The Senior Vice President of the National Assembly chaired the event on August 14.

The Pan-African Parliamentary Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC), on August 14 took the tree-planting exercise dubbed; “Operation Green Cameroon” to Yaounde with the planting of trees around the Mvan fly over. The network also signed partnership agreements with the Mayors of Yaounde III and IV Subdivisions as well as the Subdivisional Delegates of the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family of the same administrative units to follow-up the trees. Tuesday’s ceremony was the symbolic launching for the Centre Region.
The event that came after that held in Waza in the Far North Region on July 18, 2012 led by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril is placed under the slogan, “One woman one tree, one family one tree.” The Pan-African Parliamentary Network on Climate Change with Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian as the Executive President on April 2012 signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family that puts women at the fore-front of the operation. Hence, the active participation of women’s associations from Yaounde III and IV Subdivisions in the launching of the tree-planting exercise that has to continue all over the Centre Region.
The Senior Vice President of the National Assembly, Hon. Hilarion Etong who chaired the event in Yaounde on behalf of the House Speaker, lauded the partnership between the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family and PAPNCC in fighting climate change through “Operation Green Cameroon.” He said besides PAPNCC, the National Assembly equally has the Network of Parliamentarians for the Sustainable Management of the Central African Forest Ecosystems (REPAR) as another international organization with objective to ensure the conservation of the forest and environment in view of fighting against climate change. Hon. Etong urged all stakeholders to ensure the success of the operation.
The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa on her part, talked on the devastating effects of climate change, with the woman whose livelihood depends on agriculture and fishing, the most affected. Substantiating her speech with statistics from the 2005 population and Housing census in Cameroon, she said projections indicated that in 2010, the population of the country had to be 19 406 100 inhabitants with women being 9 806 876 representing 50.6 per cent. The Centre Region, she said was projected to have 3 525 664 inhabitants with 1 755 036 being women. She lauded the slogan of the operation, stating that it concerned both men and women for a tree symbolizes life.
The Executive President of PAPNCC announced that the operation will be launched in the North West Region in the days ahead and by 2013, all the regions of the country will be covered.