By DOH JAMES SONKEY
Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development Minister, Hele Pierre has promised that his ministry will support councils financially and technically in mainstreaming biodiversity in their development activities.
He made the promise last October 30, 2017 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel during a national workshop on mainstreaming biodiversity through a sustainable tourism promotion programme for local councils.
Minister Hele Pierre boasted that “Cameroon’s rich biological diversity and exotic landscapes which offer opportunities for sustaining the tourism industry, increasing the tourism economy and generating innovative finances to fund activities for biodiversity protection are located in diverse sahel, savannah, tropical forest, mountain and coastal ecosystems that form the basis of the nation’s ranking as 4th and 5th in floral and faunal diversity in Africa.”
Explaining that promoting sustainable tourism constitutes a national priority aligned to commitments taken within the global processes notably the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on Biodiversity Development and its Aichi targets, the Minister stressed that “current patterns of creating wealth and jobs from Cameroon’s high conservation efforts in protected areas through ecologically viable tourism is of grave concern. Specifically in Council forests, there is a deficit in the valorization of biodiversity and traditional knowledge through tourism as a sustainable alternative for forest exploitation.”
In a chat with The SUN, the interim Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, Justice Galega Prudence who doubles as Biodiversity Conservation Focal Point explained that “following the degradation of biodiversity that drives development at local levels in hotspots placed under the management of local councils, our ministry through this workshop therefore targeted local councils to mainstream biodiversity in the activities they carryout in these hotspots especially in council forests.”
She further explained that “we will be able to define key elements that should underpin a programme through which we can accompany councils to address the infrastructural needs, human resource capacity needs and financial resources required to ensure the promotion of sustainable tourism to preserve a rich biodiversity to which is associated our rich culture and traditional knowledge.”
Speaking at the occasion, Prof Kohlmeyer of the German Ministry of Cooperation disclosed that GIZ remains Cameroon’s key partner in safeguarding the environment. While lauding the government for their efforts in the protection and preservation of biodiversity, Prof Kohlmeyer stressed on the need for Cameroon to get the private sector onboard.