The creation of environment committees in councils was one of the major recommendations of the forum that ended in Yaounde on Friday.
Over 393 participants meeting at the Yaounde Conference Centre last week from Monday 24 October to Friday 28 October for the first-ever General Forum on the Environment have strongly recommended the creation of environment committees in all councils so as to enable the people participate in the management of environmental issues directly affecting their livelihoods. Equally, they strongly felt it was time to integrate environment Information-Education-Communication (IEC) approach in school and university curricula so as to make environmental protection everybody’s business.
These recommendations, amongst others, were the outcome of intense discussions during workshops and plenary sessions. For five days, the participants who included senior staff from central and external services of the Ministry of the Environment and Nature Protection and stakeholders, did a general diagnosis of the environment sector. They touched on areas such as climate change, desertification, pollution, biodiversity and environmental governance. This was to guide the state and other stakeholders on the reforms to be introduced for more efficiency in environmental policy. “It also aimed at searching for inroads into green economy based on the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper and Vision 2035,” said the President of the forum’s scientific committee, Wagnoun Valentin, while presenting the final report on Friday.
Recommendations that ensued also included involving the civil society in reforestation efforts, promoting the use of alternative energies, extending reforestation initiatives nationwide, creating green spaces in cities and promoting the use of organic fertilizers. To ensure better environmental governance, it was recommended that a National Fund for the Environment and Sustainable Development be set up while the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, GESP, be revised to include certain environmental considerations. The regular organisation of National Forums on the Environment also featured prominently among the recommendations.
“The results we have obtained after five days of discussions will enable us effectively give a new breath of dynamism to our environmental policy,” said the Minister of Environment and Nature Protection, Hele Pierre, while closing the forum on Friday. He also acknowledged that the implementation of the recommendations will be an uphill task for it requires political will, investments and much of money.
The five-day forum was a prelude to Cameroon’s participation in the June 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development built for the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
