In Cameroon, the abundance and diversity of species and ecosystems provide an important flow of highly interdependent provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services that are an asset for achieving sustainable development goals.
Unfortunately, this unique and rich biodiversity has suffered significant and increasing losses over the last 30 years due to increasing human pressure, unsustainable land-use planning, climate change, and other natural hazards such as droughts, floods, and landslides. Prospective analysis indicates increasing trends in BES losses in all ecosystems. Under Cameroon’s economic development scenarios, models and options, at least 20% of BES is expected to be lost by 2050.
The strengthening and effective operationalisation of policies, strategies, plans, and programmes becomes a major challenge. The integration of the ecosystem-based approach in Cameroon’s National Development Strategy 2030 (NDS30), as a strategic option for resilient sectoral growth, constitutes a new paradigm for the sustainability of Cameroon’s economic and social development.
For the Government of Cameroon, this assessment, portrayed by 08 major headline messages and 23 key messages, is a decision-making tool that provides essential information for consolidating the science-policy interface, guiding political action to reconcile economic development, biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, as well as fair and equitable sharing of the benefits resulting from the exploitation of biological resources. It would also facilitate the national implementation of certain international instruments like the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the African Union’s 2063 Vision.
