Bush Fires: Frequent Manmade Disaster in Cameroon

Activities Linked to Poor Farming and Grazing Techniques!

Bush fire is basically the combustion or burning of bush, forest or woodland area. Though brushfires are natural phenomena which occur in many places around the world where there is plenty of wood, leaves or forest that can burn, the situation is different in Cameroon.

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Here quite often than not it is man made! And the activity is quite common in the North West Region of the country especially from grazers who have a tradition that when grass is not burnt in the dry season cows are not healthy. Furthermore, some farmers (who constitute majority of the country's population) believe that 'ankara', (that is, gathering the grass and covering it with soil before burning) is the best way to cultivate certain crops. However, some of the fires are set accidentally either by cigarette smokers or children. Though environmental activists had been working with these farmers for decades - encouraging them to assemble the grass for what is called the biomass, cover and allow it rot to form good manure for their farms, much is yet to be done.

The situation remains problematic. Bush fires have not significantly reduced because the population is increasing and bush fires are expanding. "The effective reduction is there but it has little impact because it's just like controlling human population," says Elame Germain.
"Ankara", and slash and burn are so embedded in the culture of farmers in Cameroon that if one is patient to listen to you tell him/her not to gather grass and burn, he/she is just being polite and will not stop because they believe that there are certain crops that if you don't burn will not do well. It's sad to hear this. They burn the heaps and go to the house while it continue burning and if it is windy the sparks are carried into the bush and that is the beginning of bush fires.

As a country, Cameroon has not taken a policy to take care of the issue that is threatening the population. If people continue to do things in their own small way instead of the ministries of agriculture, environment etc thinking together, things will not change because of the many sources of brushfires in the country.
The consequences of these brushfires in future farming activities and worst ill slash and burn, and 'ankara' are devastating in that the soil is burnt until it turns red. Consequently, all the living organisms and matters that make plants grow are destroyed. It should be noted here that crop growth is based on the micro organisms that exist there. They turn biomass into fertility and when you kill them completely, the soil has nothing, thus it is for the benefit of farmers to ensure that their soils stay alive by not burning.

Mafeni Mase, Scientist at the country's regional center for agronomic research (IRAD) based at Ekona, near Buea, intimated, "when you burn the soil some bit of potassium and other nutrients come out and some plants do very well for the first year and nothing will do well the next years."
Instead of burning, Mafeni called on grazers in particular to allow the grass to die and the natural grass sprout. This according to him "will be good for the cows". He further advised them to accept to do paddock - "make a fence, put your cows inside and if you have enough land you can plot and cows stay here and then move to the other area and by the time they come back, grass has grown."