The lake in which it lives and the surrounding forest are an official government protected area (a "Plantlife Sanctuary"). This and the wider Kilum-Ijim forest (about 20,000 ha) have been subjected to a community forest conservation project facilitated by BirdLife International, the core work concluding in the early 2000s, but with minor projects continuing. The population of "X. longipes" has been studied by researchers in collaboration with the local community since 2006, including studying the lake's ecology. In 2013, a workshop with the local Oku community (including the Fon of Oku) drafted a conservation action plan to conserve Lake Oku, its surrounding forest and biodiversity such as "X. longipes".