Community Agriculture and Environmental Protection Association – Cameroon

Member since: 09/2021

Active in: WG Plastics, WG Framework conditions

www.caepacameroon.org

Community Agriculture and Environmental Protection Association – Cameroon

Community Agriculture and Environmental Protection Association Cameroon was founded by a group of women seeking to improve their agricultural production systems by making them environment friendly and sustainable especially. Later we realised the linkage between natural resource rights, and climate and environmental justice. We also realised there was a connection between land degradation, poverty and violence against women and HIV and AIDS. We included fighting against violence in the programmes. Since 2009, our activities have expanded to address issues of natural resource rights, climate and environmental justice, and their connection to land degradation, poverty and violence against women/girls and HIV and AIDS.

CAEPA headed office is located in the city of Bamenda. The current Anglophone crisis has created a vulnerable situation in English speaking regions of Cameroon. In Bamenda there is complete failure of public services and heavy migration from nearby rural areas, which has resulted into uncontrolled dumping and burning of waste in public spaces, backyards, and river. As per the previous study, Bamenda city generated 120-160tonnes of municipal solid waste daily (0.40-0.54kg per capita) with 76% organic fraction. Today the heaps of garbage have certainly increased with no management infrastructure in the city causing a threat to health and environment in the city. CAEPA as an organization initiated a waste management program to salvage the situation. To date with the help of volunteers we have collected over 20,000 plastics bottles. Then we got stock with the plastic bottles without an option to further dispose or recycle them. We decided to become a member of the PREVENT Waste Alliance in order to find opportunities to collaborate with likeminded institutions for exchange of knowledge and technology to help us out get our city out of the waste dilemma.

Circular economy to our organisations means looking at a way to transform our system. What will it take to transform our throwaway economy into one where waste is eliminated, resources are circulated, and nature is regenerated? We believe the circular economy gives us the tools to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss together, while addressing important social needs. It gives us the power to grow prosperity, jobs, and resilience while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and pollution.