-Cancellation of such agreements will sustain
Biodiversity, conserve forests Reserves and all it’s embodiment plus the Beneficial
Impacts on Weather and Climate.
A
few days to the celebration of the International Day of Forests (March 21),
Greenpeace Africa and its partners (GDA and SAILD) are calling for agreements
concerning the exploitation of 445,144 hectares of forests in Cameroon.
Specifically, they are calling for the cancelation of the concessions of the
Nkam forest (11,396 ha) in the Littoral and Donga-Mantung (45,794 ha) in
the Northwest. They also request the cancelation of the current call for
tenders for forest concessions in the East and Center (387,954 ha).
"The concession of those forests
pose many threats to the biodiversity and community that live in and depend on
them," explains Ranece Jovial Ndjeudja, Forest Campaign Manager for
Greenpeace Africa. For instance, he illustrates, in early March 2022, a dozen
of residents of Bonamangolo, Bindjen 1, Ndokati, Heroun, Boumkwa, Bekong,
Timte, Bolam, Bewang, and Ndoktamba were arrested and detained for protesting
the allocation of the UFA 07-003b concession that was granted in December
2021.
According to the government, those
concessions are granted to boost logging activities in the country and
contribute to the development of the regions hosting the forests conceded, in
the case of the recent tender launched. Some of the concessions are also aimed
at making up for the losses recorded by forest operators in the South-West and
North-West, due to the security situation in those regions in recent
years.
However, for Greenpeace's sustainable
development advocacy coordinator Aristide Chacgom, it is "reckless"
to continue exploiting the forest in the name of development when those
activities benefit only a minority. Instead of improving the living conditions
of neighboring communities whose survival depends on the forests, it is the
contrary, he indicates. Curled, Cameroon Business News.
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