Five organisations were present at the Mvog-Betsi Zoo hall in Yaounde yesterday to sign partnership agreements with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, to implement projects selected within the programme to promote Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade for African and Caribbean Countries, better known under the acronym, ACP-FLEGT. In view of the imminent signing of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, also known as APV-FLEGT, to reduce illegal forest exploitation, the FAO launched a call for projects to which two government structures: the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF, and the National School of Forests and Water Resources of Mbalmayo, ENEF; and three non-governmental organisations notably the African Centre for Applied Forestry Research and Development, CARFAD, the Organisation of Forests and Rural Development, FODER, and the Association of Forest Municipalities of Cameroon, AFCAM, were selected.
“These projects will train officials in charge of enforcement under the voluntary partnership agreements, to revise national control procedures, develop new training modules for students at ENEF Mbalmayo, support local people for a better protection of their forestry heritage, and help community and municipal forests meet APV standards,” said Ousseynou Ndoye, the interim Resident Representative of the FAO in Cameroon.
The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle welcomed APV/FLEGT as a new legal instrument that will henceforth help to regulate the forestry sector in Cameroon, after the latter’s committed participation in negotiations with the European Union. “Cameroon is engaged in an irreversible policy of ensuring legality in the management of its forests and we think that the agreements that we have signed today are intended to give a push as far as the implementation of that policy is concerned,” the Minister told the press.
The five projects add to three others being implemented that have received a total funding of FCFA 400 million from the FAO and the European Union.
