The people
© WWF-Canon / Olivier van Bogaert
Désiré Foguekem, biologist
Désiré Foguekem is an elephant specialist.
He started working for the Campo-Ma'an project in September 2004 as a volunteer, and was hired on a permanent basis in early 2005. Before joining Campo-Ma'an, Désisré worked on monitoring elephant populations in the northern part of Cameroon.
"Big animals are fascinating and as WWF helped me with my PhD, I found it very natural to offer my services to the Campo-Ma'an project," he says.
Being also experienced in ecological monitoring in forests, Désisré has been asked to conduct inventories in the park's most sensitive areas where conservation action will be taken in the long term.
"According to our findings, I will propose a series of appropriate measures to implement in the future," he adds.
Désiré hopes that Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea will soon develop transboundary cooperation - similar to what is being done between Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and Central African Republic.
"Elephant ignore boarders. They are protected in Campo-Ma'an National Park but once they move to Equatorial Guinea their security is no longer guaranteed, and they might be poached."
