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Cameroon: Forest Day - Stakeholders Seek to Mitigate Climate Change
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The Post (Buea)
28 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
Kini Nsom
Discussions on strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change took centre stage when stakeholders of the Congo Basin Forests met in Yaounde on April 24 to celebrate Forest Day.
Initiated by the Central Africa Regional office of the Centre for International Forestry Research, CIFOR, the Forest Day aims to bring together regional stakeholders to chart ways of stemming the tides of a phenomenon that remains a bane of progress to humanity.
Observers hold that it was incumbent on the stakeholders to hold such discussions given that deforestation and degradation of tree-based systems contribute about 20 to 25 percent of green house gas emissions.
Speaking at the occasion at the Yaounde Conference Centre, the Regional Coordinator of CIFOR, Cyrie Sendashonga, said the meeting offered an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the concept of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, REDD.
To her, the meeting was charting stakes and plight of a region that has the second largest rainforest in the world. Given that this region, whose populations depend largely on natural forest resources, is likely to be hard hit by climate change, the over 100 forestry stakeholders focused their debate on forest and climate change in Central Africa.
During discussions, participants highlighted the adverse effects of climate change on human health and food security, especially. It was noted that 1.7 billion tons of carbon is released annually due to land use of which the major part is tropical deforestation. According to the intergovernmental panel on climate change, this represents 20 to 25 percent current emissions and more than the amount produced by the World fossil-fuel intensive transport sector.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, says 13 million hectares of forests are lost annually in the world, while 1.49 million hectares are lost in Central Africa. Observers warned that degradation is expected to inflict a heavy forest loss in Central Africa, with a growing demographic pressure.
Speakers at the conference harped on the REDD strategy as a way of warding off the looming dangers of climate change. Joseph Amougou, who is the Cameroon Focal Point for the UN Convention on climate change, reflected on the Congo Basin forest and climate change. One of the experts, Christophe Besacier of the French Cooperation, presented a paper on the REDD concept, its new tools and stakes in regard to the Central Africa forests.
CIFOR Regional Coordinator said REDD is a wonderful potential for the protection of biodiversity and the amelioration of the living conditions of local communities that depend solely on the forests.
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However, the REDD strategy can only work if local communities are given alternative ways of sustaining their livelihood and made to turn away from the forests. Given the role they play, people of the Congo Basin should have compensation from the rest of the world. It is a way of encouraging them to look away from the forests.
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