Greenpeace frowns against deforestation by
local communities
By Nche Jude Mbah in Yaounde
 |
| Eric Ini, Greenpeace Africa Forest Campaigner |
The campaigner of a non-governmental
organization, GREENPEACE AFRICA, has called on local communities in Cameroon to
shun deforestation, protect and avoid cutting down trees that could serve
different purposes. Eric Ini was speaking last Tuesday 21 March 2017 in Yaounde
during celebrations marking the 5th edition of World Forest Day.
To
commemorate this day, the Greenpeace volunteers in Cameroon, under the umbrella
of Green Ambassadors of Cameroon, organized a series of activities with youths
including notably a quiz competition for primary schools, environmental and
forest debate for University students, sketches and poetry competition for
secondary schools, music and lots more. All the activities were staged in a bid
to condemn the felling of trees and to underscore the importance of trees to
humans.
The
theme of this year’s commemoration: “Forest and Energy” also underscored the
importance of forest with regards to energy production and conservation. It’s
for this reason that Greenpeace and several young people in the Congo Basin
region coined the social media slogan ‘my forest my life’, to emphasize the
importance of the forest in sustaining human life on the planet.
The Greenpeace volunteers used the
celebration to edify participants on the interactive awareness approach of
sensitizing communities on forest issues.
According
to the Campaigner of Greenpeace Africa, Eric Ini, “these activities by
Greenpeace volunteers are aimed to send an important message to Cameroon’s
environment officials and illegal agriculturalists that the youths are aware of
threats posed to the forest by illegal logging and deforestation.” He added
that “it is also an opportunity to build a solid foundation for the youth to
start appreciating the values of sustainable forest management.”
In
a bid to ensure that this knowledge gets to the local communities, Eric Ini
echoed that they have so far visited local areas like Babessi, Nguti and Konye
in the South West region where they preached to the populations to keep their
forest zones safe. “We have also made sure some elderly persons are invited to
our events in towns so that they can acquire more skills and go back and
educate those back at home.
The
United Nations General Assembly in 2012 established the international Day of
the Forest to highlight the importance and challenges faced by the forest,
especially degradation and deforestation.
World
Forest Day provides an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on the
usefulness of the forest and the urgent need to address deforestation and
irresponsible industrial agriculture in the Congo Basin Forest.
It
is worthy to mention that the forest plays an important role in regulating the
global climate and halting runaway climate change, for the benefit of the entire
biosphere. Authorities of Greenpeace argue that because of misuse, the forest
is under threat from accelerating deforestation and unless the trend is
effectively addressed, the Congo Basin forest could face the same destruction
as that seen in West Africa and South East Asia.
It
should be noted that the Congo Basin Forest is the second largest forest basin
in the world, second only to the Amazon Forest Basin. Apart from providing a
cushioning effect to the burning heat from the sun it also helps to absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide Oxygen needed to form the oxone
layer. That is why officials of Greenpeace are hoping that environment and
forest officials in Cameroon who control 11% of the Congo Basin forest, will
enact and implement regulations that safeguard this “lungs of Africa”
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