KRIBI, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Michael Wakam stood beside a palm tree in a bushy area in Kribi in the South region of Cameroon and looked dejectedly at the farm land in front of him that was once his.
“It starts from here right over there where you see that palm tree. From there, you move to the right extending to the middle of that building right up to where were are standing” he said showing a vast piece of land which he claimed was grabbed from him by a Chinese company commercial cultivation of rice and cassava.
“We agreed that the land will end right there in the middle of that tree but I came and discovered that they have extended to this level. They have encroached my land almost by one hectare. This is wrong and illegal” he said boiling with anger.
Michael’s story is familiar across Cameroon where locals continue to dispute land with International companies especially Chinese companies.
In September 2015, neighbouring communities of the Lokoundjé and Kribi II subdivisions living close to the farms of Hévéa du Cameroun (Hévécam), a sister company of Chinese group Sinochem International addressed a memorandum to the Cameroonian government in which they accused the company of the of grabbing farming lands, stepping beyond the limits of some of its land concessions. A situation which, according to them, deprived them of a livelihood generally provided by agricultural activities on the lands under dispute.
“Government remained mute to our complaints and the land grabbing continued. This is 2017, two years after the memorandum and nothing has changed” said Michae. “We suspect that they bribed government officials to stay quiet” he added.
Company officials denied the allegations and stressed that the land was acquired from the indigenes in strict respect of the Cameroonian law.
“What always happens is that, villagers usually get excited and confused when this companies come with huge sums of money to buy and develop their land. They only realized that they did not bargain well when the companies start operating” said Nelson Ndi, a Cameroonian working with Camco, a Chinese company that deals in agricultural and construction machinery.
According to two studies carried out separately by Land Matrix, the global watchdog on large scale land acquisitions, and Deborah Brautigam, Director of China Africa Research Initiative at John Hopkins University in the USA, Cameroon is one of the top 10 African countries that have sold the most lands to Chinese agricultural investments.
With 10,120 hectares of lands sold to the Chinese company Shaanxi Land Reclamation General Corporation (operating under the name IKO), to farm maize and rice in the Center region of the country (Nanga Ebola and Ndjoré), Cameroon, Ethiopia and Mozambique have some of the most important Chinese investments in agriculture on the Continent. Cameroon however comes far behind Zimbabwe that sold 100,000 hectares to the Chinese company CWE to farm maize.
Way Forward
“We are thinking of organizing a solid resistance to these land grabbers and demonstrate our resolve to keep our lands. We do not care what happens” said Michael. A move that will certainly end up in violence and probably loss of lives.
The Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Arts (CCIMA) has proposed a more sustainable measure to settle the crisis which will possibly not please strong opponents of land grabbing by agro-industrial companies.
The President of the Chamber Christophe Eken, has exhorted the government to carry out a “land reform, to facilitate access to land ownership for investors, especially in the agro-industrial sector”. For businessmen, this reform is to be considered as a “priority”, if the government wants to “increase the competitiveness of the Cameroonian economy”.
Government is yet to react. The request comes in a context marked by civil society organisations blowing the whistle on the land grabbing operated by agro-industrial units, a practice which according to these NGOs, challenges the survival of neighboring communities.
KRIBI, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Michael Wakam stood beside a palm tree in a bushy area in Kribi in the South region of Cameroon and looked dejectedly at the farm land in front of him that was once his.
“It starts from here right over there where you see that palm tree. From there, you move to the right extending to the middle of that building right up to where were are standing” he said showing a vast piece of land which he claimed was grabbed from him by a Chinese company commercial cultivation of rice and cassava.
“We agreed that the land will end right there in the middle of that tree but I came and discovered that they have extended to this level. They have encroached my land almost by one hectare. This is wrong and illegal” he said boiling with anger.
Michael’s story is familiar across Cameroon where locals continue to dispute land with International companies especially Chinese companies.
In September 2015, neighbouring communities of the Lokoundjé and Kribi II subdivisions living close to the farms of Hévéa du Cameroun (Hévécam), a sister company of Chinese group Sinochem International addressed a memorandum to the Cameroonian government in which they accused the company of the of grabbing farming lands, stepping beyond the limits of some of its land concessions. A situation which, according to them, deprived them of a livelihood generally provided by agricultural activities on the lands under dispute.
“Government remained mute to our complaints and the land grabbing continued. This is 2017, two years after the memorandum and nothing has changed” said Michae. “We suspect that they bribed government officials to stay quiet” he added.
Company officials denied the allegations and stressed that the land was acquired from the indigenes in strict respect of the Cameroonian law.
“What always happens is that, villagers usually get excited and confused when this companies come with huge sums of money to buy and develop their land. They only realized that they did not bargain well when the companies start operating” said Nelson Ndi, a Cameroonian working with Camco, a Chinese company that deals in agricultural and construction machinery.
According to two studies carried out separately by Land Matrix, the global watchdog on large scale land acquisitions, and Deborah Brautigam, Director of China Africa Research Initiative at John Hopkins University in the USA, Cameroon is one of the top 10 African countries that have sold the most lands to Chinese agricultural investments.
With 10,120 hectares of lands sold to the Chinese company Shaanxi Land Reclamation General Corporation (operating under the name IKO), to farm maize and rice in the Center region of the country (Nanga Ebola and Ndjoré), Cameroon, Ethiopia and Mozambique have some of the most important Chinese investments in agriculture on the Continent. Cameroon however comes far behind Zimbabwe that sold 100,000 hectares to the Chinese company CWE to farm maize.
Way Forward
“We are thinking of organizing a solid resistance to these land grabbers and demonstrate our resolve to keep our lands. We do not care what happens” said Michael. A move that will certainly end up in violence and probably loss of lives.
The Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Arts (CCIMA) has proposed a more sustainable measure to settle the crisis which will possibly not please strong opponents of land grabbing by agro-industrial companies.
The President of the Chamber Christophe Eken, has exhorted the government to carry out a “land reform, to facilitate access to land ownership for investors, especially in the agro-industrial sector”. For businessmen, this reform is to be considered as a “priority”, if the government wants to “increase the competitiveness of the Cameroonian economy”.
Government is yet to react. The request comes in a context marked by civil society organisations blowing the whistle on the land grabbing operated by agro-industrial units, a practice which according to these NGOs, challenges the survival of neighboring communities.
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (PAMACC News) – Climate change is now a threat to major international trade routes, including ports, straits and roads and could disrupt global food supplies and increase food prices, according to a recent study.
The study points out that just under 25 percent of all food eaten in the world including staple crops are traded on international markets.
About 54 of the global trade in soybeans, cereals and fertilizers passes through at least one maritime chokepoint, according to a report, Chokepoints and vulnerabilities in Global Food Trade, released on 27th June by Chatham House, a British think-tank.
The report identifies fourteen chokepoints critical to global food security, eight of which are maritime including the Panama Canal, Suez Canal, and the Turkish Straits. Three inland chokepoints include the US inland waterways and Brazil’s road network; and three coastal chokepoints include the Black Sea ports and US Gulf Coast ports on which all traded goods pass through.
Trade and chokepoints are vulnerable to the risk of weather and climate, political and institutional; and conflict and security, making it critical for governments to invest in "climate-resilient" infrastructure as well as taking other precautionary measures such as diversifying food production and stocks.
Responses taken by governments to alleviate the risks often have short term, national interests which can exacerbate the global problem and undermine systemic resilience, the report notes.
“Meanwhile, climate change is going to make things worse by increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, fuelling conflict, and damaging already-weakened infrastructure,” Laura Wellesley, one of the study's authors said in a statement. “We need a new, collaborative approach to mapping and mitigating the growing threat we all face.”
Global food security depends upon trade in four staple crops – maize, wheat, rice and soybean production of which is concentrated in a handful of exporting ‘breadbasket’ regions. For example, the US exports 30% of the world’s maize supply, and 29% of its soy; while Brazil is the largest exporter of soy globally (32%) and accounts for 48% of China’s soy imports. In total, nearly 25% of all food for direct human consumption is traded on international markets and this is increasing.
The global cereals trade - which is what the report focuses on - was worth $132bn in 2015. According to the report, climate change is likely to aggravate socioeconomic and political risks.
Extreme weather events and more frequent harvest failures are expected to increase human displacement, indirectly amplifying the risks of inter-group violent conflict and civil war by exacerbating conflict drivers such as poverty, economic shocks and localized resource scarcity.
As coastlines and maritime borders are redrawn by rising sea levels, the risk of territorial disputes may increase, the study found, noting that climate-induced food supply shortages may prompt the more regular imposition of unilateral trade measures. One preliminary analysis found that a global agricultural production shock that would have been defined as a one-in-100-year event in 1951–2010 could become a one-in-30-year occurrence by 2040, increasing the risk of export bans and food price crises.
“The risks are growing as we all trade more with each other and as climate change takes hold,” Wellesley said. “The oil industry has been mapping this sort of risk for years but it has been woefully overlooked in discussions of food security.”
Past events such as floods in Brazil and the Southern United States and the export ban on wheat from the Black Sea countries that contributed in part to the Arab Spring, point to the sort of disruptions that can occur when chokepoints are closed, said Wellesley.
African countries, which are also major food importers are impacted by the risk on major trade routes. The African continent annually spends more than $50 billion in food imports. For example, the report says over a third of grain imports for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – the most food-import dependent region in the world – pass through at least one maritime chokepoint for which there is no alternative route.
Historical links between food insecurity and political/social instability make the region’s extreme exposure to chokepoint risk a particular cause for concern.
Low-income net-food importers in sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan are also exposed.
The report recommended that governments urgently strengthen global rules and cooperation – by limiting export controls, and sharing information; and invest in climate resistant infrastructure.
YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Lives of over 5.6 million children are increasingly threatened by extreme weather in countries around Lake Chad including, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, UNICEF has warned.
Heavy rains leading to floods in most of these regions is not only slowing down development assistance to a region already crippled economically by high insecurity but has left the poverty-mired population especially women and children even more vulnerable to water borne diseases, a UNICEF report has noted.
Cameroon government officials say the rains are already severe in the Northern region of the country, and it is now a problem for the local population, and a concern to development partners and the government.
“Floods have been a major challenge in the Northern region of Cameroon stoking climate worries. The government is on the alert,” says Cameroon’s minister of environment, nature protection and sustainable development Hele Pierre.
According to health and environment experts, epidemics have continued to worsen in the past years as a result of heavy rains, which sweep impurities into open drinking water wells, thus, exposing mostly children and women to multiple health risk.
According to the June 26, 2917 UNICEF report, more than 5.6 million children are at increased risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrheal infections, as the rainy season takes its toll in the countries around Lake Chad already devastated economically by conflicts and insecurity by Boko Haram terrorists.
The report says “the threat of disease outbreaks in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria coincides with growing regional insecurity and increased population movements particularly in Nigeria's northeast.”
"The rains will further complicate what is already a dire humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable by conflict are now facing the potential spread of diseases," said Marie Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. "
Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions leads to cholera outbreaks and to Hepatitis E, a deadly disease for pregnant women and their babies, while standing water pools can attract malaria-carrying mosquitos the UNICEF report says.
The heavy rains which triggers flooding and muddy roads constitutes a major impediment to development assistance, severely limiting humanitarian access to remote areas and villages amidst rising needs of millions of children and families left homeless and hungry in refugee camps in Northern Cameroon and Nigeria.
Across the Lake Chad region, UNICEF and other development partners are working in communities at higher risk of cholera outbreaks to teach families about the effects of the disease and practical steps to help avoid infection. In Niger, Cameroon and Chad, essential drugs and bars of soap have been prepositioned in warehouses close to IDP camps to curb cholera outbreak.
According to UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, response in the Lake Chad Basin has received less than 20 percent of the US$80 million required to meet urgent needs in 2017.
