Story, Louvier Kindo Tombe
The training workshop brought together close to 20 journalists from diverse media houses in Cameroon both public and private. It took place at the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. The objective of the workshop was to equip journalists with the correct messages related to climate change in order to stir policies towards resilience, adaptation and mitigation.
Special attention was given to agroecology, and according to the vice president of MBOSCUDA, “agroecology has entered into history as one of the best solutions to climate change and climate resilience”.
The importance of agroecology was presented to the media men and women through a presentation by Mr. Garba Mohamadu. To him, agroecology is a set of agricultural practices that help retain soil fertility, return natural biodiversity and promote healthy feeding.
The idea to empower the media on the role of agroecology in climate change fight, falls in line with MBOSCUDA’s ongoing campaign to trigger policy makers to include agroecology in the fight against climate change at national levels.
The vice president of MBOSCUDA told reporters at the workshop that “the message of agroecology has gone through. During the recent Cop 27, agroecology was very popular but was not on the table of negotiations”. He expects that this year the situation might be different.
“Climate change is real, it is there, it is ravaging the world and today it is an international crisis,” says Musa Usman Ndamba.
“The time to act is now, there is no time to waste, for we reach a point of no turning back.”
The Yaounde workshop with media organs was organized in collaboration with the Alliance for Food Souvereignty in Africa (AFSA).
Present at the workshop was the secretary general of the economic and social council who praised the efforts from MBOSCUDA and AFSA in fighting climate change especially through agroecology. His presence at the workshop was timely and in context.
“The economic and social council has four pillars, one of which is environment, and climate change falls under this pillar,” says Ngoumba Zacharie, secretary general of the economic and social council.
The media practitioners were also schooled on the activities of the National Climate Change Observatory (ONNAC) and how it can help in the climate struggle.
Journey to Cop 28
Climate change is to be blamed for most of the environmental hazards in the world like floods, landslides, among others. It has become a threat to most sectors of the society. That is why the world is now focused on its mitigation, and on activities to promote adaptation and resilience. The conference of parties (COP) is a perfect avenue.
“Mboscuda and AFSA will be present in COP,” says Musa Usman during the workshop.
The Yaounde workshop was an occasion for the civil society organisations to adopt a common position to be presented during the various negotiations. It was equally an opportunity for the media to adopt ways and strategies in contributing to the climate change fight. Inspiration was drawn from a synthesis presentation of the Nairobi and Kinshasa declarations.
“When you are done with one COP, you start preparing for the next edition,” Musa told News Upfront.
The resolutions arrived at during the Yaounde workshop will be taken to Dubai next month by scribes of MBOSCUDA and AFSA.
