The visiting Secretary of State in charge of Development and Francophonie to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs met with Lejeune Mbella Mbella yesterday in Yaounde.

Desertification, deforestation and soil degradation, amongst others, featured among key environmental issues discussed yesterday November 2, 2015 between visiting Secretary of State in charge of Development and Francophonie to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Annick Girardin and the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella.

On her first visit to Cameroon, Annick Girardin sought to assess efforts made by her host country to manage various environmental protection challenges ahead of the upcoming 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, which will be held in Paris, France from November 30 to December 11, 2015.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella said he assured his French guest that the President of the Republic of Cameroon attaches great importance to the protection of the forest and biodiversity because the country has part of Central Africa’s large Congo Basin forest; the second largest forest in the world after the Amazon Basin.

To fight destruction of forests for agriculture and wood exploitation, government has put in place stringent measures and laws with implementation controlled by the ministries in charge of forestry and environmental protection.

Annick Girardin’s fears on soil degradation equally received assurances that government is alleviating threats of desertification especially in the northern part of the country with reforestation projects to prevent climatic changes.

One of the issues Cameroon will discuss in Paris, it was disclosed, will be the dwindling of Lake Chad. According to Minister Mbella, the large water body has reduced in size from 25,000 km2 to a mere 9,000 km2, negatively affecting the economic development of the area.

Besides reviewing France-Cameroon relations with Minister Mbella Mbella, Annick Girardin also had words of solidarity for Cameroon which is facing security threats from the terrorist group, Boko Haram, but sparing no effort at the humanitarian level to provide care and hospitality for hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

Annick Girardin’s visit to Cameroon comes four months after the visit by French President, François Hollande, and eight months after the visit by French Foreign Affairs Minister, Laurent Fabius.