The Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development, Hele Pierre, presided over the launch of the International Day for Biological Diversity on June 26, 2024 under the theme “Contributing to the Plan”.

The celebration of the Biological diversity international day is an opportunity for Cameroon to take stock and assess how far the nation come in the fight to preserve our national biodiversity. The latter represents the fourth largest potential in Africa and the 21st in the world, against a backdrop of climate change, pollution and rampant deforestation.

The consequences are alarming: more than 3 billion people around the world suffer from the degradation of ecosystems; pollution causes more than 9 million premature deaths every year; more than one million of the 8 million known animal and plant species are threatened with extinction; nearly 75% of terrestrial environments and 66% of marine environments are severely altered by human activities; nearly 40% of the world’s population lives in wetlands, threatening biodiversity.

As for the strong action taken by the Cameroonian government, Minister Hele Pierre points out that: “Cameroon has set aside 22% of its forests as protected areas. This is a very important effort. There is also reforestation; the implementation of the three pillars of the Nagoya Convention, including conservation and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. But Cameroon needs to do more, because we are essentially dependent on biodiversity for our food, our health, in short, for our daily lives.