Biodiversity Conservation Plan Under Review

Stakeholders converged on Bamenda recently to revise the document for optimum use.

Ten years after the putting in place of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) in 2002, the implementation has faced great inadequacies. Emerging challenges to biodiversity have further rendered the document ill-adopted to address the growing threats. Against this backdrop, the government of Cameroon is now seeking ways to revise the NBSAP so as to meet up with present and future challenges as well as to make it adaptable. For this reason, stakeholders gathered recently in Bamenda for a two-day seminar to share ideas so as to modify the NBSAP.

The seminar that was opened by the Technical Adviser No. 1 in the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED) Galiga Prudence was attended by all stakeholders in the environment sector in the Region. It permitted stakeholders to collect data relevant in the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable utilisation of its parts within the various ecological regions of the country. Participants equally assessed the status and trends of biodiversity within each ecosystem; analysed the causes and consequences of losses and degradation of biodiversity in the ecological zone, including an analysis of the socioeconomic impacts on livelihoods. They also defined targets in providing a response to the causes and consequences as well as strategies to ensure the defined targets are realised for biodiversity conservation.

During the seminar Mrs Galiga Prudence said since 2006 the government of Cameroon has carried out deferent activities to revise the NBSAP to ensure a strategic and operational framework for the protection of biodiversity. She equally assured all that recommendations from the seminar will be used to ensure adaptable documents. For the North West Regional Delegate of MINEPDED, Tansi Bambo Laban, Cameroon's biological resources are divided in to six ecological zones: Marine/Coastal ecosystem, Dense Humid Tropical Forest ecosystem, Savannah ecosystem, Semi-arid ecosystem, Fresh water ecosystem and montane ecosystem. He said the NBSAP provides a logical framework for interventions by all sectors and actors on the conservation and sustainable management of biological resources.