An exchange workshop on optimising the MINFOF 2014 roadmap began in Yaounde on January 30, 2014.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) are devising workable strategies to adopt so as to efficiently implement four programmes contained in its roadmap for 2014. An interactive workshop on the theme, "Strategy to optimise the implementation of the 2014 performance plan and roadmap," went underway in Yaounde yesterday January 30 under the chairmanship of MINFOF boss, Ngole Philip Ngwese.

The Minister said the programmes endorsed by parliament centre on the sustainable management of the country's forestry and fauna resources and ensuring that its contribution to the economy is more relevant than ever before. These include, "Management and renewal of forest resources," "Securing and enhancing wildlife resources and protected areas so as to contribute to the sub-sector tax revenue," "Enhancement of timber and non-timber forest resources," and "Steering, institutional management and governance of the sub-sector."

"The programmes in a nutshell seek to put at the market legally harvested wood, ensure its proper processing so as to create more jobs, to protect and valorize our protected areas and fauna and ensuring that they also adequately contribute to the economy of the nation as well as implementing international conventions signed with international organisations especially with the European Union," the Minister said.

The programme budget which went operational last year, Minister Ngole Philip Ngwese said, assigns specific tasks not to structures but to individuals and that the workshop sought to indicate to each and everyone what is expected from him or her so as to attain efficiency in the programmes implementation at the end of the year. He said the ministry encourages team work so as to optimise the use of the funds put at its disposal.

The Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, he disclosed, assigns two roles to MINFOF: That of contributing to the growth of the economy and secondly, offering as many jobs as possible to as many Cameroonians as possible. Statistics show that the forestry sector employs directly 23,000 people, gives about 150,000 indirect jobs and contributes about FCFA 20 billion to the State treasury; close to 6 per cent to the country's Gross Domestic Product.