The announcement was made yesterday in Yaounde during a News Conference organised by the visiting Chadian Minister of Environment and Fisheries Resources.

Minister Hassan Terap briefed journalists on the upcoming 8th World Forum for Sustainable Development, WFSD that will be held in N'djamena from October 29 to 31, 2010, under the theme "Saving Lake Chad". At the start of his presentation, he placed the event within the global context of increasing desertification, climate change and the loss of biodiversity whose effects have been felt on the economy around the Lake Chad basin and its population not only in Cameroon, but also in Chad, Niger, the Central African Republic, other members of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, and beyond. That, he said, justified the need to talk about the Lake Chad phenomenon to bring up solutions that could reverse the situation.

"The surface area of Lake Chad has considerably reduced from 25,000km2 in 1960 to 2,500 km2 today," the Minister said. The environmental impacts, he continued, include the destruction of the vegetal cover, the degradation of the biodiversity, the appearance and proliferation of invading plant species, the reduction of humid zones, the perturbation of movements of migratory species, the depletion of natural resources due to demographic growth, the appearance of new islands, difficult access to water, the increase in the salinity of soils and its effects on harvests and the decrease of fishing activities. "The survival of Lake Chad will be the result of all the efforts that will be deployed regionally and internationally to that effect," the Minister added and called on the media to get associated so as to sensitise the population and draw the world's attention to the disturbing problem.

The Forum will be jointly organised by the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, and Passages, the organiser of the World Forum for Sustainable Development, WFSD since 2003.

"We are organising this Forum at the invitation of President Idriss Deby Itno, to seek scientific and economic solutions to Lake Chad's problem," said Emile Malet, the Director of Passages. He also explained that the seriousness of the Lake Chad situation required its inclusion on the international agenda, reason why experts will be coming from all over the world to contribute ideas towards reviving the Lake Chad Basin so as the sustain the livelihoods of the more than 30,000 people who inhabit the area.

On his part, Alex Blériot Momha, the representative of the Executive Secretary of the LCBC disclosed that the LCBC adopted a Master Plan for the development of Lake Chad in 1994 with more than 36 projects earmarked. He also said that feasibility studies were underway to determine the possibility of channelling the waters of River Oubangui into the Lake Chad. The studies were scheduled to last from October 2009 to October 2011. The final document, he said, would guide the Heads of State that are members of the LCBC to take the appropriate decisions.

The Chadian Minister is on a tour of the LCBC member countries to prepare the groundwork for the Forum.