CAMEROON: Bamboo, an alternative in the fight against climate change

At the first ever African Bamboo and Rattan Congress held from 20-22 April in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development presented a bamboo development project to restore degraded landscapes, conserve biodiversity, sustainably manage land and improve community livelihoods. The Restoration of Degraded Landscapes (RED) project implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with the contribution of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) aims to restore a total area of 6,000 hectares, ensure improved sustainable management of a further 6,000 hectares and reduce emissions by 384,218 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

To implement the project, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Forests and Rural Development (Foder) is providing the seedlings. Two nurseries with 30,000 seedlings have been set up, including 10,000 seedlings in Akomnyada, a locality located more than 41 km from the capital Yaoundé, and 20,000 seedlings on the site of the National Forestry Development Support Agency (ANAFOR) in Mbalmayo in the central region.

Through the use of bamboo, Cameroon wants to accelerate the achievement of the 13th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13) on “measures to combat climate change”. The idea is to restore degraded land and landscapes, sequester CO₂ and improve water table management in degraded landscapes. According to experts, the choice of bamboo is more justified by its ability to sequester CO₂ and adapt to the soil level.

Luc Ndebe, president of the association Terre et Ressources pour le Développement Durable (SUHE), says that “bamboo sequesters CO₂ ten times more than wood. Its regeneration rate is 50 times higher than wood. Bamboo is the ideal resource for combating climate change. According to official figures, Cameroon is home to 15 of the world’s 1,642 species of bamboo.

Gibrile Kenfack Tsabdo,

with support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund