Story, Louvir Kindo Tombe
The launching took place Wednesday December 12, 2024 in Yaoundé. The project aims to strengthen and institutionalize government capacity to support policies and mobilize resources to increase the contribution of the forest sector to healthy and sustainable food systems.
“Most often we always talk about agriculture but we know that forestry can contribute to this,” says Sven Walter, Senior Forestry Officer at FAO.
The idea of the project was developed from the fact that forests are receiving increasing attention for their role in climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as biodiversity conservation, but their contribution to sustainable agri-food systems tends to be overlooked in policy and practice.
Through the present project, the FAO intends to place a remarkable importance on Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to sustainable agriculture. It shall provide avenues to identify NTFPs that can contribute to boost the agricultural system and seek ways to promote and introduce them into the system. Focus will also be to boost capacities of state institutions to lay emphasis on NTFPs.
“Cameroon has elaborated a National Development Plan for its resources and special attention is given to Non Timber Forest products,” says Joseph Nyongwen, Secretary General at the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.
The Secretary General was present at the launch of the project. The project spans across Cameroon into Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, the Philippines and Vietnam. It is all about recognizing the multiple linkages between agriculture and forestry. FAO member countries recently advised its governing bodies to better coordinate issues related to forestry and agriculture and requested FAO to strengthen its work on the contribution of forests to food security and nutrition.
“We are very happy to be present here in Cameroon and Central Africa as a whole which has a lot of products and experience which we will like to share with other countries,”
To this end, FAO recently approved an interregional document in Cameroon, on enhancing the contribution of forest food resources to food security, nutrition and biodiversity.
Cameroon’s forest
Cameroon is remarkably rich in biodiversity. Forests are a dominant feature of the country’s ecology, covering about 43% of the country’s land area, and are characterized by high species diversity.
This rich biodiversity and forest cover create interactions and diverse with people’s livelihoods. A significant proportion of the population depends on forest resources as a source of food, medicine and livelihood.
Despite its rich diversity, including in food, food insecurity in the country has increased to 58.5% of the total population, contrary to the downward trend observed since 2017.
The rising cost of living, especially food prices, has a negative impact on households, especially the most vulnerable. Therefore, it is essential to identify sustainable, healthy and alternative foods and systems that require less inputs to address food insecurity and biodiversity loss in the country.
