Buea, Cameroon - Cameroonian scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Yaounde I, Dr. Isaac Njilah Konfor, has said the rich medicinal plants found in the Mt. Cameroon region might soon be exhausted owing to unsustainable harvesting.

Njilah, a volcanologist and an environmental geo-scientist was speaking Monday, November 19 to the press at the Limbe Botanic Gardens on, after the opening session of a three-day workshop on the theme, "Endangered Species of Mt. Cameroon and Ecological Succession on the Recent Lavas."

The Cameroon Ecological Society, CES, in collaboration with the British Council in Yaounde organised the workshop."Sooner or later we will have a problem where the forest of Mt. Cameroon, which is very precious, not only to Cameroon but to the rest of the world, will be exterminated,' Njilah said.

The seriousness of the problem rallied some 70 Cameroonian scientists from several research institutes, universities and secondary schools who brainstormed on possible ways of helping to curb the trend of the disappearance of the medicinal plants.

Among the endangered species of this region is the prunus africana; a plant reportedly used for the treatment of prostrate cancer. By dint of its high demand, it has become one of the most sought after.

Dr. Njilah said this species was one of their concerns, for it may soon become exhausted from the forest if measures are not taken to propagate it.According to him, the workshop was equally to ascertain the effects caused on these plants by the past eruptions in the region with the most recent ones being those of 1999 and 2000, which damaged hundreds of hectares of natural forest.

One of the participants at the workshop, Charlotte Fonocho Enjoh, said their interest was also to look at the probable hazards by the erupting ashes that usually end up around local settlements.

The Head of Projects and Services of the British Council, Emmanuel Ngungoh, in an address said he hoped the workshop would develop initiatives to enhance the biodiversity of the Mt. Cameroon area.

He noted that the British Ecological Society, BES, was providing funding for the Cameroon Ecological Society.At the end of the exercise, the participants resolved to, among other things, create a Journal of the Cameroon Ecological Society.

Besides, they also appealed to the British Council in Yaounde for sponsorship of their future gatherings.The workshop ended with a visit to the Ekona Research Centre, a tour of the Limbe Botanic Gardens and a visit to the lava mount at Bakingili in the West Coast District of Idenau.

http://www.postnewsline.com/2007/11/scientist-fears.html