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Cameroon: Gov't Told to Promote Environmental Management
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The Post (Buea)
30 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Christopher Jator Njechu
It has been revealed that living conditions of Cameroonians would continue to worsen if Government fails to promote efforts in the management of its environment.
This warning was sounded by a senior official of The Access Initiative, TAI, Cameroon Project at a ceremony to evaluate the implementation of n10 of the Rio Declaration at the Mvog-Betsi Zoo-Botanic Garden in Yaounde recently.
The report challenges Government to spin up efforts toward the effective preservation of its natural beauty and ensure that natural resources are sustainably used to fight poverty and ameliorate life styles. During a two-year research by TAI, it has been established that many Cameroonians' environment are destroyed and natural resources exploited without compensation as stipulated by law.
The report blames this situation on three fundamental "access rights" relating to the environment and whose deprivation play negatively on households' economy and health. It specifies that access to information in the country is limited by a lack of clear and comprehensive law and of clear procedural rules for the exercise of the right to environmental information.
Though the laws favour participation in environmental decision-making, it only exists in a few sectors. But then that does not guarantee that the public is heard.The report, therefore, urges government to vest more efforts in the area of access to information, participation in decision-making, and awareness for seeking redress and remedy.
Speaking during the evaluation exercise, Augustine Njamnshi, coordinator of the Bio-resources Development and Conservation Programme Cameroon, BDCP-C, said participation in environmental decision-making is as important as in education, healthcare, finance and government, and that access to environmental information is integral to the concept of environmental democracy.
On the part of the government, the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Nature, Nana Aboubakar, said after ratifying the Rio Declaration, Cameroon has spared no effort in ensuring the existence of democracy and environmental governance.
He disclosed that his Ministry is already putting in place institutions that would guarantee peoples' rights to the environment, especially the National Communication on Climate Change and the development of modalities for the implementation of an Observatory on Climate Change.
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TAI-Cameroon Project is one whose two-year mandate expires later this year. It has been working in the area of promoting environmental governance and sustainable development through accelerating the implementation of the rights of the population, participation and justice.
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