Nature Protection : WWF Launches 2020 Living Planet Report

The World Wide Fund for Nature Protection, Cameroon Country Office ( WWF-CCPO) in its quest to safeguard biodiversity  has launched its 2020 Living Planet Report. This was during a ceremony organised yesterday September 16, 2020 in Yaounde. It was chaired by the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, Nana Aboubakar Djallo on behalf of the Minister. The report presents contributions from more than 125 experts from around the world and lays emphasis on the impact of destroying biodiversity.
Speaking during the launching ceremony, the Country Director of WWF Cameroon, Clotilde M. Ngomba stated that, “The country is blessed with a vast biodiversity but regretted that issues may take an ugly twist if more efforts are not injected in protecting nature. She indicated that ivory trade is contributing to a decline of 70 per cent of the country’s elephants especially in the East region. The Country Director went on to recommend that the construction of roads, dams and sea ports should not be a detrimental factor to nature protection.
Talking on the 2020 report, Clotilde M. Ngomba said it sounds the alarm for global biodiversity, showing an average 68% decline in animal population sizes tracked over 46 years. The report further indicates that this catastrophic decline is largely due to the environmental destruction such as deforestation, unsustainable agriculture and the illegal wildlife trade that contributes to virus outbreaks such as Covid-19. It adds that Wildlife populations found in freshwater habitats fell by 84%; the starkest average population decline equivalent to 4% per year since 1970. On receiving the reports, the Minister thanked WWF for the enriching report and pledged government’s willingness to exploit it. He equally promised to take in to consideration the different recommendations proposed by WWF. During his official speech, Minister Nana Aboubakar Djallo outlined some of the activities carried out by his ministry in the fight against nature destruction such as sensitisation and reprimanding defaulters.