UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000836

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

ACCRA FOR GEOFFREY HUNT
DEPT ALSO FOR OES/ARMBRUSTER
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS
EUCOM FOR J5-A AFRICA DIVISION AND POLAD YATES

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CM SENV
SUBJECT: EMBASSY, CARPE PROMOTE ENVIRONMENT TO CAMEROONIAN
STUDENTS


1. (U) DCM, together with CARPE Director John Flynn and
Yaounde CARPE representative Antoine Eyebe, at a June 28
Embassy-hosted event, presented certificates and prizes to
three Cameroonian students who had participated in a World
Environment Day event organized by CARPE.


2. (U) Twenty students from the Government Bilingual High
School of Yaounde participated in a field trip to learn about
agroforestry techniques in nearby farming areas in an event
organized by CARPE (the Central Africa Regional Program for
the Environment) and ICRAF (the World Agroforestry Center) to
mark World Environment Day. Three of the students who
excelled in a quiz competition after the event were awarded
certificates and cash prizes at the Embassy. DCM Nelson
noted that the USG and the government of Cameroon (GRC) work
closely together on numerous environmental efforts, with
CARPE as one of the USG's most important partners. He
praised the students, and their teachers and school
administrators, for their commitment to the cause of
enviromental protection.


3. (U) In his remarks, Flynn -- who was in Yaounde to attend
a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) meeting with local CARPE
representatives -- noted that the environmental work being
done in Cameroon by CARPE and the WWF is both significant and
innovative, and stands as a model for other countries.
CARPE, a dynamic program in its fifth year of funding, works
in 12 different high-biodiversity landscapes in Central
Africa that cover some 80 million hectares -- an area 25%
larger than Texas. It has developed management systems for
national parks, preserves, protected areas, and logging
concessions that include "some of the wildest reserves in the
world," according to Flynn.


4. (SBU) Flynn praised the Global Forest Watch, a pilot
program developed with Cameroon's Ministry of Forestry and
Fauna (MINFOF) to monitor legal and illegal logging using
satellite technology and NASA imagery. The program is an
effort, he said, to get governments to "take care of their
forests" (though it has been the unfortunate subject of
"conspiracy theories" that the U.S. is trying to exploit
African resources). Another USAID program works with IUCN
(an environmental NGO) to develop networks among
parliamentarians. National representatives work on policy,
regulation and legislative reform, and on creating advocacy
programs through civil society. A small-grants program has
been set up to help create a "constituency for conservation,"
serving public diplomacy by making U.S. efforts more visible
to the public. The Congo Basin Forest Partnership is another
program that has "attracted enornmous attention," Flynn said,
and Central Africa is now "leading the world in forest
management" in setting up a certification system for timber.
Governments and environmentalists in South America and the
Far East are taking notice, he said, of creative ideas coming
from Central Africa.


5. (SBU) The WWF, according to Flynn, has been a leading
innovator, engaging local communities as "allies in
conservation," and in developing progressive programs for
safari hunting that include revenue sharing with local
residents. It also works positively with logging companies
to promote sustainable management of the forests. He
cautioned, however, that some local engagement has been "more
destructive than good," with local chiefs selling their
leases and pocketing the money, while outside companies do
the logging. (Note: In a meeting with the DCM in December
2006, Dr. James Leape, Director General of the WWF, said the
Congo Basin is a global priority for WWF, calling it "the
next frontier for conservation"; the other priorities are
the Amazon and fisheries. Cameroon, he said, is one of the
strongest programs, and the USG is the WWF's most important
partner; a USAID grant to WWF constitutes 40% of their
program. End note.)


6. (SBU) Flynn also remarked that recent Chinese
exploitation of African resources presents one of the biggest
contemporary challenges to the environmental community,
building railroads and ports and pouring in "massive" numbers
of workers to environmentally sensitive areas.
MARQUARDT