For the next three years on, 2014-2016, the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, will be committing a total sum of FCFA 1.2 billion in Cameroon in a new project aimed at strengthening the capacities of some selected civil society organisations, CSOs.

It was on account of this new drive that the Cameroon Country Director of WWF, Dr Hanson Njiforti, the Conservation Director, Rolf Sprung, the WWF-CFP Programme Manager, Dr Philip Forboseh and a host of other top shots of WWF, were in Limbe on October 3, where Memorandums of Understanding, MOUs, were signed with six selected CSOs which WWF has engaged in this new project.

According to a press release issued by the WWF-CFP Manager, Dr Forboseh, on September 29, “the new project entitled; ‘Civil Society Support Project of Cameroon, comprises seven key thematic areas: Education for Sustainable Development, ESD, Livelihood, Protected Area Management, Ecosystem services, Business and Industries, Youth Empowerment and Baka Education.

Thus, WWF, in line with the above areas of concentration, had to select CSOs that shall, for the next three years, be funded by WWF to carry out activities in the field in line with WWF’s vision and mission.

Dr Njiforti explained that WWF had been working with civil society organisations before and were practically the ones doing the work in the field.

“Now, we have increasingly seen that they can do some of the activities. We will only provide the money now and technical support to let them carry on with the activities and not us any more,” he said.

In a press release of September 29, Dr Forboseh stated: “The project will strengthen selected CSOs to engage in policy dialogue regarding the management of natural resources, with emphasis on influencing the private sector in decision making and practices regarding the management of natural resources.”

Meantime, Dr Njiforti said they were not just going to throw out money to the CSOs and allow them do what they want. In order to ensure that the CSOs are guided on what to do, WWF has assigned some of its staff as team leaders to oversee the works of the various CSOS that they have engaged.

In the area of Education for Sustainable Development, Ikpe Inyang shall ensure that the CSO, ASYOUSED, which has been engaged to carry out activities in this domain, does not veer off course. Meantime, Theophilus Ngwene, the site Manager for the Bakossi Landscape, shall work with a Buea-based CSO, FORUDEF, to ensure the proper protection of the resources of the protected areas that WWF has been involved in.

Fidelis Pegue Manga, the Communication and Youth Service Team leader shall work with PEP Afrika of Melvine Wajiri to ensure that the youths in Cameroon are fully empowered with knowledge on conservation and more power to influence positive change for a better future for the youths.

In the area of Business and Industry, the CSO, Environmental Governance Institute, EGI, with John Takang, as CEO, was engaged. EGI shall be expected to influence the policies of companies and institutions such as CDC in the industrial sector for the benefit of the local communities around. Meantime, from the East Region, Victor Amougou Amougou shall, with WWF’s support, use his CSO, CEFAID, to carry on with WWF’s mission of promoting the education of Baka children within this forested area.

Meanwhile, Janet Mukoko, the Communication and Management Advisor for WWF-CFP, shall ensure communication, branding and reporting during the project. Talking to the press about his role in the new approach, Pegue Manga said that their first expectation shall be for PEPAFRIKA “to have a very strong institutional capacity to be able to deliver on some of its engagements that it has signed with WWF.”

Specifically, Pegue said that “at the local level” WWF “will want to see PEPAFRIKA engaging the youth clusters which are the CSOs at the local level that we will be working with, and at the national level we will want to see PEP engage more with decision makers like the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education, Ministries in charge of Education and so on.”

In a nutshell, Pegue said; “We want to see a CSO that can stand up, talk, contribute and participate actively in decision making on issues pertaining to the environment, youth unemployment, benefit sharing and environmental justice and so on.”

Inyang, who is the ESD Team leader, added that the new approach will guarantee that there is a greater reach and a greater impact.

“When we have the CSOs in place, they will be able to extend the conservation efforts beyond the scope that we would have been able to reach.” The new project, WWF authorities disclosed, is being funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA, through WWF Sweden and to WWF Cameroon.

Njiforti told all the engaged CSOs that WWF was counting much on them to succeed. He remarked: “In principle, the WWF Support fund was FCFA 1.2 billion” for the next three years. But was convinced that if the CSOs all work satisfactorily in doing what they have been engaged to do, SIDA and WWF Sweden, can surely raise the money beyond FCFA 1.2 billion and extend the project beyond 2016. He said the project was not only in Cameroon but in several other countries around the world.

In order to ensure that the CSOs do not fail, the WWF Conservation Director, Rolf, took time off to further explain to the CSOs what was being expected of them.

“What you shall do must be aligned with WWF’s strategies and the programme of the Government,” Rolf said.

He reiterated that the engaged CSOs must endeavour to be accountable for all their decisions, ensure transparency in what they do, avoid discrimination in their policies and ensure that local people shall have a right to participate in the decisions that they shall have to take as they head on to the filed.

The new project, as stated in Dr Forboseh’s press release, commenced on October 3, with the signings of the MOUs.

WWF, being one of the world’s largest conservation NGOs, has, as mission, to stop the degradation of the earth’s environment and to build a future through which man can live in harmony with nature. In this way, WWF has, for well over a decade in Cameroon today, been carrying out a series of projects to ensure the protection and better management of Cameroon’s natural resources, especially in the East, South, Center, Southwest and Littoral Regions.