Cameroon — described as "Africa in miniature" for its extraordinary ecological diversity — hosts rainforests, savannas, montane ecosystems, and coastline supporting some of Africa's richest biodiversity. It also faces acute animal welfare challenges: a severe bushmeat crisis threatening great apes and other wildlife, an armed conflict in the Anglophone regions disrupting agricultural and pastoral systems, and growing intensive farming sectors without welfare regulation. Cameroon represents both the enormous conservation value at stake and the complexity of protecting animals in a low-income country with competing priorities.
Cameroon's 27+ million people live in a country with French and English-speaking regions whose political tensions have generated armed conflict in the Northwest and Southwest since 2016 — the "Anglophone Crisis" that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and severely disrupted agricultural systems. The country is lower-middle income, with significant oil revenues offset by governance challenges and regional inequality.
Cameroon's bushmeat trade is one of Central Africa's most severe, with millions of animals — from giant forest rats and duikers to chimpanzees, gorillas, and forest elephants — hunted for urban and rural food markets annually. The welfare implications are profound: wire snares cause agonizing deaths and injuries; animals are transported alive in cramped conditions; and great apes — our closest relatives — are killed in significant numbers.
Cameroon's forest elephant population — a distinct species from savanna elephants, smaller and more forest-adapted — has been devastated by ivory poaching. Populations in some areas have declined by 60-80% since 2000. The welfare dimensions of elephant poaching are severe: family groups are disrupted; young elephants witness and survive attacks on their relatives; and the stress of living in landscapes with active poaching imposes chronic fear responses documented in behavioral studies.
Cameroon's livestock sector supports significant smallholder cattle herding in the Adamawa plateau highlands (one of Africa's most productive cattle areas) alongside growing peri-urban poultry and pig operations. The Anglophone conflict has severely disrupted farming in the Northwest and Southwest regions — historically important agricultural areas where cattle herding, dairy, and mixed farming were significant. Animals in conflict zones have been abandoned, stolen, or killed.
Cattle are used as draft animals in some farming systems; donkeys and horses serve transport functions in northern Cameroon. SPANA has maintained programs in Cameroon, providing working animal veterinary care and owner education. The Anglophone conflict has prevented program access in affected regions.
Cameroon is both a source and transit country for wildlife trafficking — ivory, live primates, pangolins, and other species. The pangolin crisis is particularly acute: Cameroon hosts significant pangolin populations, but all four African pangolin species are targeted by traffickers for Asian markets. Pangolins are the world's most trafficked mammals; their capture, transport, and the stress of handling cause severe welfare harms.
Cameroon's welfare priorities span multiple urgent fronts: resolving the Anglophone conflict to restore agricultural and pastoral systems, scaling great ape sanctuary capacity, strengthening anti-poaching enforcement in protected areas, reducing the bushmeat trade through both enforcement and alternative protein development, and introducing welfare standards for growing intensive farming sectors. International conservation and welfare organizations — including Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, Ape Action Africa, and LAGA — maintain significant Cameroon programs that warrant expanded support.