U.S. Embassy Holds Workshop Focusing on Impact of Climate Change

On the occasion of World Environmental Day, the U.S. Embassy, together with CARPE and World Resource Institute/NESDA, will hosted a workshop on climate change in Cameroon June 4 in the Embassy premises in Yaounde.  Experts discussed several issues pertaining to Cameroon and how climate change has affected desertification, water supply and agricultural practices.  Results of the program were very positive.  Even after the workshop ended, over forty participants spent an hour seeking further ways both governmental organizations and local NGOs in Cameroon could focus on this problem.  As they left, participants pledged to continue meeting on the issue.

Established in 1972 and commemorated yearly on June 5, World Environmental Day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.  The event seeks to give a human face to environmental issues, empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development, promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues, and advocate partnerships which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.  The theme for World Environmental Day this year is “Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change.”

The Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative aimed at promoting sustainable natural resource management in the Congo Basin. The Congo Basin forest is the second largest contiguous moist tropical forest in the world and plays a key role in securing the livelihoods of Central African citizens. The forest also provides critical habitat for biodiversity conservation and supplies vital regional and worldwide ecological services. In recognition of the important role of the Congo Basin forest and amidst the increasing pressures facing the Congo Basin forest, CARPE works to reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity by supporting increased local, national, and regional natural resource management capacity.