Matthew Burnett: Afon Hike

Good to be back "home", its always a good nights rest sleeping in ol' faithful, this time along the Oueme River

I had barely settled in from going around West Africa when I headed off to Afon. Afon is a small village

Our trusty guides

outside Djougou. I went there with some of other missionaries in Benin to do a three day hike along the Oueme River. We met our guides in Afon, two local hunters from the town whom know the area we were heading into well. The area we walked into is known as the Forest Classee de la Superior Oueme. Hopefully you are starting to understand the conservation set-up in a francophone countries as much as I am. In case you haven’t (like me in some ways) a Foret Classee is French for classed forests and serves to protect the natural forest in some form of a reserve. With this in mind we stopped by the forester’s office to let him know we were hiking out into his area. We were received well and he gave a brief description and size of the area of the Foret Classee before sending us on our way. The Oueme River is the major river in Benin which runs North to South and has its delta in the estuary around Cotonou. The Foret Classee de la Superior Oueme is a large area with the boundary extending near Serarou. For the hike however we covered the area around Afon. Before we started walking we drove just under 10km south into the area before, the deeper one goes into the reserve the more “untouched” it appears. One can see less and less impact the further we went in however impact was still there. It does give the impression of a “out of site out of mind” mentality or mere accessibility. Large cut trees are harder to carry out than fish.

Walking was easy and game scarce, for the entire trip we saw two Kob, a fleeting sightings of other small antelope and only the tracks of Baboons and Hippotamus. Fresh hippo tracks we found the one morning, the thick overhanging vegetation along the river is ideal for them to hide in, yet we didn’t find them. So what was down there to see? Well not much, however seeing the area on foot always exceeds the experience of driving or flying into such an area. The Oueme River is a beautiful river, the areas we walked through had some spectacular trees tower close to 40 meters. The area itself has huge potential to be a great reserve and if managed better can house all the large game of Africa. With this our guide shares rumours of an elephant that was sighted over a year ago near the area. With this in mind we hoped for the best.

An old Fishermans hut

Smoked fish

With a lot to work on for an outsider; It was great to talk to the two guides that came with and relate my guiding stories to their hunting stories, after all time spent in the bush on foot brings out the same relations. One thing I have come to realize is that the West African complains continually that there is not nearly as many animals as there ever used to be. Yet everything gets shot on sight. However with them knowing that there was more animals around can be foundational to further their thinking to conserve what they have left. The guides we were with understand this and relating the success of conservation in South Africa hopefully motivated them further to conserve what they have around them. They were impressed with my bush knowledge and I hope this spoke more of what can be done other than who I am. One of the downsides was that there were fishing camps around, these camps move around to where there is fish. As we walked along the river we came across old camps, yet only came across one active one. Not quite the wilderness experience. Yet even within wilderness one asks of survival and is that not what these men are doing?

Our guides catch for the day.

Line and hook, left behind from
the fishermen

Fish seem plenty within the reserve. During a break I took out my hand line and caught a small barbus sp. With some cheese, this got the guide excitedandhe tookmy hook and some line and went on the catch Brycinus nurse and Clarius gariepinus (an imberi species and catfish respectively). We went on to eat them that night, taking on you eat what you catch. Where as the fishermen smoke the fish and go sell it at the local markets.Not quite the wilderness experience. Yet even within wilderness one asks of survival and is that not what these men are doing? Fish seem plenty within the reserve. During a break I took out my hand line and caught a small barbus sp. With some cheese, this got the guide excited and he took my hook and some line and went on to catch

A tree chopped for "it's" honey

Honey, a sought after delicacy is also harvested within this Foret Classee. However one wonders what goes through their minds when they do it. A hive is found and then if large enough the entire tree is chopped down in order to get to the honey. Strangely enough the tree is not chopped with a chainsaw it’s hacked with a machete. The tree now destroyed is left for dead. Although fore filing the role of decaying matter, there are enough trees chopped for timber to fill that niche and so the process seems a waste. Although honey you must admit tastes great! Maybe the wood is not completely useless as within a few trees previously chopped for honey, lay a few reclaimed bee hives. These seemed to be checked up on regularly by hunters, and re-harvested time and time again. All the talk on bees and honey brought about the conversation about the honeyguide. We chatted about the honeyguide and its calling to us to show us honey, then how one climbs a tree to harvest the honey. This was a surprise to the hunters, despite the greater honeyguide being found in the area. Maybe it is an Eastern and southern African tradition? Or how much is being lost due to finding an economical means to an end…?

With all the impact influence I started to think along these lines…

Lack of knowledge, foresight or energy (a tendency to laziness).

An excavated bee hive, with a active hive

One gets used to (as sad as it is) the evidence of chopped trees for lumber, even trees chopped down for honey. The trees chopped with a chainsaw are harvested for their wood, they are selected and then skillfully chopped down and the wood carted off to be sold. However, nothing is planted in return to replenish the trees removed from the system, whether to be harvested later or just give back what was taken. The trees that are chopped down to get at honey is detrimental and in my opinion is considering that less and less trees remain. Sometimes the bees do return to the cavity where they have been chopped out before, the hive is then harvested regularly by hunters moving through, as for the tree well nothing. Topics of such and better ideas were discussed with the guides, it is easy to say don’t do it, but it’s hard to provide alternative methods. These hunters won’t shoot a francolin because they can’t get a price exceeding the price they pay for bullet. However anything bigger and within shotgun distance is fair game. The locals love venison yet it is becoming scarce. The idea of farming with game farms is a recognizing mentality yet as with most things needs collaboration and control, things often lacking here. Some understand the need to do something, yet they don’t know what, or lack the capacity. They have their own means to conservation which are slowly becoming more difficult to adhere to due to the population expansion and pressures to obtain more of the resources they have around them. This pressure is what has removed certain keystone animals from certain areas in Benin and WA. I hope before I leave I can see a small antelope on TWR’s land… of course I am a purest having been spoiled with the unspoiled wilderness areas of Kruger National Park.

Enough of the hypothetical, philosophical, analytical and misinterpretations let’s get down to reality, the trail was great, the area great, time spent with people… good. A night out under a West African forest humbling, I’d do it again.

Here some great pictures from the hike... enjoy