As floods and pollution wreak havoc on a key industry, prompting visitors to stay away, fishermen and businesses in Limbe fear not only the sea but also the future. PAMACC's  Elias Ntungwe Ngalame reports

LIMBE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Sitting in front of his plank house in Batoke Limbe, a coastal village in Cameroon’s South-west region, Ngeme John , 45 arranges his boat and net in readiness for the day’s early morning  catch.

But the planned expedition won’t take place on the fishing spot around his village, as it used to. Just 2km away, the formerly coastal fresh air now smells of gasoline and petroleum spills.

The silence of the surrounding mangrove forest is broken by the honking and rumbling of patrol tankers and heavy duty trucks.
He stares vacantly at the rolling sea, struggling to hold back the tears in the eyes in desperation.

"I have lived here for over 25 years, but never experienced this type of polluted environment before ," says John, a fisher man in Batoke some 5 KM away from Mile six a renowned tourist beach in Limbe.

Marine pollution along the coastal town of Limbe stretching through Douala in Cameroon has continued to surge in recent years .

As a result, John now must venture about 30km away from home to fish.

He and the entire fishing community along the coast complain their livelihood have been destroyed  by the disaster. Environmentalists are sounding the death knell too.
“This petroleum exploitation project has made life perilous for us,” John said . “The polluted waters have scared all the fish. We are obliged to go fishing far away, where we can find something to eat and earn some income to send our children to school ,”he explained.

The Cameroon government says it is touting oil resource exploitation in the shores of Limbe as part of the country’s ambitious plans towards an emerging economy by 2035.

The country’s lone National Oil Refinery, known by its French Acronym as SONARA, in 2014 invested FCFA 620 billion to facilitate the refining of locally produced crude oil ,according to the ministry of mines and energy. The project now permits the company to refine 100 percent of crude oil produced in Cameroon up from just 10% before 2014.
The government says the project has scaled up production capacity from 2,100,000 tons to 3,500,000 tons.

“The oil refining project has stepped up petroleum production in the country »,said  Gaston Eloundou, Minister of water and Energy resources.

Environment expert say  the project is key driver to maritime pollution with accidental crude oil leakage from drilling ,oil transporting ships and ruptured pipelines.
According Bio-resource Centre, an NGO on environment in Cameroon – the Limbe coastal city and surrounding villages is slowly swallowed by repeated floods and water pollution exposing the population to multiple environmental hazards. The Mile Six Beach is regularly covered with spilled oil and the black volcanic sand has been decolorised to brown.

« In some parts of flooded area, only the tops of houses and trees are seen emerging from the water , » says Augustine Njamnshi , CEO of Bio-resource centre. He blamed the persistent floods on the claring of mangrove forest along the shores.

« Mangrove forests along the coast are crucial to protecting the shoreline and mitigating damage from storms and high seas, » says Samuel  Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon, an NGO that deals with forest and land issues.

The protection of marine ecosystems and the maritime environment is important not only for aquatic life but also the health of residents in coastal communities, health officials say.

«  Air and water pollution bring respiratory, heart, eyesight, skin diseases, leading  to death, » says Dr Joyce Ebenson of the Buea district hospital.
But the company has dismissed claims of sea water pollution, saying it soil drilling  are in compliance with the law and environmental norms

“These allegations are simply perpetrated by some of our detractors,” said Blascius Ngome, the public relations director of the company.
The company however admitted  pollution from gas emissions in the oil refining process but noted this is sufficiently carried to acceptable higher levels in the atmosphere.

In an earlier press statement , the general manager of the company, Ibrahim Talba Mallah, said the company’s expansion efforts is also geared at addressing a “dire humanitarian need in the immediate environment”, easing local unemployment and also supporting the local council’s fight against climate disasters.

Home to some 6 million people, Limbe and Douala, two Cameroon’s biggest coastal cities have in recent years suffered from deadly floods and related  water borne epidemics.
"We are having persistent floods in these coastal areas making business really difficult, »said the government delegate to the Limbe city council Andrew Motanga.

« Last year the floods were so heavy that many families, mostly children and mothers who found refuge on rooftops, were rescued from the deluge by the army’s fire fighting brigade,” he explained.

Officials of the Cameroon National Red Cross say natural disasters in the Southwest region and Limbe in particular  has increased in the past 10years.
« Climate change is already wrecking havoc and oil spills only come to aggravate matters, » said Sophia Namondo of the Cameroon Red Cross, Limbe chapter.

Business and tourism down

Local Council authorities say the exquisite sandy beach flanked by greeneries of mangrove forest has gradually disappeared.

«  The ecological attraction and volcanic sand believed to possess magic powers from Mount Fako is increasingly disappearing. Our visitors for picnicking, sunbath and and consumers of fresh fish are no longer coming,’ » said Andrew.

«  The fishes, the fishermen and tourists are going away, » he said, shaking his head in apparent frustration.
Statistics from Limbe’s city council show that tourist visits to the region in 2017dropped by more than 60% compared with three years before.

For Keneth Doh a bar restaurant owner in Ngeme village  and other vendors, tourist guides, the shrinking and stinking coast is a complete disaster to their livelihoods.
"The decline in the number of customers in our restaurants is affecting our business , » said Keneth.

Mary Dione, owner of a roasted fish and seafood restaurant, estimates her business is down by 50 percent due to the disappearance of customers at the beach.
"When customers come and feel very uncomfortable with the gasoline stench, they go somewhere else," Mary said.

« I have been doing this business here for over 25 years.  My life and that of my family is here, where do I go from here, »she wonders.

SOLUTION

Local Council authorities say they are carrying out weekly cleaning and have resumed tree planting along the coast. The council is looking to raise funds to do more beach cleaning work in hopes of making the area attractive again, Andrew Mutanga said.

The first step to protecting the shore line from extreme weather could be through major reforestation efforts, experts say.

“A tree-planting project by the local council with support from the government is necessary along the entire coastline,” Samuel Nguiffo says.
« When local councils are empowered they can better combat the effects of climate change and pollution, »he adds.

DJA, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - The Dja Conservation Complex in Cameroon globally recognized for its importance in biodiversity is increasingly in danger. Reports by the African Wildlife Foundation says the Dja and its wildlife face an uncertain future with rampant poaching, timber exploitation, the expansion of industries like mining and forestry and a lack of adequate support.

The government says it is hence working in partnership with other stakeholders to reinforce protection of the forest and its surrounding rich resources.

It is against this backdrop that the government, through the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT) recently signed a partnership convention with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to handle environmental aspects of the Integrated Development and Planning Programme of the Dja Mining Loop and the Adjacent Border Area (PADI DJA).

Mining operations are expected to take place in the Dja Faunal Reserve which spans across the South and East Regions, thus protecting the important animal and plant species therein becomes imperative, officials say.

Hanson Njiforti, Director of WWF-Cameroon Country Office Programme who signed for his institution pointed on the need to reduce the human and environmental impact of any development project in the area.

According to Hanson Njiforti the convention will give WWF a legal framework to exercise in protecting the Dja. “We sometimes neglect the impact of some of our activities on the environment. A project carried out without considering the impact on the environment can cost us a lot more,” he said, noting that the convention was a good step in the right direction.

WWF Cameroon is expected to provide its assistance, technical expertise and support to PADI DJA, with the principal objective of ameliorating the living conditions of the affected population. WWF Cameroon will also have the task of promoting good governance in the execution of the project and put in place transparency mechanisms to guarantee proper usage of resources allocated to the project among others.

Blondeau Talatala, Coordinator of PADI DJA said they are handling all concerns in view of the future exploitation of the Mbalam iron ore and other similar mining projects in the area.

The Dja reserve was created in 1950, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Since 1992, the reserve has been managed by ECOFAC, the European Union’s Central African Forestry Ecosystems programme.

Covering an area of more than 500,000 hectares, the reserve has important populations of chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants and buffalo. It is thought to contain some of the highest levels of biodiversity compared to any other forest in Africa.

But the Dja reserve has also long been the source of conflict with local communities who are angered at their exclusion from the reserve and the imposition of strict anti-hunting bans.

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - As climate change threatens agriculture, food security and water resource, the Ghana chapter of EBAFOSA will launch the National Day of Resilience on March 1 to take stock and showcase progress made in sustainably industrializing Ghana’s food systems.

EBAFOSA – Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly – is poised to serve as a platform to foster collaboration in combating food insecurity, climate change, ecosystems degradation and poverty in the country.

Food systems serve as the engine and strategic thrust for accelerating the achievement of Ghana’s socioeconomic priorities, creating wealth opportunities for enhanced incomes and jobs.

The resilience day will look at meeting Ghana’s climate resilience goals as captured in the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Ghana is on track to build green and sustainable Economy,” said Dr. John Boateng, President of EBAFOSA–Ghana. “Everybody else, governmental, non-governmental, youth groups and the private sector and corporate world are all doing their part. We need to have a big plan though as a nation that coordinates and synchronizes all efforts into an impactful action. There must be a strategy in place to monitor and evaluate progress we make and correct wrong decisions”.

EBAFOSA is an all-inclusive pan-African policy framework which uses innovative approaches that decentralize the development and application of policy solutions in order to achieve participation of key stakeholders.

The National Day of Resilience will bring together agriculture and food security practitioners and stakeholders from the government and public sectors, educational and research institutions, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and civil society and faith-based organizations.

Under the theme “Making Africa Work through EBAFOSA and Power of Innovative Volunteerism”, stakeholders will leverage on the Day to achieve the end goal of wealth creation and climate resilience building.

According to Dr. Boateng, the young people are being targeted to take the lead in transformative solutions to drive the agro-industrialisation efforts of EBAFOSA Ghana and to accelerate Africa's progress.

“The youth need to be engaged to lead in creating the income opportunities that they need. It is for this reason that in the practice of Innovative Volunteerism, youth, who are the majority, should likewise be intrinsically engaged, to lead actions. Their energy and innovativeness should be leveraged,” he said.

Interest groups and individuals are expected to collaborate in developing and implementing policy solutions to upscale ecosystem-based adaptation-driven agriculture and its value chain improvements toward ensuring sustainable inclusive growth in Ghana.

KIGANJO, Kenya (PAMACC News) - On a private paddock in Kiganjo, along Thika-Nanyuki highway, Dr James Gakuo is busy de-worming a herd of 100 cattle he just purchased from Isiolo County. The animals are extremely emaciated, almost at the verge of death.  

In another shed just a few meters away, a herd of 150 well built cattle is feeding on a special floor-like organic ration locally prepared using grain by-products and oil crops such as barley, sunflower and cotton seed-cake that Gakuo grinds and blends at his feed production factory in Kiganjo.  

“These animals at one point were skinny like the others. I brought them from Northern Kenya while they were emaciated and fed them and look at them now, they are ready for the market,” says Gakuo, a veterinary expert. He is in the business of adding value to such emaciated animals, before releasing them to the market.

And now, after a long research, a new study by scientists drowns from different parts of the world recommends that county governments in semi arid lands in Kenya should customize followGakuo’s example as one way of developing climate-resilient economies through vertical and horizontal transformation in the beef value chain.

According to Dr Stephen Moiko, the lead researcher for a study on ‘Livestock Production and Value Chains: Adaptation under Climate & Land Tenure Changes,’ One of the ways of building resilience is by investing in projects that improve the quality of beef along the value chain.
“This can be done by fattening the animals at producer level, and also by having improved marketing at processor level, and as well by researching and developing of alternative feed sources and breeds,” said Moiko.

Gakuo’s enterprise also shows that there are adaptation options for business and private sector investment opportunities in responding to climate change.

The PRISE study, jointly funded by the Canada based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK based Department for International development (DFID) and implemented in Kenya by the Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) also calls for diversification of pastoralist livelihoods through tourism, as a sector that complements and supports the livestock sector.

According to Moiko, livestock traders and businessmen respondents during the research pointed out that good quality meat was not easy to find in the market, given the prevailing tough climatic conditions. As a result, end consumers are now opting for white meat instead.

However, Gakuo has proven that apart from taking the animals to ranches for fattening, it is possible to improve the quality of the meat using short-term intensive fattening system for better profits.

“If we had fattening programs in all the pastoralist counties, then it would be easier for individuals to pay some fee for fattening animals whenever drought strikes. Once an animal is fit enough, it will automatically fetch better prices from meat processors who are always out to get good quality products for the end consumer,” said Dr Gakuo.

The study, which is part of the Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE) further calls for hHolistic planning of pasture management in the group ranches and private ranches to support production, and effective methods of delivering climate risk information in good time.
“There is also need for county government to raise awareness campaigns on the potential climate change adaptation measures and opportunities for investment,” said Moiko.