A research finding has recommended the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, to improve on the salary and working conditions of its workers, especially workers who do planting, harvesting and processing of the company’s products.

The CDC is Cameroon’s largest agro-business company and second employer after the State, with some 21,000 workers on its payroll. It produces rubber, bananas and palm oil mainly for export.

A Yaounde-based NGO, Network for Environment and Sustainable Development for Africa, NESDA-CA, in a research titled, “The Impact of Agro-industry on Conservation and Livelihoods in Cameroon,” with CDC as case study, has found out that the corporation needs to do more to impact the livelihoods of its workers and communities.

Presenting the research results at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, Dr. Stanley Dinsi said CDC should ameliorate working and living conditions of its field workers in particular and the corporation’s staff in general and increase employment of the youths who live around its plantations. This, he said, will help to reduce the pressure the youths exert on the surrounding forests, which are the natural habitats of great apes like gorillas and chimpanzees.

Dr. Dinsi’s research findings were corroborated by several CDC workers who took part in the research. One of the workers from the Tiko Rubber Estate said he was employed in CDC in 2009 as a Category 2A worker and placed in the field to do weeding.

“My monthly salary was FCFA 33,000 including other benefits.”

It was based on this that the participants also recommended that CDC should fix FCFA 50,000 as minimum salary for its workers.

The research findings also indicated that the low salaries given to field workers rather discourage than motivate them to work.

Besides, the research recommended that CDC should try to use less harmful fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals to reduce the contamination of the soils and waters around which animals and humans depend on for their livelihoods.

Nevertheless, the research acknowledged the positive impacts which the CDC has had on the economy of Cameroon like offering employment to thousands, providing palm oil for local consumption and the opening up of roads and new plantations in areas like Ndian, Mamfe and Donga Mantung Divisions.

Meanwhile, presenting a paper on the study titled ‘Results on Conservation of Great Apes and Poverty Reduction in Cameroon,’ Becky Tchonko Bissong, a CRTV journalist and Communication Consultant for NESDA-CA, remarked that the Great Apes, such as gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees, were some of the world’s endangered species found in Cameroon, the Congo Basin and Nigeria.

She said these animals serve as food to some local communities; a source of income to some and useful for science and health as well as for ecotourism. She bemoaned poaching and rampant deforestation that have led to a great reduction in their populations and they are facing serious threats of sustainability. Other activities, such as logging and mining, she said, have become a common threat to their habitats.

According to her, there is a great need for the media to be informed on the impacts these destructions have had on these great apes, and how the reduction in their populations causes poverty to the local communities that depend on them for eco-tourism benefits and more.

She added that there was a need for a positive change by those involved, the communities around and everyone, to join efforts in improving the conservation of the great apes by engaging in alternative activities that are eco-tourism friendly and sustainable.