Pangolins are threatened and classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, listed on Appendix I of
CITES and fully protected by Cameroon’s
Wildlife conservation law as ‘class A’. Their habitats are under threat of degradation and fragmentation by
human activity such as deforestation, farmland encroachment and bushfires. Literature has it that one
Pangolin could consume more than 7 million of termites or ants annually (Challendar, 2009). The existing
habitat disturbance as recorded during previous studies (Field observation of 2020/2021) threaten their
welfare in their habitats, reduce food availability, and foraging capacity (Difouo et al., 2020) and
reproduction leading to the local extinction. There is a limited number of government personnel charged
biomonitoring of the park and to take off snares used to hunt pangolins. Thus, training of local guides as
community rangers is vital for the biomonitoring and conservation of pangolin in Deng-Deng. The
DDNP is in the Northern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion situated against the forest of the
Eastern Region and the desert of the Adamawa Region.
Project outcome will help to understand the efficacy of using locally motivated individuals as citizen
scientists to protect pangolins, thereby enabling forecast of potential period for species population and
habitat restoration.

Though the project is still at its early stage, thanks to the Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ) Species
Conservation Fund, 06 local field assistants have already been trained in biomonitoring of pangolins using
SMART survey tools; camera trapping, GPS, cyber-tracking, and data collection and recording on field
data forms. They have also been educated on environmental and research ethics which is necessary to
provide reliable and consistent research information. The local assistants now function effectively as
citizen scientists (Couvet et al., 2008; Eden, 1996); and will be supported in providing consistent
information and biomonitoring data to support pangolin welfare in Deng-Deng. The transformed local
field assistants are now monitored, and will be certified as Community Rangers coordinated under
FReECo in order to collaborate with government owned Eco-guards who are limited in number. Their
collaboration will sustain an efficient conservation and ecosystem free of human interference including
removal of trapping devices, destruction of hunters’ houses, recording of every human signs, document
pangolin and other species signs their habitat use and evolution. In future more disengaged hunters will be
recruited. This project targets to establish a standard community-based collaborative monitoring system
based on feedback and rapid intervention response towards human activities, pangolin ecology,
population status and other field reports.