Buea communities embark on 'save the environment campaign'

About 30 leaders in Buea held a two-day campaign to raise awareness on forest and environmental protection practices.

Environment experts have noticed a growing deforestation activity on Mount Cameroon with consequences leading to strange climate change and wildlife extinction. Disproportionate wood felling, bush fires and animal scotching are practices that are ongoing. In their bit to check the phenomenon, some 30 community leaders around Buea have held a two-day exercise to create a forest and environmental protection campaign.

Authorities from the South West Regional Delegation of Environment and Nature Protection joined hands recently with Evelyne Park Moloko of the African Eurasian Migratory Bird Agreement (AEWA), Fongoh Eric of the International Centre for Environmental Education and Community Development (ICENECDEV) to train community leaders to develop environmental protection skills.

Such abilities were imparted in ecotourism, agro-forestry, beekeeping and fuel efficiency stoves production. Animating the activities, last 11 and 12 July, 2014 at the Borstal Institute in Buea, Mr. Fongoh called for a replication of the environmental safety practices to schools and villages so that the over 200 000 population of Buea and beyond preserve their environment.

Specialists have equally emphasized the need for indigenes to stop depleting neighbouring forests. To begin with, practices like cutting wood for fuel must be stopped. As such, fuel economic stoves have been made available on the market to address the issue of reducing wood burning for cooking by 50 percent and new trees are being planted for the purpose of regeneration and building ecotourism for income-generation.

A clay-pot expert from Babessi-Ndop in the North West Region, Nelson Ngong Yunekeh, who has distributed over 19 000 locally made fuel–efficient stoves across Cameroon, was invited to Buea to train the community on how to make their own economic “charcoal pots” and save their wood.