Tubah Upland Forest, Cameroon
500
women involved
45,000
native and agroforestry trees
3,200
community beneficiaries
Women restoring the Tubah Forest
In Cameroon’s Bamenda Highlands, the Tubah Forest is under growing pressure. Forest loss, changing rainfall, water scarcity and ongoing conflict are making life harder for the people and wildlife who depend on this landscape.
This project sees local Mbororo women leading the restoration of the forest they call home. Not only helping protect trees, water, and soil but strengthening livelihoods and building greater community power to care for the land and their communities.
A forest, and everything that depends on it
The Tubah Upland Forest sits in the Bamenda Highlands of Cameroon, within the Gulf of Guinea’s biodiversity hotspot. It provides refuge for many threatened wildlife species, including the endangered Nigerian–Cameroon chimpanzee, Highland stream frog, and endemic birds such as the striking crimson-and-blue Bannerman’s turaco.
But the forest is under increasing pressure. Healthy forests help hold water in the landscape, protect soil, support food production and provide natural resources that communities rely on. Yet agricultural expansion, unsustainable logging, overgrazing and settlements have contributed to soil degradation, biodiversity loss and increasing water scarcity, while changing rainfall patterns and longer dry periods are making life harder for those who depend on the land.
Restoring the Tubah Forest means protecting the wider landscape alongside the people and wildlife who depend on it.
© Dustin Chen (macaulaylibrary.org)
Who are the Mbororo Fulani?
The Mbororo (also called Bororo) are a traditionally semi-nomadic, cattle-herding subgroup of the Fulani people who live across the grasslands and savannahs of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic.
Moving seasonally to graze their livestock, their wealth, social status, and cultural identity are deeply bound to their herds. They speak dialects of the Fulfulde language and live by Pulaaku, an unwritten ancestral moral code emphasising self-control, modesty, and community loyalty.
While famous for vivid matchmaking celebrations like the Gerewol festival, modern Mbororo face escalating challenges from climate change and land conflicts, driving many toward a semi-settled, agro-pastoral way of life.
Restoration in a landscape shaped by conflict
The Bamenda Highlands have been affected by the ongoing Anglophone Crisis since 2017. It is estimated that more than 6,500 people have died since the crisis escalated, while hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced internally or fled as refugees.
The conflict has added to existing pressures on land and natural resources. As grazing land and water sources decline, tensions between farming and pastoralist communities have become harder to navigate. Mbororo Fulani communities, already facing discrimination and marginalisation, have been particularly vulnerable to violence and displacement.
For people living here, restoring and protecting the land means working against a backdrop of conflict, environmental change and pressure on livelihoods. This makes local leadership and community-led restoration all the more important.
Mbororo women leading the way
Mbororo women only face compounded barriers.
Land ownership, natural resource management and participation in local decision-making are often shaped by discrimination based on gender, ethnicity and their traditional pastoralist livelihoods.
Yet these are the women at the forefront of this work.
Alongside restoring the land, the project will support Mbororo women to develop the knowledge, connections, and influence they need to take part in decisions affecting their communities and the landscapes they depend on.
Through Advocacy Labs, women will map the people and institutions that influence decisions and be paired with experienced mentors. Advocacy days and public speaking showcases will give emerging leaders opportunities to present community concerns, share evidence and seek commitments for conservation action.
Women will also lead the project’s Forest Watch and Feedback system, documenting threats to the forest and helping ensure that community concerns reach the people and institutions able to respond.
This is about more than giving women a role in restoration. It is about supporting them to speak, negotiate, organise, and influence what happens to the land, water and forests they and their families depend on.
Restoring the forest, from the ground up
The project will restore degraded areas of the Tubah landscape while bringing more trees into surrounding farms and communities.
🌱 Bringing native trees back
30,000 native forest trees will be planted, including Carapa, Pygeum and White mahogany, helping restore degraded areas and strengthen native forest cover.
🌳 Making farms part of the restoration work
15,000 agroforestry trees, including Calliandra, Acacia, mango and plum, will be planted across farming landscapes.
These trees can provide food, materials and other benefits for households while helping improve soils and reduce pressure on existing forest.
💧 Protecting the water people depend on
Communities will map springs, catchments, erosion hotspots and other important areas to identify where restoration and protection can have the greatest impact.
🌿 Growing trees locally
Village seed-to-seedling networks will support local seed collection and establish small nurseries managed by women and young people. This will help communities grow trees suited to their landscape while building the knowledge and capacity to continue restoring the forest beyond individual planting seasons.
Restoration that works for people, too
Forest restoration cannot be separated from the lives and livelihoods of the people living around it.
Through a Green Enterprise Incubator, women will explore greener sources of income, including mushroom production, beekeeping, sheep rearing, tree seedling production, compost and organic inputs, and fuel-efficient cookstoves.
Savings groups will link enterprise development with access to finance, while support with marketing and connections to buyers will help women develop viable businesses.
The project will also explore ways to turn waste into useful products, including compost, mushroom-growing materials and briquettes.
The aim is to create more secure income opportunities for women and their families while reducing some of the pressures that contribute to forest loss.
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Trees alone will not protect a forest.
For restoration to last, people need to see the forest as something worth protecting, recognise the specfic threats it faces, and have the knowledge and confidence to act when necessary.
Part of this project is about creating practical ways for communities to understand, care for and defend the forest. This includes:
Forest School
Monthly learning circles will explore forests, water, soils and biodiversity through practical, locally relevant learning, helping people understand how these parts of the landscape are connected and why their protection matters.
Forest Watch
Women will use dedicated communication channels to report threats including fires, illegal logging and encroachment, creating a direct route for concerns to be recorded and raised.
Youth eco-clubs
Young people will take part in citizen science, including tree tagging, biodiversity sightings and simple water-source monitoring, building their knowledge of the landscape around them.
Eco-theatre and storytelling
Roadshows, storytelling and mobile messaging will bring conversations about forest protection, biodiversity and sustainable land use into communities in accessible and engaging ways.
Community restoration days
People will come together to plant and maintain trees, remove invasive species, maintain firebreaks and restore degraded areas.
Local leadership, local knowledge
This work is in partnership with the Community Agriculture and Environmental Protection Association–Cameroon (CAEPA), a women-founded organisation established in 2009.
CAEPA has deep experience working with Mbororo women and communities across the Bamenda Highlands, with a long-standing focus on forest protection, climate resilience, women's leadership and community livelihoods.
This project builds on that local knowledge and experience, bringing together forest restoration, women's leadership, livelihoods and protection of the wider landscape.
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Why does this matter?
The pressures facing the Tubah Forest are interconnected.
When forests are degraded, water sources suffer and soils become more vulnerable. When livelihoods are insecure, pressure on natural resources increase. When women and communities have little influence over decisions affecting land and resources, it becomes harder for local concerns to shape what happens next.
Restoration therefore has to go beyond planting trees.
This project brings those pieces together: restoring forest and farmland, protecting water and soils, creating more sustainable livelihood opportunities, and supporting women and communities to have a stronger voice in decisions about the landscape they depend on.
Lasting restoration will never simply be about what gets planted. It is about whether people have the knowledge, resources and influence to protect what grows.
A stronger future for the Tubah landscape
Over the course of the project, 45,000 trees will be planted, degraded areas restored and local systems strengthened to protect forests, farms and water sources.
Women will have new opportunities to develop livelihoods, build leadership and influence decisions in their communities. Young people will gain practical knowledge of the biodiversity and natural resources around them. And communities will have more tools to identify threats and take action to protect their landscape.
Together, these changes can help create a Tubah landscape that is healthier, more resilient and better able to sustain the people and wildlife who call it home.
Help make projects like this possible
TreeSisters supports locally and women-led restoration that brings forests, people and livelihoods together. By supporting this work, you help make it possible for communities to restore Nature, strengthen their resilience and shape a healthier future for the landscapes they call home.
