Centre Region: Orange Cameroun plants 1,000 trees to mitigate climate change.

The humanitarian action was organised in collaboration with the Mfou Council on Thursday, June 26. 

The trees were planted around the Mfou Municipal Lake and along the Nsimalen International Airport axis by officials of Orange Cameroun and the Mfou Council, accompanied by some 50 volunteers from both institutions.

Orange Cameroun’s Director of Institutional and Regulatory Affairs, Alain Blaise Batongue, led the company’s delegation.

Batongue said the exercise is part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility approach which involves taking a number of actions for the benefits of the population given the changes associated with climate change.

“We are going to plant 1,000 trees in the town of Mfou and its outskirts to promote reforestation,” Batongue said, as he symbolically laid the first tree into the ground at Mfou Municipal Lake. 

“This is only the first part of the operation, because we will come back to see how it goes and we are committed to planting more trees in most cities in Cameroon,” he added.

According to him, Orange Cameroun is resolute in showing that it’s not only a telecommunications company, but also one that is committed to working alongside the government to preserve the environment.

Enter Orange Foundation scribe

The Secretary General of Orange Cameroun Foundation, Elisabeth Mabom, said the Orange Cameroun, as a corporate citizen and socially responsible company, is very concerned by the effects of climate change and global warming on the country.

Mabom said the Orange Green City Programme was launched to partner with different city and municipal councils to plant trees in order to improve the beauty of the localities, provide shade and increase the resilience of the cities in the face of climate change and global warming. 

“We have all seen the effects of global warming, climate change in Cameroon. We've seen the increase in temperatures, heat waves, floods in different cities, landslides in different cities and all of these are negatively impacted the population,” she stated. 

Mabom revealed that the company under the Green City Programme has so far planted some 2,600 trees in Douala, Bafoussam III and Limbe II municipalities. 

“…in Mfou, we are going to plant 1,000 more trees which will contribute to improving the resilience of these cities to withstand the consequences of climate change,” Mabom said as the tree planting exercise commenced. 

The Mfou exercise, officials of the telecoms company also said, is within the framework of a more far-reaching initiative by Orange to plant trees in Cameroon. 

It was also said that the company has already engaged in reforestation of the mangrove in the Littoral Region with over a million trees planted in the mangroves covering 500 hectares. 

It is also expected that by the end of the project, 1,000 hectares of mangrove would be reforested.

Mayor hails Orange initiative 

The Mayor of Mfou Council, Francis Ngoumou, saluted the Orange Cameroun initiative which will not only raise awareness of climate change but also the need to take actions to secure the future of the citizenry.

“As they say, prevention is better than cure. We thank Orange for thinking of our municipality to launch this operation,” he stated.  

He also highlighted the importance of the two strategic sites chosen for the tree planting operation.  

“The municipal lake is part of a project we have to improve and develop to make the lake a touristic attraction. The other site, which is more symbolic in my opinion, is Nsimalen, which is the gateway to Cameroon,” the mayor said, adding that: “I think that in a few years' time, it will be good for those who arrive to see that the Republic of Cameroon is concerned about preserving the environment by planting this green cover”.

Volunteers commit to protecting the environment

One of the Orange Cameroun volunteers, Valerie Meka, said beyond just being an employee of the telecoms firm, they are concerns about the environment. 

“We are planting trees because all the employees of our company are mobilised for this action. Green City means planting trees and participating in the reforestation of our country. It is a social action that we all support at our own level,” she told The Guardian Post. 

“I'm very moved to have planted a dozen trees today. I think the initiative will continue, we still have more to plant...,” she added.

On his part, the Head of Orange Corporate Social Responsibility Projects, Upar Ebongue Louis, said they remain committed to assisting the communities.

“We have as objective to plant 1000 trees and this is going to help to develop green cities across the nations. Today we are in Mfou, yesterday we were in Limbe, the other time we were in Bafoussam and we started with Douala. Garoua has also been part of our plans of the Orange Green City,” he pointed.

Birth of Green City Programme

Orange Cameroun, by launching the Green City project, is affirming its commitment to making cities in the country greener and more resilient to climate change.

It is no gainsaying that Cameroonian cities are facing a series of major environmental challenges like rising temperatures and heat waves, floods, landslides and mudslides, and water pollution amongst others as a result of global warming.

The rapid and poorly controlled urbanisation is also said to create potential risks that tend to increase the vulnerability of cities and populations to the extreme climatic and environmental phenomena.

With the threats, officials said Orange Cameroun launched Green City project with the aim of transforming cities into greener, healthier and more resilient spaces. The project, they said, will help improve the daily lives of populations and mitigating the effects of global warming.

To achieve the vision, Orange Cameroun has been partnering with local councils in planting thousands of trees in public spaces, parks, and along roadsides in a bid to restore urban vegetation cover and strengthen fragile areas and landscapes.

The Green City programme relies heavily on Orange volunteers, who are mobilised to create change within communities through citizen engagement and mobilisation. 

After a year of mobilisation, the 410 Orange volunteers have carried out more than a dozen operations in the field across the territory.

 This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3489 of Monday June 30, 2025