soil erosion [18]. Fewer studies investigated soil erodibility and structural stability as a proxy-indicator of soil physical degradation in the Western Highlands like the works of [19] over the Southern Bamileke Plateau and [20] for cultivated soils of Foumbot.…”