Centre Region: Germany transforms Yoko municipality into sustainable natural resources management site.

According to the municipal authority, the mega investments made by the Germany through its development arm, the German Cooperation, mainly in the last few years, have transformed the municipality into a reference point sustainable natural resource management in Cameroon and Central Africa sub region. 

Besides placing the municipality as a reference in effective management of forests and its resources, the mayor says the financial, technical and material investments from Germany is also boosting the economic independence and wellbeing of the local populations. 

Mayor Annir Tina made the positive remarks in Yoko late last week. This was during the visit of the German Cooperation-led media delegation that recently toured the municipality.

The visit to the area was part of the delegation’s tour to four regions of the country to highlight what Germany has done in Cameroon in the last 60 years of its presence in the country. 

As part of the lap, the press delegation made five different stops in Yoko including that registered at the municipal mango nursery in Nyem and the Mankim forest plantation. 

The team also visited the community Njangsang plantation in Nyem village as well as a group of beekeepers in Ngouetou still under the Yoko municipality.

All the zones benefitted from either financial or material supports from the German Cooperation worth millions of FCFA, as testified by the beneficiaries. 

Yoko as reference in natural resources management 

The municipality of Yoko, according to the mayor, has been pushed to the top in terms of the sustainable management of natural resources after it benefited from financial and material supports in three major schemes anchored by the German Cooperation in the last years.

“The collaboration between the German Cooperation and the Yoko Council is sincere. The Cooperation came here after we were selected through a competition setup for councils handling community forests and we started with the first project on the sustainable management of community forests,” Mayor Annir Tina.

The zone, per the myaor and his close collaborators, bagged the groundbreaking assistance via the project for forest environment and climate, ProFEC, the Forest 4 Future scheme and the project for the promotion of responsible land tenure, ProPFR. 

The Forest 4 Future project is designed to get local, national and international stakeholders into managing forest resources sustainably. It also contributes to the restoration of the peripheral zone of the Yoko community forest that separates the two blocks of the Nanga Eboko Forest in the Upper Sanaga Division of the Centre Region. It also aims to improve the lives of the local population.

The project for the promotion of responsible land tenure promotes access to land as an essential tool for the restoration and conservation of forests while also tackling issues related to hunger and poverty reduction in rural areas. 

ProFEC handles the sustainable management of forest as major tools for the fight against climate change and its effects.

The three projects which came with packages of some 8.16 billion FCFA, 3.9 billion FCFA and 3.2 billion FCFA respectively, with some of the funds shared with localities in the North, East and Far North regions, the mayor said, has enabled Yoko to not only effectively manage existing natural resources but set up new such spaces. 

These, the mayor said, are done while equally prioritising the well-being of the local population through the setting up of sustainable income-generating schemes in the areas concerned as outlined as parts of the demands of the schemes.

The municipality, the authority told pressmen, has through the schemes established some eight community agroforestry plantations made up of over 28 hectares of teak plants and food crops. 

Some two hectares of small-scale community plantations made up of Njangsang, mango, plum and avocado, the mayor and his collaborators said, have also been established.

Other similar achievements secured by the municipality through the schemes include the training of a total of over 590 project beneficiaries made up of some 249 women and 259 younth in agricultural entrepreneurship per the guidelines of the Farmer Business School. 

Yoko eyeing long-lasting partnership with German Cooperation 

According to Mayor Annir Tina, the Yoko Council, which has won several environmental and social awards in and out of Cameroon in the last years, has thanks to the German Cooperation, also witnessed a huge change in the mentality of locals not only in the primary target of the effective management of natural resources. 

“Through this scheme, we are seeing a lot on the field in terms of change in mentality. The community which used to drag its leg is now adopting and taking its destiny in its hands,” he said.

“This is seen not only in the establishment of community plantations and the protection of community forests by the locals but also in recent their joint participation in settling conflicts between farmers and grazers,” he added.

With the fruitful collaboration currently existing between the Yoko Council and the German Cooperation, the mayor says he and his community are looking forward to having the partnership strengthened to reach a long-term base.

“The German development agency, the GIZ, setup an office here in Yoko to handle its three initiatives. We are convinced that we will build a long-term partnership with the German Cooperation and that the Germans who were here back in 1902, stay here for a longer period this time around,” the mayor said. 

Locals confident working with Germany 

Besides the mayor who spoke at length about the strategic nature of the relationship with the German Cooperation, the local populations who are directly and indirectly benefitting from the scheme also expressed similar feelings about the partnership.

In Mankim village, the traditional ruler of the community, His Majesty Kahil Mboto, told the pressmen that his community has been hugely united by the scheme after the coming of the Forest 4 Future project which grouped the villagers and had them participate in joint community forest plantation scheme.

“At the start, the population received it suspiciously. But that has now changed. The people are very engaged now and I think it is owing to the reassurance and support gotten from the German Cooperation,” the traditional ruler said.

Up in Nyem village, Mama Tchamchara Magdeleine who is part of a Njangsang plantation initiative brought in by the German Cooperation, said she is aware the scheme is a long-term. 

But the 74-year-old insisted that she and the rest of the population are confidently participating in the project because it is laying groundworks for her grandchildren to benefit in the future.

“The German Cooperation is leading us towards the right direction. This will change our lives in the future,” she said. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3169 of Monday July 15, 2024