A tripartite agreement was signed between the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development (minepded), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF – Cameroon) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF/GEF) on 30 March in Yaoundé.
The integrated management of Cameroon's forest landscapes in the Congo Basin is getting a boost. As the 4th largest biodiversity in Africa, the country has just received aid of 6 billion FCFA. The project mainly concerns the landscape of Campo on 769,446 ha, the landscape of the tri-national Dja-Odzala-Minkebe on 4,949,174 ha and the landscape of the tri-national of sangha on 1,490,552 ha. Its realization will extend over 72 months.
The ultimate objective of the project is to ensure the biological integrity of the area and increase economic opportunities, as well as the livelihoods of indigenous peoples. In the long term, it will be a question of effective management of the spaces concerned; the development of tourism, and even ecotourism; the development of public-private partnerships for the optimization of the development of these spaces. In the same vein, this program will allow the conservation of biodiversity while exploiting it. It is also a question of combating climate change, the protection of the ozone layer, the equitable management of resources, etc.
With a forest cover rate of 45%, or 22 million hectares, Cameroon holds the second largest forest in the Congo Basin. According to a ranking established by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2018, the country's wildlife and flora biodiversity ranks 21st in the world. But this wealth is threatened by deforestation and many other natural and human phenomena.
