By DOH JAMES SONKEY IN YAOUNDE
A project dubbed the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative described as an African response to desertification, land degradation, drought, climate change and loss of biodiversity in dry lands of the Sahara and Sahel region has been launched in Cameroon. Officially launching the project in a workshop organized last May 23, 2017 at the Yaoundé Hilton Hotel, the Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, Hele Pierre rejoiced that the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative will help to counter the shift and expansion of dry lands in many African countries predicted by 2050.
Speaking at the occasion, Minister Hele Pierre explained that “the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative is one of the flagship programmes of the African Union Commission under the purview of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. It is a Pan-African programme launched in 2007 by AU Heads of State with the goal to reverse land degradation and desertification in the Sahel and Sahara regions, boost food security and support local communities and ecosystems to adapt to climate change.”
It was explained that due to the positive impacts of the ten years old initiative, at the level of resource mobilization, political engagement and land restoration, regional integration, other countries of the Sahel and Sahara like Cameroon and Ghana requested to be part of beneficiary countries. In this move, Cameroon after the Paris COP21 Summit where President Paul Biya was invited to join the Great Green Wall Initiative did so through the Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development in a letter dated February 2016.
The inception workshop on the integration of Cameroon as a beneficiary country was also attended by officials of the African Union, AU and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD who presented the 5 years Action Plan from 2016 to 2020.