Extraction of non-timber forest products

baskets to collect and pile the pods on a heap. A separate day is allocated for breaking open the pods to release the beans using cutlasses. Leaves from banana plants are cut and spread on the ground and the bags containing cocoa beans are put on then and wrapped and left to ferment. This takes about a week to complete. The fermented beans are then dried in the sun or using locally constructed ovens. After which dry beans are hand sorted to remove debris and defective beans. The sorted beans are put in bags and ready for marketing.

Bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis)collection is very intensive during the heart of the rainy season (June to September). At such times, entire households leave the village and spend at least two weeks in the thick forest (black bush). They carry along un-cooked food, which they prepare in small thatched huts that are built with sticks and ropes for sleeping during the night. During the day, one of the eldest children (usually the girl) takes care of the young baby in that hut while the rest wander in the forest to collect bush mango seeds. At this time, hunting with guns is banned to avoid many casualties. Ripen bush mango seeds fall off from the parent trees during the heavy rains in July. Men, women and children collect the fruits and put them in a heap to ferment. After, the rotten juicy material is squeezed with the hands and the coated seeds are transferred to the hut for drying on smoke barns. Some of the seeds collected from secondary forest are taken home for drying. In times of high yields, excess seeds are stock to the walls of kitchens (picture 3a). After a while, stones are used to crack open the shells and to take off the kernels (Picture 3b), which are then dried. The dried kernels are ground into a paste and used for cooking. Bush mango is a lucrative business done with Nigerian buyers who come right into the villages.

Picture 3a & 3b: Irvingia gabonensisseeds on a wall (3a) and kernels ready for cooking (3b)

Eru or Gnetum africanum is another NTFP whose leaves are used as vegetable, medicine and are also sold. Conversational interviews with indigenes reveal the commercial, medicinal and food value of eru. Picking or cutting the leaves or the entire climbe harvests this plant. Eru leaves can be eaten raw or sliced in thin shreds and added to vegetable soups. Different households in Esukutan harvest the leaves on a daily basis. Women and youths reported that they mostly harvest Eru, on average twice a week and sold in the village whenever a buyer comes. In the past, foreigners used to pay a token fee to the

3a 3b

village council to gain harvest rights. Esukutan village elders said this practice had stopped since the 1980s. Females reportedly do large-scale eru harvesting for sale. Males harvest eru to eat if they find it on their way in the forest. It was disclosed in both Ikondo Kondo I and Esukutan villages that eru is harvested mostly by youth (teenagers) and primary school children above 10 years old. This was observed only once in Esukutan and it was not observed in Ikondo Kondo I during the field research. This however may be explained by the fact that June and July were official schools holiday months. Also, the secondary forest in the present location of Ikondo Kondo I does not have an abundance of eru. The only teacher in Esukutan primary school prevented children from harvesting eru during our visit.

Parents criticized him and reported that he hunts at night but bars children from going to harvest eru to sell and buy some of their school needs. Locals do know that eru from the thick forest or ‘black bush’ has a different taste and a high medicinal content from eru harvested in a secondary forest. However, the price of a bundle of eru is not affected by the origin or place of collection.

Njangsanga (Ricinodendron heudelotii): Njangsanga is predominant in the tropical dense forests of Central and West Africa. It is a soup thickener and a regularly used cooking ingredient. The seeds are picked from the forest floor. Proper collection involves prior slashing to clear open the area for easy visibility of fruits on the ground. The fruits are gathered in heaps, usually close to the parent tree and left to rot (picture 3a). After about a month, the seeds will be separated from the fermented fruits and boiled. The boiling goes through the night in large aluminum pots and kernel extraction starts in the morning of the next day and only interrupted when it is time to eat. Locals explained that boiling is done at night because it is uninterrupted and many of the seeds will develop cracks through which small flattened metal tips could be used to force open the shells and release the kernels. The cream white kernels (picture 3b) are then spread on locally made baskets and placed on barns well above hot fires for dehydration (picture 3c). The dried njangsanga kernels could then be ground into a paste and used to cook soups. According to informants, kernel extraction requires a lot of patience and “women are patient to remove njangsanga shells all day long”. Sometimes groups of women help each other in turns, similar to the description of group work for farming activities. Some males and youths were observed in Esukutan in

2006 helping their respective mothers during the extraction of njangsanga kernels. The pictures below show the main stages in the processing of njangsanga. The bark of njangsanga trees is medicinal and so locals use knives to debark the tree and this could hurt the cortex and phloem (tissues that help in food and water uptake) of the tree.

Picture 4a, b& c: Fruit rotting, kernel extraction and smoking of Njansanga, Esukutan

The domestication of Ricinodendron heudelotiihas been going on in Cameroon for a few years now (Alene et al, 2005). Its regeneration is by seeds or propagation of its wildings, which works well only with genetically heterogeneous descendants (Alene et al, 2005).

Studies are underway to facilitate an in-vitro vegetative propagation of njangsanga in Cameroon (Fotso et al, 2004). However, locals also nurture germinating seedling and do not cut or burn adult trees when clearing the farm plot. Some do cut large lianes (climbing tropical vines) in order to encourage the njangsanga trees in the forest to fruit.

Picture 5: A basin of bitter cola on exhibition at an agro-pastoral show in Cameroon, December 2006

Bitter cola (Garcinia kola): Bitter cola is a widespread wild forest product in tropical rain forests. It is sometimes domesticated on farms for home consumption and sale. The ripe fruits are collected from the floor of the farm, fallow or forest and left to rot. The seeds are

A B C

then separated from the fermented material by hand. Folks use it as; digestive agent, to clean the digestive tract; and it is chewed to stimulate saliva flows. Bitter cola is also a poison antidote. It is also believed to be an aphrodisiac, cure to abdominal disorders and has no side effects even when taken in excess doses (Adedeji et al, 2006). Bitter cola seeds are reservoirs of huge amounts of caffeine, theobromine, kolatin and glucose. Clinical tests carried out by Nigerian researchers reported the antimicrobial activity of dry powdered bitter cola seed. It reduces mortality of broiler chicks by increasing their dietary efficiencies and this activity is also possible for humans (Adedeji et al, 2006:191;

2006b:184). Bitter cola is used as snack to entertain strangers and there is a saying that “he, who brings cola, brings life”. It has multiple cultural uses in cementing transactions. For instance, as a sign of a prospective smooth business, parties share and eat bitter cola. As a social artifact, bitter cola is eaten during important life events like births, celebrations, and conferring chieftaincy titles. Men eat it most, and a woman in Ikondo Kondo I always made reference to bitter cola as “my husband’s cola nuts”. In the relocated Ikondo Kondo I, a man in possession of bitter cola was observed to command a lot of power and respect amongst villagers. Hence, bitter cola plays a social recognition role. It is used in folk medicine to; heal cough, jaundice, high fever and other ailments. It is used; to welcome visitors, as a digestive agent and locals ate bitter cola when they suffer from stomach disorder or constipation. Improved varieties seedlings were provided by Korup Project to the relocated Ikondo Kondo I people to domesticate. Most recipients abandoned the germinated seedlings to wilt because they were still not sure if their new location would be permanent. Bitter cola it is not planted on a large scale but rodents do spread the fruits.

Alligator pepper (Afromomum melegueta) is a tropical forest plant that produces an edible fruit and an aromatic spice with a hot peppery taste. It is harvested by plucking the fruits with no damage to the parent plant. Village members do not expect that Alligator pepper is always sold to them. Refusal to offer it free of charge to others will earn one a bad image and consequently, isolation. At the time of field studies, informant acknowledged that so far no case has been reported. Alligator pepper is domesticated under conditions similar to those in its original habitat in the dense forest. Alligator pepper is used in ethno-medicine in the Korup area as a remedy for a variety of ailments. It is a store of gingerol, paradol,

shagaol, manganese, gum, tannin, starch, and a resin and also found to have antifungal and antimicrobial properties (Okigbo and Ogbonnaya, 2006:727-728).

Picture 6: Dried fruit of Afromomum melegueta

Table 10: Harvesting methods of plant NTFPs as observed in the field

Name of NTFPs Method of collection/harvest Part of plant collected/harvested

Njansanga

Ricinodendron heudelotii - Picking

- Debarking - Seeds - Bark Bush Mango

Irvingia gabonensis

- Picking - Debarking - Cutting leaves

- Roots - Seeds - Leaves - Stem Eru

Gnetum Africanum - Picking - Cutting leaves - Cutting climber

- Leaves - Tisane of stem Bitter kola

Garcinia kola

- Picking - Debarking

- Seeds, - Juice,

- Tree bark Alligator pepper

Afromomum melegueta - Cutting

- Picking - Fruits

- Grains

Table 6 summarizes the different methods of collecting or harvesting five major plant NTFPs in the communities. It is constructed from a review of responses to questions that required respondents to name a resource and state its extraction methods. While methods like picking the seeds and fruits from the forest floor and farm fallow do not destroy the entire plants, methods like debarking and cutting of entire climbersdo have long terms side effects especially if they are done on a market scale. Locals do not accept that their extraction methods are destructive, elderly women complain that children do not extract NTFPs in the careful manner, as did their [older] generation. To them, children do not carefully cut the climbers of eru and lianes on other NTFPs like njangsanga and bush mango trees. However, this assertion could not be verified further since most women who

answered questions relating to NTFPs harvest mentioned that they always teach their children how to harvest particular forest plants.