Clean energy helps Cameroon communities face power cuts and poverty

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

Solar powered mobile phone chargers

IDANAU, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - It is 11 pm in Idenau, a fishing village community located on the coastal fringes of the Cameroon- Nigeria divide.  Joan Dione, 58, fish trader in the locality and her two daughters are busy drying fish.

Fish business in this renown fishing habour is on the increase thanks to the installation of solar energy that has significantly reduced post post-harvest losses.

“We can now dry our fish even at night with the use of solar ovens,”says Dione, smiling.

“The demand for fish is very high, with many customers coming from big cities in Cameroon and neighbouring countries like Nigeria and Gabon.”

Civil Society cautions against channeling climate funds through banks that fund coal

Green Climate Fund must say no to partnerships with HSBC, CréditAgricole

Songdo, South Korea --The Green Climate Fund (GCF) must not channel its money through two scandal-ridden international commercial banks that are leading funders of the coal industry, say civil society groups at a meeting of the GCF’s Board in Songdo, South Korea.

The groups say that the GCF must reject applications for accreditation by big banks HSBC and CréditAgricole. Accredited entities are institutions approved to receive and manage GCF funds.

Palm oil scheme affects indigenous people’s diet, deprive them of land and livelihood.

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame 

Cameroon says Palm oil production is one of the key drivers towards its economic emergence plan by 2035. But the scheme is changing the country’s rich forest landscape and biodiversity rapidly and even changing the diet, land and livelihood of indigenous forest communities like the case of Kilombo south of the country’s sea-side resort town of Kribi.

Indigenous forest communities cry foul as Cameroon suppresses annual forest royalties

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

  

Indigenous forest communities in Cameroon are protesting a new decision by the government that deprives them of their right to benefit from land and forest royalties and improvement of livelihood.

Prolonged Drought multiply insecurity in Cameroon

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (PAMACC News) – Prolonged drought of over six months has hit Cameroon increasing fears of looming food supply crisis as insecurity aggravates in the country. The insecurity imposed by Boko Haram attacks in the northern region has continued to multiply and government says the situation might worsen with threatening food insecurity due to the absence of rain.

Nganyi: The tiny forest in Kenya that predicts the weather

By Isaiah Esipisu

Nganyi forest shrine provides forecasts as accurate as those predicted through scientific equipment, and has been a valuable resource to the Bunyore community for generations. But now, climate change is threatening the forest shrine, along with other forests in East Africa.

• "Rainmakers" in the Bunyore community observe the flora and fauna in the Nganyi forest shrine to predict weather conditions. These predictions have proved as accurate as forecasts made through scientific equipment.

African smallholder farmers miss out on 'improved crop varieties' through informal seed markets

Busani Bafana

Farmers asked to move from saved seeds to boost yield

TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe (PAMACCNews)  - Another drought is sweeping across Zimbabwe triggering food and water desperation. But maize and cattle farmer, Sophie Sibanda (63),  is still hopeful for miracle rains to save her cattle at least but not her sun-scorched crop.

"I will not get anything" Sibanda says of the uneven mottle maize crop that she planted more out of habit than careful planning. Most farmers in the Southern part of the country have not planted this season owing to a drought, induced by the El Nino phenomenon already underway. An El Nino event occurs when the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean warm, changing global rain patterns.