How Cameroonian students are helping to protect the endangered goliath frog

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  Saskia Houttuin

  Africa journalist

A large picture of a large frog. For example, a primary school in Ebone, a small town in the tropical forests of Cameroon, attracts the attention of everyone who passes by. “The Goliath frog is part of our heritage,” said the poster on the outside wall. “Let’s protect him.”

The school is located in the middle of the campus Goliath’s contract: the goliath frog, whose name is due to its magnificent size. It can weigh 3.5 kilograms, about as much as a newborn baby.

But the frog is increasingly rare in the forests of Cameroon. It is estimated that the number of goliath frogs has decreased by more than 70 percent in recent decades.

Delphia (12) shakes her head when asked if she has ever seen the frog in real life. She knows she can jump long, “as much as three meters”.

She is sitting at a wooden bench bent over a picture she made of the frog. Line by line, dot by dot, she copies a complex chalkboard drawing, just as around thirty classmates are getting a special lesson about the Goliath frog today.

“It is a rare frog because they are hunted a lot,” says Leonel (10). “Poachers catch them to sell.” In Cameroon, frogs are often poached on the black market, where they are sold for consumption.

The frog is considered food. Some believe that the animal also has medicinal properties. It regularly happens that frogs are smuggled across the border and sold abroad.

But there is more, says Robillard Kouekam, a conservationist at ASCOBIO (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity). “Many frogs have become extinct due to the use of agricultural pesticides, such as pesticides,” he says. “Other frogs have returned deeper into the rainforest.”

Poaching remains the biggest problem. “In Cameroon it is forbidden to hunt them,” says Kouekam, under a special wildlife law from 1994. “But the law is not enforced. They are still being hunted, without people realizing that the frog under the influence.”

Primary school students are an important target group for conservationists like Kouekam. That is why they visit schools, such as the primary school in Ebone, once a year for a special lesson about the Goliath frog. Not only do the children learn about the special characteristics of the animal, but they also find out what effect extinction can have on the ecosystem. For example, the frog eats the larvae of insects that carry diseases, such as malaria and dengue.

Kouekam hopes to reach a larger group through elementary school children. “If you give information to a child, it will also reach the parents. That’s why we focus on children.” The group also helps poachers to do other activities, such as growing mushrooms and snails.

According to the group, this is all paying off. According to Kouekam and his group, people in the Ebone region are much more aware of the disappearance of their piece of national heritage. “If you try to catch a goliath frog now, your neighbors will whistle back.”