Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Gorilla, education | Date: Nov 15 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Yesterday LWC presented the book ‘Gorilla Stories’, which is going to be used in conservation education in all the schools in and around Limbe. The Cross river gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), that lives in the South West Province of Cameroon, is critically endangered, with only around 250 gorillas left in the wild. It is therefore very important to educate the people of this province about these gems in their forests. The book is a tool to discuss the Cross river gorilla, its needs and the threats it is facing.

‘Gorilla stories’ is developed by the Czech Radio, with money that came from their project Odhaleni (Revealed). This gorilla project, which started with a gorilla version of the television show ‘Big Brother’, filmed in Prague Zoo, is very popular in the Czech Republic. Now the Cameroonian students will meet with the Czech Zoo gorillas and will learn about the life of gorillas both in the wild and in the zoo.

The principles and teachers of fifteen schools were present for the book presentation, which was covered by the Cameroonian Radio and Television and some local radio stations. Miroslav Bobek, one of the writers of the stories, and Jana Jiritova, were over from the Czech Republic to assist with the presentation and start the distribution of the books. All school representatives were very pleased with the donated books, which are very nicely illustrated with lots of gorilla pictures. Like everybody in this country, the Cameroonian schools are always struggling to make ends meet, so it is very difficult for them to build up a library. This book donation is for most schools a valuable gift, that can be used in all sorts of classes, from conservation education to comprehensive reading, drawing, etc. The Limbe Wildlife Centre will use the books as well in both the outreach program and the Saturday Nature Club.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager