By Francis Tim Mbom
The General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, Franklin Ngoni Njie, has signed a five-year working partnership with Cameroon’s National Observatory on Climate Change, known by its French acronym ONACC.
This partnership agreement that is aimed at boosting CDC’s resilience and adaptability to present-day climate change effects was signed on Tuesday, April 29, at the CDC board room in Limbe between the GM of the CDC, Franklin Ngoni Njie, and the General Manager of the National Observatory, Prof. Amougou Joseph Armathé.
The GM of the National Observatory was accompanied to the signing ceremony by his Board Chair, Enow Peter Ayuk, and his Deputy General Manager, Forghab Patrick Mbomba, among others.
“On behalf of the Cameroon Development Corporation…it is a moment of great joy to witness the realisation of this long cherished vision. This vision promises to play a significant role in adapting and mitigating adverse impacts on climate change, particularly in the agricultural sector,” the CDC’s GM said.
He further noted that, many years back, the issue of climate change wasn’t considered to be a major issue in Cameroon. At least, this is when the changes in weather patterns were still very minimal.
But today, he noted that the level of climate variations has become so frequent that the CDC, like every other crop-producing corporation or entity, needs to be concerned.
“Today we are all confronted by the impacts of the long-term warming of the planet due to an increase of average temperatures. It is no longer a debatable fact that both short-term and long-term alterations are a cause for concern, considering that agriculture is the backbone of the Cameroonian economy,” the GM explained.
He said agriculture, which is the mainstay of the CDC, contributes about 3 percent of the GDP of Cameroon and accounts for about 70 percent of the country’s labour force.
Thus, he went on to add that in this said agricultural domain where the CDC is involved for now in the production of bananas, oil palms and rubber, it is of interest for them to begin to understand or have a mastery of the global heat waves, rainfall patterns and other climatic changes that can imminently affect crop growth by the CDC.
Thus, it is in this light that they decided to partner with the National Observatory for Climate Change, who have the expertise required to help institutions better understand these variations and equally take measures on how to mitigate the effects of these adverse weather conditions, such as excessive sunshine, rainfall, drought seasons and what to do when they so occur.
The General Manager of ONACC, Prof. Amougou, noted that the responsibility of their institution to the CDC, following the agreement, shall be to help the corporation with information that will go a long way to reduce or mitigate costs as a result of the effects of climate change. He disclosed that the East, Extreme North and the Southwest Regions in Cameroon have, between 1998 and 2012, suffered enormous losses as a result of the effects of climate change amounting to some FCFA 44.3 billion.
In 2019 alone, he added that the North, Adamawa, and the West and South regions recorded a net agricultural loss amounting to over FCFA 300 billion as a consequence of the effects of climate change.
Thus, their mission to partner with the CDC, which is the second largest employer after the state, for the next five years, has the goal of “helping the CDC to reduce the impact of climate change on the CDC’s production activities,” the GM of the ONACC said.
And he had this to add: “The National Observatory on Climate Change is committed to monitoring the climate and its impact, accessing greenhouse gas emissions and absorption linked to CDC’s activities, strengthening the technical capacity of stakeholders, exchanging climate-related data and information, as well as conducting research on climate change and mobilising resources to help the CDC.”
In essence, the GM of ONACC stated that his institution will provide CDC with practical climatological service as their responsibility to the framework agreement. These services, he concluded, will help CDC to properly adapt to or mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
The GM of the CDC said the Board Chair of the Corporation, Hope Sona Ebai, could not attend the signing ceremony because he was attending to other duties in Yaoundé.
Meantime, the Board Chair of ONACC, Peter Enow Ayuk, thanked the GM of the CDC and said ONACC was fully committed to the terms of the agreement. He said they shall not only monitor but also equally work with the CDC to mount up projects eligible for climate funding, which the CDC can use to go seek funding to better mitigate the climate change effects.