Voice of Nature (VoNat) and some 100 community children are raising awareness and enhancing the understanding of local communities in the Mount Nlonako Area of Cameroon to save the world’s largest frog, goliath frog (Conraua goliath) from extinction in an outreach and community-wide education and sensitization campaign. The goliath frog is a giant slippery frog (up to 32cm long and weighs about 3.8 kilo gram) located only in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, with at least 20,000 hunted every peak season (November to February) for food and pet trade, despite being classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Since May 17, 2023, VoNat and some 100 community kids have reached out to over 2000 forest community members in the Mount Nlonako Area and other parts of Cameroon with goliath frog conservation messages and a call to action using micro radio TV and radio programmes, crowd-pulling community events, and public exhibitions.
The campaign to save the goliath frog started off with a micro programme on Home TV-Douala in the Littoral Region of Cameroon. The Executive Director of VoNat used this programme to highlight the plight of the endangered species, calling on local communities retreat from wanton hunting and habitat destruction. The VoNat technical team also organized special slots on the Mount Nlonako FM Radio where kids and youths reached out to at least 15 communities in the Mount Nlonako Area with goliath frog conservation messages through radio debates, talk shows, poems, and article presentations.
One of the high points of the “Save the Goliath Frog” outreach and sensitization campaign was on May 20, 2023, being Cameroon’s National Day Celebration and Endangered Species Day. The about 100 kids that have been engaged in the ecological study of the goliath frog and other amphibians since November 2022, used this event to translate their zeal for endangered amphibians conservation into concrete actions. They marched past in front of over 1000 community members including traditional authorities, policy makers and local administrators amongst others brandishing posters and drawings of the goliath frog and other endangered amphibians species they want protected. They also brandished unique conservation messages like: “Stop the hunting of the Goliath frog, it is an endangered species”, “amphibians are great contributions to our ecosystem, save their habitats” etc.
The conservation messages were well received by community members and their local leaders. “Conserving the frogs is a good initiative. The destruction of one species has a huge impact on the ecosystem. It is thus, necessary for everyone to be involved in endangered frogs conservation,” traditional ruler of Mangamba, Chief Roland Essengue Mbonda, said.
The young conservation ambassadors also produced and locally recorded three songs about goliath frog conservation, which are being played on community radio stations for continuous education and sensitization about the frog and other endangered amphibians in the Mount Nlonako Area. Meanwhile, a magazine with focus on goliath frog conservation is being produced and will be distributed in the weeks ahead to further sensitize and engage community members, local leaders and policy makers in the Mount Nlonako Area in the conservation of this emblematic species.
The outreach and sensitization campaign is part of a project by VoNat’s Executive Director, Ndimuh B. Shancho, to save the world’s largest frog from extinction in the Mount Nlonako Area of Cameroon, carried out with funding from National Geographic Society.
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