Dieudonné Tantoh Nforba will receive the International Green Apple Award today, Monday for protecting rural environments.
A Cameroonian environmentalist, Dieudonné Tantoh Nforba, has won this year’s International Green Apple Award in recognition of the efforts of his organisation, Save Your Future Association, SYFA, in promoting the planting of flowers in Nkambe and 13 neighbouring villages in Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region. SYFA has in the last 15 years also carried out voluntary work in landscaping, protection of watersheds, low-cost manual well drilling to provide safe drinking water, training in organic farming techniques such as incorporating compost manure into gardening, agro-forestry, crop rotation, second cycle cropping and soil conservation at the grassroots.
According to a release from the chair of The Green Organisation, organisers of the prize, Roger Wolens, Dieudonné, popularly known as ‘Farmer Tantoh’, is to receive his award today Monday November 14 “at a glittering presentation ceremony in the House of Commons (the Lower House of the British Parliament), Palace of Westminster, London.” He reportedly competed against more than 500 other nominees. “As a result of this success, Dieudonné Tantoh Nforba, has been invited to have his winning paper published in The Green Book, “the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice, so that others around the world can follow his example and learn from his experience,” says the draft press release.
SYFA was nominated for the award last May by the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Nature, MINEP, soon after Dieudonné Tantoh Nforba won the African Achievers’ Award for Sustainable Development in Bradford, England on May 27, 2011. Entry forms for the award were given by the British High Commission in Cameroon. MINEP is footing the cost of his flight and lodging for the event. The ministry is also considering sponsoring two of his projects in 2012. They are the expansion of the Nkambe Botanic Garden and the construction of a modern resource centre in Nkambe.
The organisation plans to expand activities to other parts of the North West Region such as setting up botanic gardens in Mbengwi and Kumbo in Momo and Bui Divisions respectively; as well as training locals in horticulture and landscaping, construction of spring water catchments in Bafut in Mezam and Nwa in Donga Mantung Divisions. All these projects have no external funding and will be carried out with local communities and councils that are expected to raise the money.
