French Charity Transforms Lives Through Plant Valorisation

By Regina Fonjia Leke
In 2012, research conducted by ERuDeF and funded by Whitley Fund for Nature led to the uncovering of the potentials of a plant called Echinops giganteus in Magha, Bamumbu, Lebilem Division.
The plant had hitherto been just a plaything for children but was found to contain properties of essential oil that can be used in perfumes, food and pharmaceutical industries.
In November 2012, with the support of Man and Nature and Mane Foundation, the Echinops Project on Mt. Bamboutos was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED).
Since then, ERuDeF has been supporting the community of Magha in the implementation of this project.
According to Tamoh Odimus, a native of Magha, since he became aware of the importance of echinops, he has made money from it.
“This plant has been on my farm for decades and I did not know its value. Sometimes, I used to even cut it down to have space for farming. But today, thanks to research, the value of the plant has increased and I have dug about 50kg of it which I sold for over 50.000 francs cfa. I used part of this money to pay my children’s school fees,” said Tamoh.
The father of seven said he also used part of the money to feed his family. In addition, Tamoh has received seedlings from ERuDeF and is currently domesticating the echinops plant.
He believes in due time he will continue to harvest the roots to raise money to support his family.
“I see Magha in some five to ten years as an emerging community. A lot of good things have happened to us through the Echinops giganteus project. We are currently domesticating the plant and we now have the first-ever cooperative which is going to regulate the prices of echinops sold and will also help us save money for rainy days,” Tamoh told The Green Vision.
He said because they have understood the benefits of the plant, they don’t destroy it any longer.
For Nomanjong Denis, the project has been a source of employment.
“Since 2012, I have worked in the capacity of a field technician in charge of caring for the nursery. Some of my family members and friends have equally gained seasonal employment at different stages of the project. The money I have been making from my work has for the last two years helped me to send my first child to school,” Nomanjong said.
He said through the project, he has been able to harvest and sell the roots of a plant which until now was just some wild plant and the income helps him to run his family.
Nomanjong also hopes that the discovery of echinops will create room for advancement in scientific research in his village.
“We have had both local and international researchers visiting our village and for me this is a privilege because it is an opportunity for new discoveries to be made especially given that we have a lot of floral diversity. We have been trying to educate other neighbouring villages such as Awoh, Fomenji, Atsuaha and Bamock that have echinops on the importance of preserving the plant,” Nomanjong said.
Another inhabitant, Fongoh Mathias, told The Green Vision that the echinops project has great potentials.
“Echinops grows well in grassland areas and because Magha is a grassland, the prospects for the plant doing well are high. In addition, unlike other plants such as potatoes which rely highly on chemical fertilizers, echinops can do well without chemicals, thus preserving the soil,” Fongoh said.
He thanked ERuDeF and her partner Man and Nature for using the echinops project to transform the lives of the people in Magha.
It would be recalled that the echinops giganteus project made great strides in Cameroon as it became the pilot project for the implementation of the Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) principle of the Nagoya Protocol which warrants equal benefit sharing between communities hosting natural resources and enterprises wishing to exploit their resources.
In June 2014, the