To cushion effects of greenhouse emissions: AVAF, stakeholders resolve to draft policy document on environmental conservation.

It took place on the theme: "Congo Basin Preservation through Sustainable Community Forest Conservation".

In her opening statement of the 'Sink our CO2 campaign' workshop, AVAF Director and UN climate change Ambassador, Ewi Stephanie Lama, disclosed that Cameroon has one of the oldest forest growth in the world which is an asset and should be protected from deforestation. Ewi explained that policies can only become the game changer if there is effective implementation through public-private partnership initiatives 

"The sink our carbon workshop is part of three objectives of a series of workshops with the aim of building capacities of rural women on heli-culture and climate leadership across Cameroon. Fortunately for us, the US Embassy in Yaounde took interest to ensure implementation. So the sink our carbon workshop actually focuses on bringing together policy-makers who are concerned with the management of the Bimbia-Bonadikombo Community Forest," Ewi stressed. 

She added that the intention was to put rural women on the spotlight so that their voices should be heard in decision-making platforms in the management and protection of community forests.

Discussions during the workshop focused on topics such as; Empowering local women in Sustainable Forest Conservation: a key to Preserving the Congo Basin, and Sustainable Forest management and carbon sequestration with online interventions, from Karina Weinstein and Green Peace Africa.

It was also agreed that more sensitization needs to be done on community Forest management especially around the Bimbia-Bonadikombo Community Forest area.

The South West Regional Delegate of Water and Energy Resources called on civil society organisations and even local councils to invest in renewable energy as a means of curbing deforestation, since many communities rely on the forest for wood. He reiterated government’s resolve to give technical assistance even at the level of the project proposal. 

Talking to the press, one of the participants, Nkwen-Tamo Pamela, Secretary General of Limbe I Council, said: "This workshop has opened a gateway for collaboration. We wish to call on civil society organisations working on environmental issues to submit their proposals to us so that they can be included in the budget of the Council”.

Another participant, Ngoh Albert KFS, said "we try as much as possible to implement practices that have an inverse reaction on the environment".

This story first published in The Guardian Post issue No3130 of Monday June 02, 2024