Cameroon has a land area of 47.2 million hectares and a population of 28.5 million people (2021 estimates). It stretches between latitudes 1° and 13° north and longitudes 8° and 17° East from the Gulf of Guinea to Lake Chad. The climate in Cameroon varies with topography. The southern regions are generally humid and equatorial, while the northern regions are semi-arid and hot.
The total forest area is estimated to be between 13.3 and 23.8 million hectares, nearly half of the country’s total land area. Cameroon forests are mostly in the southern part of the country and are mainly closed tropical broadleaved rainforests of two predominant types including the lowland evergreen and lowland semi-deciduous forests. North of this is the Sudanian woodland with Acacia wooded grassland. The country has some 936 species of birds, 211 mammals, 322 reptiles, 192 amphibians, and 8,260 species of plants distributed in protected and non protected areas.
Annual deforestation in Cameroon in the period 1990-2000 was estimated at 222,000 ha (0.9%) the main causes being small scale agriculture, logging and agro-industry. Exacerbated by the government’s inability to halt illegal logging in a sector marred by chronic corruption, the deforestation rate is set to rise as the country opens up new forest concessions. Ranked amongst the strongest economies before the declining prices of commodities that hit the country very hard in the late 1990s, Cameroon GDP per capita was estimated at only US$2,400 in 2008.
Cameroon prepared and adopted a new forestry policy in 1994 and 1995 with support from the World Bank and other partners. An arsenal of laws is also in place in relation to forests, wildlife and environmental management, but the government capacity to effectively implement and reinforce the existing laws remains weak. Cameroon is also signatories to several international agreements on environmental practices and policies. But despite the vast amount of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, Cameroon is failing to provide for the basic needs of its population.
The situation in the health sector for example is alarming and Cameroon is one of the African nations experiencing a crisis in human resources for health. There are approximately 1.1 physicians and 7.8 nurses and midwives per 10,000 population (WHO AHWO Cameroon Fact Sheet, 2021). Some of the major HRH challenges faced by Cameroon in the past decade include: (i) Inequitable geographic distribution of health workers, where rural areas have the fewest health workers; (ii) An aging public sector health workforce (66% of total HRH, 2011 HRH Census), with 53% of health workers aged 40-51 and 31% over age 51 in a sector where retirement age is between 50 and 55; (iii) Lack of regulations and lack of an on-going accreditation system for HRH education and training; and (iv) Limited HRH production planning and recruitment, including problems resulting from the centralization of recruitment and posting, lack of task planning, poor organization of duty, evaluation, incentive, and lack of project management.
The current health expenditure stands at no more than 3.5% of the country’s GDP (2018) and the hospital bed density was 1.3 beds/1,000 population in 2010. Access to (i) improved sanitation facility is 57.7% of the total population (with 83.3% in urban areas and 25.6% in rural areas); and (ii) unimproved sanitation facility is 42.3% of the total population (with 16.7% in urban areas and 74.4% in rural areas). This shambling situation stands to deteriorate further, and the current Covid-19 pandemic appears like the final nail in the coffin.
PAST PROJECTS
Spatial Evaluation of Deforestation and Degradation at the Western Periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve and Piloting Community Involvement in Carbon Assessment and Monitoring, Republic of Cameroon (Funded By Rufford Small grant and the Freezailah Fellowship Fund of the ITTO)
Community perceptions of climate change at the western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve (Supported by ACDEF Cameroon)
FUTURE PROJECTS
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