Education and Advocacy in Cameroon

With the support of a grant from Earth Rising, and led by Hilary Ewang Ngide, the Centre for Community Regeneration and Development (CCREAD) carried out an important educational project in the Bakossi forest area of Cameroon where deforestation is a significant problem. The project aimed to increase awareness among local Indigenous women, youth, and elders about this issue and climate change more broadly; provide advocacy training; and revitalize environmentally-friendly traditional Indigenous practices to help promote carbon sequestration.

While 98% of the 4,680 people polled were aware that forest reduction and lower agricultural yields were a problem, only about 13% were aware of climate change on a larger scale. Furthermore, local participants were unaware of their rights in protecting the destruction of the forest. 

CCREAD held classes to teach ten communities (reaching 1,230 people) about climate change and advocacy for their rights. These ten communities, specifically community leaders, women, and children, felt empowered and will continue to get support. In that region, the traditional community leaders are the legal custodians of the forest, and so empowering them was particularly important. Unexpectedly, eleven additional neighboring communities asked to be included in the program, showing that the program succeeded beyond expectations.