Un nouvel éboulement de terrain vient de faire 15 morts à Yaoundé au Cameroun. Le pays enregistre ainsi le 4e drame du genre en l’espace de quatre ans. Pour stopper cette recrudescence des éboulements de terrains, l’organisation de protection de la nature, Greenpeace Afrique invite le gouvernement à agir contre plusieurs causes, notamment la déforestation.
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
Un nouvel éboulement de terrain vient de faire 15 morts à Yaoundé au Cameroun. Le pays enregistre ainsi le 4e drame du genre en l’espace de quatre ans. Pour stopper cette recrudescence des éboulements de terrains, l’organisation de protection de la nature, Greenpeace Afrique invite le gouvernement à agir contre plusieurs causes, notamment la déforestation.
Un éboulement de terrain a eu lieu le dimanche 27 novembre 2022 au quartier Damase, dans la périphérie sud-ouest de Yaoundé au Cameroun. Le bilan humain du drame s’élève à 15 morts et plusieurs blessés, selon les chiffres officiels.
En octobre de cette même année, un autre éboulement est survenu dans la même ville, au quartier Mimboman, faisant 3 morts. Un drame similaire s’était produit en août 2021 dans la ville de Foumban emportant un père et ses deux enfants. Cette série d’événements ramène à la mémoire un autre incident similaire qui s’est produit en 2019 dans la ville de Bafoussam faisant près de 43 morts.
La déforestation, parmi les causes
« Pour l’instant, il est assez difficile de donner la cause exacte de tels incidents, mais pouvons considérer certains facteurs anthropogéniques importants comme étant la cause de cet incident, notamment la coupe des pentes pour la construction qui conduit à l’instabilité, comme dans les cas de Bafoussam et Mbonj. La déforestation extensive, l’agriculture et l’urbanisation anarchique doivent également être pris en compte.» expliquent Nchini Livinus Wayih et Teshounkong Agendia, chercheurs en stabilité et dynamique des pentes et en évaluation des risques, à l’Université de Buea au sud-ouest du Cameroun.
Pour la société civile, le gouvernement doit agir dans l’urgence. « Le gouvernement devrait poser des actions concrètes pour prévenir ce type d’incidents afin de protéger le droit à la vie des populations dont il est le premier garant. Le gouverneur de la région du Centre a reconnu lors de sa visite sur les lieux que la zone était très dangereuse. En plus de cette reconnaissance, il serait bien d’identifier les causes exactes de ces drames devenus récurrents dans notre pays afin de limiter les dégâts dans les années à venir, car prévenir vaut toujours mieux que guérir » déclare Stella Tchoukep, Chargée de la Campagne Forêt, Greenpeace- Afrique.
Selon l’Union européenne, le Cameroun perd chaque année 3 fois la surface de sa capitale Yaoundé (183 km²) en forêt. Une situation qui accroît l’impact du changement climatique sur la biodiversité, les activités socio-économiques et les populations.
Boris Ngounou
The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) on biodiversity intends to adopt a new roadmap for international biodiversity action for the period 2020-2030. On this occasion, a coalition of countries is speaking out in favour of a target of « 30% of terrestrial and marine protected areas » by 2030. The focus is now on Africa, which is home to a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.
The promotion of protected areas is the main tool available to states to reverse the decline in biodiversity. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the notion of protected area refers to a territory where all the legal standards necessary for its conservation are in place. The general philosophy behind the operation of these protected areas is to ensure the maintenance of biodiversity while allowing people to maintain their traditional way of life.
Noting the crisis facing the world’s ecosystems (degradation of natural environments, disappearance of biodiversity, loss of natural resources, etc.), the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) on biodiversity is using protected areas. The negotiations scheduled for 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada, should lead to a framework agreement that will guide international action, similar to the Paris Agreement on climate change signed in 2015.
The framework agreement includes the 30/30 target. A draft global agreement for biodiversity, aiming to convert 30% of the planet into protected areas by 2030. In recent studies, researchers are much more ambitious and estimate that we should aim for around 44% of the planet’s land area, or some 64 million square kilometres, to take real action against the erosion of biodiversity and the ecosystem crisis.
In addition to the UN’s Aichi Target 11 to protect 17% of the planet by 2020, the estimates in this study are half of those envisaged under the 30/30 target.
In this sense, maintaining Africa’s ecosystems is vital for the planet. Africa is home to a quarter of the world’s biodiversity, according to a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The continent is also home to « the largest intact assemblage of large mammals on earth ». A rare biodiversity grouped in the heart of extremely varied landscapes. These landscapes, both marine and terrestrial, include the sand dunes of the Banc d’Arguin National Park in Mauritania, the mangroves of the Casamance in Senegal and the waters of the Bijanos archipelago in Guinea-Bissau.
The African continent is also home to the world’s largest rainforest, after the Amazon. The Congo Basin is not only the « second green lung » of the planet. To protect this major environmental reserve, the states concerned and international experts are seeking to extend the « protected areas ». However, it will be necessary to convince those who see this objective as an obstacle to the deployment of economic development infrastructures.
Fanta Mabo
COP 15: Africa’s protected areas at the heart of the summit
The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) on biodiversity intends to adopt a new roadmap for international biodiversity action for the period 2020-2030. On this occasion, a coalition of countries is speaking out in favour of a target of « 30% of terrestrial and marine protected areas » by 2030. The focus is now on Africa, which is home to a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.
The European Union (EU) has pledged €350 million to protect biodiversity around the world, particularly in Africa. This is the substance of a press release published on 25 November 2022, ahead of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 15) which takes place from 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
The European Union (EU) will devote more than €350 million per year to the protection of biodiversity around the world, and in particular in Africa. This funding will be provided through programmes that focus directly on biodiversity and programmes that aim to integrate biodiversity into other sectors, including CSR (corporate social responsibility) policies and the sustainability of value chains.
According to EU figures, biodiversity in Africa has declined by an alarming 65% since 1970. This is largely due to the increasing demand for natural resources to support a growing population and unsustainable global patterns of consumption and production that lead to widespread habitat loss, overexploitation of species, invasive species and disease.
At the same time, the African biodiversity conservation sector is suffering from a funding gap. This amounts to between $598 billion and $824 billion per year, or between 80 and 85% of what is needed, according to Credit Suisse, a Zurich-based banking group.
The EU towards COP 15 on biodiversity
The EU’s financial commitment is part of its deployment to the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 15), which takes place from 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. For the EU, this is an opportunity for world leaders to act to protect « the increasingly endangered planet ».
The nearly 196 countries expected to attend COP 15 will try to agree on a global framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. As part of the proposed global biodiversity framework, African negotiators are expressing a need for funding of between $100 billion and $700 billion a year to protect the continent’s biodiversity.
Fanta Mabo
AFRICA: EU pledges €350 million a year for biodiversity
The European Union (EU) has pledged €350 million to protect biodiversity around the world, particularly in Africa. This is the substance of a press release published on 25 November 2022, ahead of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 15) which takes place from 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
At the recently concluded 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) took to the stage to denounce one of the unfulfilled promises of COP26. At the previous summit, donors committed to funding the protection and management of the Congo Basin forests to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars. This commitment is already insufficient. The countries of the sub-region are asking for $100 billion to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin.
The Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) was one of the outraged parties at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which was held from 6 to 20 November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The organisation, which works for the conservation, sustainable and concerted management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa, has still not received the funds it was promised at COP26 in Glasgow, Great Britain, from 1 to 12 November 2021. « A year ago in Glasgow, Northern countries pledged $1.5 billion to support climate finance in the Congo Basin countries. Since then, we’ve had nothing but words and no concrete funding. It’s time to pay up, because Africa is suffering enormously from the impact of climate change, » says Cameroon’s Forestry Minister Jules Doret Ndongo, current president of COMIFAC.
The amount of 1.5 billion dollars, or more than 980 billion CFA francs, was intended for the development of indigenous peoples and local communities in their efforts to protect tropical forests. This amount is already insufficient in view of the climate emergency. Seasonal disruptions, flooding, drying up of water sources, advancing desert, etc. are some of the climatic phenomena that the populations of this part of the continent have been experiencing regularly in recent years.
A central role in maintaining the global climate balance
To preserve their tropical forests, the countries of Central Africa need much more than the 1.5 billion dollars promised at COP26. Meeting in the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 5 October 2022 ahead of COP27, the forest ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) set a new financial target for the international community. This is a financial envelope of 100 billion dollars per year.
The need for climate financing could be justified by the contribution of the Congo Basin to maintaining the global climate balance. According to COMIFAC’s figures, the Congo Basin, which covers 11 Central African countries, has 24 million hectares of managed forests, including 5.3 million hectares certified according to responsible management standards. Its deforestation rate is estimated at less than 1%, making it one of the largest of the three tropical forest basins, with average greenhouse gas emissions of 530 million tonnes and average absorption of 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon.
Fanta Mabo
COP27: Comifac demands the funding promised for its forests at COP26
At the recently concluded 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) took to the stage to denounce one of the unfulfilled promises of COP26. At the previous summit, donors committed to funding the protection and management of the Congo Basin forests to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars. This commitment is already insufficient. The countries of the sub-region are asking for $100 billion to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin.
EarthRanger, an artificial intelligence programme for monitoring wildlife, has been deployed in six more natural parks in Botswana, Mozambique and the Republic of Congo. The project, which will run until March 2026, is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its partners to the tune of US$7.2 million. It aims to reduce the decline of biodiversity in Africa.
A new conservation project is deploying EarthRanger software to enhance security around six protected areas in Africa. These are Chobe National Park in Botswana, Limpopo and Zinave National Parks in Mozambique, and Nouabalé-Ndoki, Odzala-Kokoua and Conkouati-Douli National Parks in the Republic of Congo. This makes a total of 4.9 million hectares of terrestrial protected areas (PA).
Developed by the US company Vulcan, EarthRanger is a data visualisation and analysis system that provides conservationists with the real-time information they need to keep wildlife, habitats and communities safe. Implemented in Botswana, Mozambique and the Republic of Congo, EarthRanger will improve infrastructure such as operations rooms, vehicle and animal tracking devices, and communication networks such as digital radio systems and long range radio.
A project funded by the GEF
The three-and-a-half year project (July 2022-March 2026) is funded by a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant of US$2.4 million and co-financing of US$4.8 million from partners. « Protected areas in Africa are experiencing degradation and loss of biodiversity due to habitat destruction and unsustainable resource exploitation. Threats of poaching, human-wildlife conflict, timber harvesting, agricultural expansion and urbanisation are increasing. So are the challenges of invasive species, climate change and mining developments. EarthRanger is a timely and innovative solution that will help protected area managers, ecologists and wildlife biologists make more informed operational decisions for wildlife conservation, » says Claude Gascon, GEF Program Officer.
According to data from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), about 1 million species are threatened with extinction in Africa, and many more will be in the coming decades. Unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of the drivers of biodiversity loss.
Fanta Mabo
AFRICA: EarthRanger programme strengthens management of 6 protected areas
EarthRanger, an artificial intelligence programme for monitoring wildlife, has been deployed in six more natural parks in Botswana, Mozambique and the Republic of Congo. The project, which will run until March 2026, is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its partners to the tune of US$7.2 million. It aims to reduce the decline of biodiversity in Africa.