🐘 World Elephant Day 2025 – Tomorrow, August 12
Green Cameroon stands with the planet to salute the African Forest Elephant, the quiet giant that still roams the shadowed valleys of the Mount Cameroon Forest Region.
💚 Why this matters to us in Cameroon
The mist-laden slopes of Mount Cameroon National Park harbour one of West Africa’s last strongholds of the African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).
Smaller, straighter-tusked and darker than its savanna cousin, this elephant is literally the gardener of our rainforest: every day it swallows the seeds of large fruiting trees, walks kilometres and drops those seeds in fertile piles of dung, planting the giants of tomorrow that keep our climate cool and our rivers running.
One elephant can disperse over 3 000 seeds a day – seeds that grow into the huge hardwood trees that store the most carbon.
⚠️ The Crisis in Our Own Backyard
- 176 forest elephants were counted inside Mount Cameroon National Park in the last comprehensive survey.
- Human–elephant conflict is rising as farms press against the forest edge; hungry elephants raid crops and frightened farmers retaliate.
- Poaching for ivory has not spared Cameroon; in 2012 more than 300 elephants were slaughtered in Bouba N’Djida National Park. The same criminal networks reach our forests.
🌱 What Green Cameroon is doing
- Elephant-Friendly Corridors – working with local farmers to plant chilli and bee-hive buffer zones that keep elephants away from crops without violence.
- Eco-guard Support – training and equipping community rangers to monitor elephant movements using GPS and SMART patrolling.
- School Outreach – 20 000 pupils in the South-West region have already taken part in our “Elephant Ambassadors” art & story programme.
🙋♂️ How YOU can help TOMORROW and every day
- Share this post – spread the word that our elephants are Critically Endangered.
- Choose sustainable products – refuse ivory, of course, but also support cocoa and palm-oil brands certified elephant-friendly.
- Report wildlife crime – if you see suspicious tracks, gunshots or ivory for sale, call 677 77 35 35 (MINFOF hotline).
- Plant a tree – join our monthly community nursery at Buea Botanical Garden; every seedling is a future home and pantry for an elephant.
🇨🇲 A Promise from Green Cameroon
We will not let the gentle footfalls of Africa’s forest elephant fade from the volcanic soils of Mount Cameroon.
But we cannot do it alone. Elephants need space, understanding and a shared future.
Tomorrow, light a candle, share this story, and speak up for the elephant that cannot speak for itself.
