Cameroon’s Network of Sustainable Development Actors amplifies the voices of women from the forests amid COP30

Marie Crescence Ngobo (MCN): To provide some context for why we conducted this forest immersion, we must examine RADD’s origins and its background. RADD originated from young people’s desire to continue the ‘Kids For Forest’ project initiated by Greenpeace International in the Congo Basin in 2009. ‘Kids For Forest’ was an advocacy project that enabled young people to come together and urge decision-makers to protect and manage the forests for future generations. At its conclusion, the young people created the Network of Sustainable Development Actors (RADD) to continue promoting the sustainable, equitable, and inclusive management of natural resources, especially forests. Based on this vision, RADD had to find strategic agents capable of pursuing and representing sustainable, inclusive development. Because of their relationship with nature, land, and forests, women are best suited to this role.

Through forest immersion, RADD is returning to its original mission of preserving and protecting the forests. We are in the Congo River basin, and this year COP30 laid special emphasis on forests, the earth’s lungs. The need to conserve forests is even greater. Unfortunately, modernity, colonialism, extractive industries, agro-industries, mining, dams, and other large-scale projects that adversely affect forests seek to keep women and young people away from the forest’s vast wealth, eroding any desire they may have to contribute to its conservation. This immersion will renew the women of the Congo Basin’s alliance with the forest, instilling in them a desire to conserve this ecosystem. We shall remember the role forests have always played for humans and insist on the need to preserve them for present and future generations and mitigate climate change.

MCN: In the run-up to this immersion, we held two panels discussing “the world’s future without forests and water” and “Gender and climate finance.” There was an evening in the forest, an exhibition fair with native agroecological seeds and forest handicrafts, a hike, a virtual meeting with the team in Belém, tree planting to mark our visit to Sanaga Beach, a documentary screening, and a meeting with forest representatives.

This training strengthens women's ability to understand and acknowledge forest climate issues. It trains them to engage in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Women experiencing the impacts of climate change could propose relevant solutions that should be put to good use at COP30. We must preserve the Amazon and Congo Basin as they offer solutions to climate change. We cannot achieve an effective conservation of these ecosystems without women. They are the ones who must provide the solutions, rather than the other way around.

Cameroon is reaching out to decision-makers, urging them to listen carefully to what women are doing and to see them as leading actors when drafting and implementing national plans to combat climate change.

MCN: More than six categories of people were selected, including women living near the agro-industries. As palm oil, sugarcane, and rubber tree monoculture plantations have destroyed the forests that provide their livelihoods, these women are at the forefront of the fight for land access. This also includes women from community seed banks, who are the local seed guardians. Otherwise, the forest cannot sustain itself. Africans must strengthen their seed sovereignty and move away from hybrid seeds, which use synthetic chemical fertilizers that also cause climate change.

Likewise, female processors of agricultural, pastoral, and non-timber products (products from forests, other than wood) add value to our local products, enabling them to rival the manufactured goods swamping our markets and distancing us from our cultural, religious, and traditional values.

Also, urban women who need to recharge to reconnect with Mother Forest, a source of nutritional, health, and environmental values.

Indigenous people, or the first inhabitants of the forest, who are skilled conservationists and guardians of this forest and its wealth.

Lastly, the ‘forest representatives’ are a group of young people from the forest committed to its development.

MCN: We will take a multilevel approach by strengthening the group of forest representatives who were at the COP30 Hub, giving them the resources to continue striving for forest protection and development. We also plan on including forest seeds in the seed system development program that RADD manages.

MCN: Locally, we have the Cameroonian Women’s Convergence against Climate Change (COFECCC), the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection, and Sustainable Development, and the National Office on Climate Change. Internationally, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) is our main partner, providing financial, technical, and communications support, and the Africa Climate Justice Movement (ACJM), an African women’s movement supported by the Global Fund for Women (GWF). We also have the Agroecology Fund and Global Voices backing us.

We intend to seek more support for our initiatives and continue strengthening women’s ability to understand the global climate challenges. Cameroonian women have proposed some endogenous solutions and are seeking partners to support their implementation.