The Lobéké National Park (PNL) with the technical and financial support of FTNS and the German co-operation has implemented a project entitled “developing the capacities of local populations in the manufacture of clay bricks in the Lobéké National Park in Mambélé”. The project’s prospects were on several levels such as capacity building, training, job creation, income generation in the local economy and, on the long term, improving the habitat of the local populations.
A project beneficiaries 
Pile of blocs produced for the project
In order to ensure the proper implementation of the initiative, a technical assistance consisting of 05 technicians and 02 mechanical pressing machines was deployed on the field for monitoring and supervision. For a period of five months, it was in charge of training local people, identifying extraction sites, fermenting the earth, moulding, drying and finally baking.
At the end of this first phase, the technical team produced more than 60,000 clay-baked bricks that will be used as a complement for the construction of the new ecoguard camp in the Lobéké National Park. As a novelty, the process has also enabled the training of about twenty young people from the villages surrounding the park in the techniques of clay-baked brick production. Among this batch, about fifteen of them received their first ever training diploma at a graduation ceremony held on July 10, 2020, in Mambélé. Present at this ceremony were the administrative and traditional authorities of Mambélé and its surroundings, the Conservation Department, representatives of the Executive Board and in particular, the Country Director of WWF Cameroon, Mrs. Clotilde Ngomba, also a member of the FTNS Board of Directors.
A second phase of the project is currently being prepared and will aim at supporting and deepening the skills of the learners while producing the remaining bricks for the camp construction project. Upon completion, the project is expected to contribute to reducing pressure on the forest resources commonly used for habitat construction and create alternatives for sustainable economic development for the local populations of the park in a context marked by an ever-increasing and jobless population.