ABSTRACT
Benefits resulting from the research process will vary by project and site. The Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research (MINREST) requires as part of its research-permitting process that copies of reports be left with collaborating organizations, that the input of Cameroonian institutions is acknowledged in reports and that specimens of all plant material collected are lodged in the National Herbarium. Most protected area managers would like to go much further, promoting through a collaborative approach the tailoring of research design, data collection and analysis to assist in addressing immediate conservation and management problems. In addition to the generation of more immediately relevant research data, benefits that might result from a more collaborative approach to research, and cited in interviews, include:
• the return of publications, technical reports and data to protected areas managers; • joint publications; • training of local researchers, community members and protected area staff in data
collection and field techniques, scientific methodologies, etc; • assistance provided by collaborating research institutions in species identification
and analytical tools; • donation of equipment, including ‘know-how’ (eg computers); • species checklists and field manuals or guides; • information relevant to basic ecological monitoring and species management; • employment of local population; • development of young students’ and researchers’ careers; • development of rural areas (through assistance with road or bridge-building, health
centres, education); • fund-raising assistance; and • financial income (eg a percentage of the research operating budget).
