Afrothismia winkleri

The main threat to the species is forest clearance for agriculture, timber and plantations. The type locality has been destroyed due to extensive palm and banana plantations (Sainge et al. 2017) and the second locality on Mount Cameroon has also been destroyed by oil palm plantations and chop farms (Onana and Cheek 2011). The remaining localities around Mount Kupe are primarily threatened by small-holder agriculture encroachment from nearby settlements, as all of these localities are currently unprotected (M. Cheek pers. comm. 2024). Climate change has been proposed as a potential major future threat to Afrothismia species due to the potential of small changes in climate to dramatically restrict distributional extent, as these species are typically confined to isolated patches and have restricted and fine-tuned phenology (Sainge et al. 2017).

Several localities of the species occur within the proposed area of the Mont Kupe Strict Nature Reserve in Cameroon, but are not currently under any protection, and one locality occurs within the Mont Fouari Wildlife Reserve (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2024). Given the threat of habitat loss and the extirpation of several historic localities, establishing ex situ conservation should be prioritised in the immediate future.