By Louvier Kindo Tombe
The different approaches and strategies for an effective and efficient participation of Cameroon was examined during a National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Ocean that held in Yaounde on June 22, 2022.
It was organized by the Young Volunteers for the Environment (YVE) Cameroon.
“We need to do something and act now to safe the ocean”, Blondel Silenou, Executive Director of JVE Cameroon told News Upfront.
He was speaking during the dialogue that brought together civil society organizations, policy makers, politicians and private sector Stakeholders.
The need to harmonize energies towards scaling up ocean action in Cameroon was motivated by existing challenges.
“In Kribi, a company known as Perenco has made aquatic life difficult for most species through its activities, foreign and industrial fishing greatly affects and pollutes the ocean while local fishermen and population suffer”, says Blondel Silenou.
Statistics on the global scene are also very devastating and calls for urgent action.
“40% of ocean is polluted, 90% of marine predators have disappeared”, declared Gilles Gislain Pabissa, Project Assistant at JVE Cameroun.
During the National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Ocean, participants agreed that to better scale up actions towards ocean management in Cameroon, it is necessary to revise most of the texts and laws relative.
“Authorities should endeavour to upgrade protected aquatic spaces in the country”, says Fils Jean Bikitbe, Chief of the Ocean Project at JVE Cameroun.
The National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Ocean was in preparation for the United Nations conference on Ocean that will hold from June 27 to July 1 2022.
The Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, comes at a critical time as the world is seeking to address many of the deep-rooted problems of our societies laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic and which will require major structural transformations and common shared solutions that are anchored in the SDGs.
To mobilize action, the Conference will seek to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action.
UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021 – 2030
A vast majority of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved and unexplored. The understanding of the ocean and its contribution to sustainability largely depends on our capacity to conduct effective ocean science – through research and sustained observations, supported by adequate infrastructures and investments.
The Decade provides a common framework to ensure that ocean science can fully support countries’ actions to sustainably manage the ocean and more particularly to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – through the creation of a new foundation, across the science-policy interface, to strengthen the management of the ocean and coasts for the benefit of humanity.
