Steering committee members of a World Bank-government project met in Yaounde Friday.

A three-component project, code-named, “Conservation and sustainable utilisation of the forest and wildlife resources of the Ngoyla-Mintom,” is fast taking shape in the country and could at term ensure the sustainable management of the forest for the good of the economy and the wellbeing of the local population. Steering committee members of the project met in Yaounde last Friday December 21 in their first season to chat the way forward for the effective execution of the project co-financed by the World Bank and the government of Cameroon to the tune of over 5, 277 million dollars (about FCFA 2.6 billion).

According to the Project’s Coordinator, Mintyene Briand John, the five-year project will consists in building the capacities of government and the civil society on a participatory approach in sustainably managing and conserving priority zones of the Ngoyla-Mintom forest, conceiving and following up financing mechanisms for micro-projects for the socio-economic development of the local population as well as conceiving and putting in place a long-term evaluation mechanism of natural resources and protected species of the forest. “The project is scheduled to begin in January 2013 and we hope at the end to improve on the living conditions of the population given that we would have sourced for financing for their micro projects,” the National Coordinator said.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, the Inspector General in the Ministry, Abena Joseph Claude, said sustainably managing the country’s forests is a non-negotiable activity of the ministry and the case of the over 1,000-hectare Ngoyla-Mintom forest was just one of the moves to render the forest beneficial to the country and population.