Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve & Djoko Community Forest: Civil society sounds alarm over looting under guise of mining project.

While the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve, created in 2014, is a protected 1,566KM2 tropical rainforest sitting between the Dja Biosphere Reserve and Nki National Park in the southern part of the East Region, the Djoko Community Forest covering about 48.59km2 in Ngoyla Subdivision, acts as a crucial buffer zone for the greater Congo Basin ecosystem. 

Described as vital for the survival of the indigenous Baka people, the Njoko forest serves for hunting, fishing, and trade-medicines. In addition, the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve, which sits between the Dja Biosphere Reserve and Nki National Park, is a vital wildlife corridor for endangered great apes, panthers, buffalos, and forest elephants.

However, human activities around these two important forests are posing a serious threat for the overall preservation of the Congo Basin forest. 

These activities, including illegal logging and land exploitation linked to the Mbalam mining project, have prompted civil society organisations to sound an alarm on the ongoing timber looting.

The alarm is the substance of a statement issued July 1. The consortium of organisations includes Green Development Advocates, ECODEV, RELUFA, RADER, DYPADEL, amongst others committed to the conservation and sustainable management of forests, protection of the environment and the defence of human rights in the exploitation of natural resources.

The CSOs expressed deep concern about the logging operations currently being carried out in the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve and in the Djoko Community Forest under the specious pretext of implementing the Mbalam iron project.

Crux of the matter

The government of Cameroon, through decree No.2022/395 of August 17, 2022, granted mining permit to Cameroon Mining Company, CMC, covering an area of 768.5423 km² in Ngoyla Subdivision, Upper-Nyong division, East region. 

A cartographic analysis of the coordinates in the decree shows that the permit area includes 40.038 hectares of the southern part of the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve as well as the entirety of the Djoko Community Forest.

According to the activists’ field observations and discussions, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, several Sales of Standing volume, including Single Site Verification N 10 02.475 and N 10 02.509, were attributed within the reserve.

The advocates noted with regrets the absence of public information on a possible partial or total declassification of the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve, in accordance with the requirements of article 17 paragraph 1 of law No.2024/008 of July 24, 2024 on the regime of forests and wildlife.

They also decried the lack of transparency surrounding the allocation of sales of standing volumes, which cannot be allocated without a declassification decree made public. 

The activists claimed that apparent lack of prior consultation with the stakeholders concerned and lack of prior impact study carried out in consultation with Indigenous Peoples. 

The granting of special permits for logging in the Djoko Community Forest without prior consultation with the Baka, is seen as life-threatening for indigenous people.

“The Djoko Community Forest, primarily a conservation area, is currently the only space in the region where indigenous people have access to carry out their traditional and religious activities. This forest was allocated as compensation to the Baka during the creation of the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve, and if it is destroyed, the cultural identity of this people will be lost, along with their basic means of subsistence,” the CSOs sounded in the July1 statement.

Deforestation alerts

Going by the activists, there has been increasing number of deforestation alerts recorded in the two forest areas. 

Data from Global Forest Watch, GFW, show that 42,566 deforestation alerts have been recorded in the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve between November 3, 2025, and June 8, 2026 while 2,347 alerts were recorded in the Djoko Community Forest between December 9, 2025, and June 8, 2026.

The ongoing operations, the activists explained, pose significant risks to the sacred sites and cultural spaces of the Baka indigenous people, their health, food security, and well-being as well as the transmission of traditional knowledge and the preservation of Baka cultural identity.

Besides undermining the usage rights of local and indigenous communities, and the natural habitat of many species of wildlife, the operations cause a significant destruction of wildlife corridors and the escalation of human-wildlife conflicts. 

They signaled that the operations in both forests is aiding poaching and the coherence of public policies in the face of the overlap of mining and forestry titles.

The signatory organizations believe that this situation currently compromises government's national and international commitments regarding respect for human rights, conservation of biodiversity, protection of indigenous peoples, the fight against climate change and transparency in extractive industries.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3840 of Tuesday July 07, 2026