Shey Benjamin Serkfem, Environmentalist, CEO People Earthwise (PEW), a Buea-based charity, discusses the potentials in biomass production in Cameroon.

What is your assessment of the state of Renewable Energy exploitation in Cameroon today?

The ultimate source of all energies on planet Earth is the Sun. Other environmental sources include water, the wind, plants that provide bio-energy and then geothermal energy. From these natural or environmental sources - also known as ‘renewable energy,’ various forms of energy are put to use, to do work and obtain services by humans. Scientists and engineers use technology on natural resources to transform energy and create secondary non-environmental sources which are industry-based.

Water falling from a height – at a waterfall - has both potential and kinetic energy which are used to produce electrical energy used in households and industry. Kinetic energy is generated through motion; nuclear energy is from atoms, radiant energy is from direct use of sunlight, elastic energy from pulling stretchable objects, chemical energy from chemical substances like crude oil in refineries.

There are also sound, wave and electro-magnetic forms of energy. Remember the famous physicist, Newton’s law which states that “Energy is neither created nor lost; it can only be transformed from one form to another.” From the solar energy which I mentioned earlier you have plant energy and any other forms of energy.

Cameroon is still very far behind in its exploitation of her renewable energy potential to benefit from alternative sources of energy. However, one must not ignore the current strides being made by Government to develop its hydro-energy potential in various ‘big infrastructural energy projects far away from the Western Highlands of Cameroon.

Why is Energy important to man and why the focus now on Renewable Energy and alternative sources?

Remember that energy is the capacity of a system to do work, like moving an object, transforming a natural substance, constructing and transportation. You could not have been able to move from your SOPECAM agency in Buea to PEW in Molyko if you do not have bio-energy stored in you from the food you ate and the energy that moved the taxi. Vehicles and aircraft cannot move without fuel energy. We can’t cook without energy. Humans are sharing the energy from the sun and other sources earlier mentioned.

Humans currently depend a lot on petrol, gas and other energy products that are produced in the industry. The non-natural sources of the energy that we are mostly using have negative environmental impacts, are getting scarce and may finish. That is why in the global drive for Sustainable Development, the use of renewable sources of energy is encouraged because it is cheaper and has less polluting effects like petrol and chemical energy or the burning of coal.

What is your perception of the level of Renewable Energy consciousness in Cameroon today?

The question may also be, How much is Cameroon exploiting its RE potential and transforming it into large scale use or to power our industry? Most energy use in the rural areas is directly from natural or renewable sources, but in urban centres the reality is opposite and there is high dependence on centrally supplied gas and electricity, though solar energy products are increasingly found in our markets

Let’s consider the challenges of fuel-wood or firewood in urban centres in the South West Region today. The forests are increasingly being logged for industrial and other local community needs, and urbanization is depleting or clearing-away residence-near forest resources. People get firewood mostly from CDC plantations when the rubber trees are old enough to be replaced. The scarcity of firewood and the high cost of cooking gas and electricity are huge energy problems in urban centres.

In response to these problems PEW instituted a project titled, ‘Firewood-Forested Compounds & Community Woodlots’ through which fast-growing trees are planted in boundary and other appropriate spaces and in three years firewood is harvested with appropriate tree surgery technology for the trees to coppice and grow back and continue to provide environmental services of abundant clean air (oxygen), urban bird havens, soil protection, windbreaks etc.

In Cameroon, we are still using traditional sources of energy which are industry dependent. Maybe the sun is used to dry laundry but with the new technology we are able to use solar, wind or water energy to do work. You would notice that even electricity companies are now establishing thermal plants instead of improving the hydro-electric plants to be able to cope with shortages in their supplies.

So Renewable Energy consciousness in Cameroon is still very low at the policy level, the corporate sector level with investors and the general public level with low levels of consciousness about our individual ‘environmental footprints’.

On a scale of 100 what is the score of Cameroon in the transformation of Renewable Energy for our industrial and service needs?

Observation and statistics show that, naturally the person in the rural area mainly uses renewable energy. Even with the coming of increasing solar energy use, most projects are in the rural areas. For example, the Bokosso Solar Energy trial behind Mt. Cameroon operated from PAIDWA Buea. So, to answer your question I think by my perception, not based on a study, the rate at which Cameroon is transforming its renewable energy sources for common and industrial use is just 10%.

And this is mainly in the hydro sector. As SW Coordinator of the Cameroon Mangroves and the Education for All Networks and the Civil society Platform on REDD+& Climate Change, I think we need to invest more in the Renewable Energy sector!

So, what can be done and who is to blame for this low exploitation of alternative energy sources?

For us environmentalists, the starting point is always creating awareness and education informed by baseline studies. Politicians and Government leadership of the country has to be aware of the opportunities that exist in the use of Renewable Energy as an alternative source of energy, and then put policies in place to advance the sector. These policies will favour investments in the corporate and industrial sector to invest. When there is enough investment in the sector, energy will be sold at a cheaper rate, and its use will have less negative environmental effects like pollution and climate change.

I just gave you an example of PEW’s “Firewood-forested Compounds & Community Woodlots” project, now broadly titled “Living with Trees”. If Municipal Authorities do not assist us to promote the value of trees in urbanisation and change the notion that people culturally hold that trees are a danger in settlements, then the brilliant idea would be still-born.

All of us have got to take responsibility but, above all, the Government should develop a Renewable Energy Strategy, just as one has been achieved by MINFOF on management of mangroves, and MINEPDED is working towards one on waste management.