Cameroon protects plants by law; It is time we protected them in practice!

By Dr Ekwoge Abwe A few years ago, one of our field staff was bitten by a tree viper deep in the forest. It took nearly ten hours to evacuate him to hospital. Yet when he arrived, he was not in the critical condition we had feared. Before reaching modern medical care, he had received treatment in a nearby village using remedies drawn from the forest. For communities living in remote areas of Cameroon, the forest is a supermarket, hardware store, entertainment space, and – as my colleague found – a pharmacy. Dr Ekwoge Abwe, Country Director of Cameroon Biodiversity…