By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Jules Doret Ndongo and the Minister of Basic Education, Prof Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa decided last March 21, 2019 to federate efforts in order to inculcate tree planting notion into pupils on the occasion of the 2019 edition of the International Day of the Tree celebrated this year at the esplanade of Government Primary School Mfandena in Yaounde in the presence of the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Basic Education, Dr Asheri Vivian Kilo, partners and other stakeholders in the forest sector.
During the occasion punctuated with practical tree planting exercises and speeches, Minister Jules Doret Ndongo symbolically handed trees to school authorities in Mfoundi Division of the Centre Region to share out to some primary schools.
Celebrated on the theme “a tree for life; with our children, let us plant it for the wellbeing of all,” the International Day of the Tree was used as an opportunity by both Ministers to call on pupils all over the country to encourage the culture of planting and protecting trees as a legacy for them.
While also calling on teachers to encourage competence-based approach and match their teaching with Sustainable Development Goals with tree planting as one of their components, the Forestry and Wildlife boss reiterated government’s role in putting in place actions to fight against climate change and the restoration of degraded land.
Government’s strategy to encourage nationwide planting of trees falls in line with a target of restoring over 12 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2030 in compliance with the Bonn Challenge Initiative.
Forestry and Wildlife Minister, Jules Doret Ndongo explained to reporters that “For this celebration, we thought that it was very important for us if we want to spread the message on the importance of tree planting, to make it touch our young pupils who represent the Cameroon of tomorrow. A tree is very important for us because it provides us with the oxygen we breathe, water, a shelter for birds or animals, energy as wood and it enables us to build our houses. Government sells trees abroad to generate more revenue needed for the construction of schools, roads, hospitals etc in the country. So, as you can see, we have to take care of our trees. If we plant just two trees for instance in each school in all the 360 councils, you will realize that within few years, more trees will be available to help fight against climate change.”