Lukong Pius Nyuylime
15 May 2007
A two-day workshop opened in Yaounde yesterday to draw up its implementation in Cameroon.
The African Environmental Information Network effectively went operational in Cameroon yesterday, following its official launching at the Yaounde Hilton.
Cameroon's engagement on the project is articulated on seven major areas as contained in the proposed action plan by the United Nations development Program (UNDP). These include: the review and commentary on the implementation guide of the Network, the state of the environmental information management in Cameroon, drawing up of a national plan to be submitted to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), putting in place of national project execution organs, country profile, and the final report of the project implementation in Cameroon.
The Minister Delegate at the Ministry of the Environment and Nature protection, Nana Aboubakar Djalloh, who presided at the opening ceremony yesterday, recalled that the past three decades have witnessed a lot of challenges in natural resource management. "Sustainable development whose foundation was laid by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development organised in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, has been blocked by obstacles that favour poverty growth in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular", he said. The most crucial challenges for Africa, he said, include: continuous deterioration of the environment, increase in social and economic inequality, and lateness in globalisation.
"To bounce back to sustainable development, Africa must attack the causes of environmental degradation and poverty as well as integrate environmental considerations in the decision making processes", he said.
The launching of Africa's environmental information network in Cameroon testifies the latest assertion that information vacuum has in itself become another threat to the environment. Minister Nana Aboubakar Djalloh, underscored that information dissemination is an essential element in the documents of all environmental organisations. "The Rio conference recognises the importance of information information", he said.
Meeting in its 9th session in Kampala in July, 2002, the Conference of African Environmental Ministers recognised the fact that the absence of environmental information is a major constrain for planning environmental management as well as the implementation of international conventions on the environment in Africa. It was against this backdrop that the conference approved the creation of the African Environmental Information Network. It has as major objective to facilitate access to facts and their harmonisation in the African region.
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