Horn und Tusk 
110 elephants in 2014. Estimated 300+ today. A rare conservation success — and the source of a new crisis for the communities living below.
Mount Cameroon National Park is one of the few places in Cameroon where elephant numbers appear to be going in the right direction. When the park was formally established, it gave the resident population breathing room. By 2014 the count stood at 110. Estimates today suggest over 300 — a genuine recovery by any measure.
But recovery brought its own problem. As the population grew, elephants expanded their range beyond the park boundaries and into the farming communities at the base of the mountain. Crop raids, destroyed livelihoods, and rising human-elephant conflict became the new reality for villages like Bakingili — communities that had nothing to do with the decisions that created the park, and everything to lose from its success. This conflict is the subject of our current active project.
The picture is further complicated by the Anglophone Crisis. Since 2016, the South West Region has been at war. Monitoring is dangerous, data is scarce, and the communities caught between elephants and armed conflict have been left without support from any direction.
The creation of Mount Cameroon National Park appears to have worked. But no verified count exists to confirm the estimate of 300+. And the recovery has pushed elephants into conflict with farming communities — a problem that now needs as much attention as the elephants themselves.
Since 2016, the South West Region has been at the centre of Cameroon's civil war. Buea — the city at the foot of Mount Cameroon — is a flashpoint. Monitoring wildlife in an active conflict zone is dangerous, underfunded, and largely abandoned.
Recovery pushed elephants beyond park boundaries into farming communities. Crop raids and property destruction are now a serious issue for villages like Bakingili. The success of conservation created a new crisis for the people living alongside it.
The estimate of 300+ is just that — an estimate. No formal survey has been conducted since 2014. Without verified data the population cannot be properly managed, and the scale of human-elephant conflict cannot be accurately assessed.
In 2014, a formal count recorded 110 elephants in Mount Cameroon National Park. The creation of the park — which gave the population protected range and reduced direct human pressure — appears to have worked. Current estimates suggest the population has grown to over 300, making this one of the few genuine conservation success stories in Cameroon's elephant record.
But that success came with consequences. As the population expanded, elephants moved beyond the park boundaries into the farming communities at the base of the mountain. Villages like Bakingili began experiencing regular crop raids — livelihoods destroyed, fields flattened, and communities left to manage a conflict they had no part in creating. This human-elephant conflict is now the defining challenge for this population, and the subject of our current active project.
The Anglophone Crisis has added another layer of complexity. Since 2016, South West Region has been a conflict zone. Buea, at the foot of the mountain, has seen military operations and armed separatist activity. Communities already struggling with elephant raids are also navigating a civil war. Any attempt at a formal population count — or at implementing human-elephant conflict mitigation — takes place in an environment of instability and danger.
The estimate of 300+ remains unverified. No formal survey has been conducted since 2014. Without an updated count, the scale of the population's recovery cannot be confirmed, and effective management of the resulting human-elephant conflict remains impossible.