By Bakah Derick  A petition with over 2500 signatures from grassroots women on policy consideration and support in the promotion of women’s socio-economic and environmental rights has been handed to government in Bamenda.  The petition coordinated by the Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) was handed to the North West Regional Delegate for Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development on Tuesday 12 July 2022 in Bamenda.  The Regional Delegate, Mue Denis Kpue received the petition from the Director Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy and Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeli Women Empowerment and Environment officer all from CAMGEW at his up station office with the hope of it reaching Yaounde soonest.  Speaking prior to handing over the petition, the Director of CAMGEW stated that the petition is a result of other activities and a “round table discussions that CAMGEW have held in Bamenda since January 2022 to promote women inclusion in social, environmental and economic d

By Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy  Apiculture and Nature Conservation Campaigner  HOW TO KNOW GOOD BROWN OR WHITE HONEYHOW TO KNOW GOOD BROWN OR WHITE HONEY • Keeping honey open outside should attract bees. Any expose honey that do not attract bees should be questionable • A stick of match should still light fire after deeping in honey • Honey dropped in water should not dissolve immediately. It should move and settle below water because honey is heavier or denser than water. It will dissolve slowly when stirred • Good honey should crystalize or develop granules like sugar after some months of harvesting. Remember honey is fructose which is natural sugar • The type of container that honey is stored or package in can tell you whether honey is good or not.  If you see honey put in pesticide containers or engine oil container can that be good honey? • Honey should not wet a normal exercise book paper or A4 paper when dropped into it • Good honey should not ferment (behavin

By Bakah Derick  Women's Environment rights were at the center of a round table discussion organised in Bamenda on Wednesday 8 June 2022 by the not-for-profit non-governmental Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) as part of activities to mark World Environment Day 2022.  World Environment Day 2022 eco-business fair in Bamenda  According to the Gender and Women Empowerment officer for CAMGEW, it was important to give a gender approach to the observance going by the much work women do and can do to protect the environment.  "CAMGEW has been working since creation conserving the environment and promoting gender; mainstreaming everything thing gender in all their activities. Today, we saw that it was very important to bring together those women who are acting on the ground, those community organisations that are working towards the environment and that are promoting Women's actions." Ernestine Sevidzem said  CAMGEW Gender and Women Empowe

By Bakah Derick  A Bamenda based Nature Conservation Campaigner has express the wish for everyone to valourise species and ecosystems in an effort to protect biodiversity. Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy, Environmentalist and Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) was speaking to www.hilltopvoices.com on Monday 23 May 2022 a day after the observance of the International Day for Biological Diversity.  Observed with the slogan “Building a shared future for all life”, world Biodiversity Day according to Wirsiy Emmanuel concerns everyone.  Picture courtesy CAMGEW Facebook page  "It is a reminder to us all to know that all species and ecosystems matter. The world genetic resources is a gift from nature to us. The various species, ecosystems and genetic resources are also needed by future generation and so we have the obligation to use it and hand it to them in a healthy state." He said  The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) explai

By Bakah Derick  Environmentalists in the North West part of Cameroon have made a fervent call for the protection of bees as the World observes the international day this May 20, 2022.   Picture from Bee Culture  Speaking to www.hilltopvoices.com, Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy Environmentalist, Apiculture and Nature Conservation Campaigner was categorical that "without bees, we will have no food and honey." The Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) stated that bees play a vital role in the food production process.  "Bees contribute to 85% of food we eat. They are responsible for biodiversity." He said  Corroborating in an earlier conversation we had, Kari Jackson Environmentalist and Director of Sustainable Run for Development (SURUDEV) explained that the food ecosystem cannot be anything without bees. As pollinators of over half of the food eaten by humans, Kari believes that bees are highly in need to continue the food product

By Bakah Derick  The collection of waste in the city of Bamenda has been halted for some time now resulting to huge dump sites in the town. Vehicles and workers of the Health and Sanitation Company of Cameroon better known by its French acronym HYSACAM contracted by the Bamenda City Council to clean the city have not been spotted anywhere performing the task assigned to them.  Picture of waste at entrance to Sisia by Nkwen Market (picture by Eric Mbotiji) Unofficial sources at the company say the major reason that made them to stop work was the shooting to dead of one of their workers at the Ntarikon neighbourhood and the burning of one of their waste transportation vehicles at the small Mankon neigbourhood in Bamenda during the month of April 2022.  Away from this, www.hilltopvoices.com has gathered that the five years contract of the company with the Bamenda City Council signed by the then Government Delegate Vincent Nji Ndumu has expired. Contracted on the 22 of Februar

By Bakah Derick  A Bamenda based Environmentalist has expressed concerns over the safety of what he calls Key Species of wildlife in the North West Region of Cameroon. In an exchange with www.hilltopvoices.com within the context of the World Wildlife Day (WWD) 2022, Kari Jackson was categorical that human activities are becoming a serious threat to these key species. Kari Jackson at his SURUDEV office Ghana Street Nkwen "All of us who exist in this highlands ecological zone, if all of our efforts are put together to carryout restoration activities and recovery of these species, I think our strength will still not be enough. We need to live a life that does not compromise the habits of the next generation. Our livelihood begins from the forest, it begins from the environment before we can be able to put food on the table and go about our activities. Wildlife is primordial for us to live. I want to draw your attention to the fact that if one specie of bee or all the bee

By Bakah Derick  The Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) has ended an environmental education session targeting children in Oku particularly around the protected Kilum-Ijim Forest area.  Partial view of the Children in training  The session on the 17th of December 2021 brought together 26 community children (10 boys and 16 girls) with focus on Bushfires with specific attention on causes,  consequences and prevention.   The interactive program permitted the children to identify causes of bushfires amongst them, burning of farms through slash-and-burn method (ankara), burning of bushes to hunt animals, poor harvesting of honey, smoking in and around the forest and burning of vegetation to get new grass for animals. According to the Children, they were able to name these because they see it happen in their community.  CAMGEW representatives then elaborated more on the causes following their mastery of the subject on the ground.  "We have learned that bushfire c

  By Bakah Derick    Preventing or managing bushfires requires a good communication strategy. While organisations with the competences like Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) are engaging from several fronts including communication and sensitisation, community leaders and other stakeholders will require to also communicate effectively at this time. When we contacted our consultant Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy, Director of CAMGEW on ways of communication at this time he suggested the following  There is need for organisation of training workshops, seminars, sensitization in social and cultural groups by key bushfire actors and concerned individuals and institutions like CAMGEW.  Radio talks targeting communities with potentials of bushfires must be regular during this period. Communities and organisations can also product and distribute bushfire posters/flyers, booklets, Forest signpost for sensitisation The community needs to make use of the Town Criers for information and sensit

By Bakah Derick  One of the measure tools in bushfire prevention and management is the identification of stakeholders. These are the people or institutions that can make decisions that will enhance the fight against bushfires. Their decisions can facilitate sensitization, community engagement as well as handling defaulters.   Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) first from left after a bushfire incident  With several years of working around the Kilum-Ijim forest area, our environmental protection consultant Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) has identified the following as community stakeholders in the bushfire prevention and management process.  The traditional administration represented by Kwifon/Fon respected and feared by community members,  Municipal council represented by the Mayor and councilors elected by the community members and consequently can be listened to The Ministry

By Bakah Derick  This is the time of the calender year when bushfires are common. Vegetation is getting dry and intensive farming will resume soon. It is therefore important to be on the watch now so as to minimise the occurrence of bushfire.  According to Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW)  bushfires mostly occur during public holidays when people are resting at home, on weekends when forest people are attending other festive events, on traditional resting days (kontri Sunday) when forest people respect their traditional days by staying home and on Fridays or Sundays when there is religious services.  "Records of bushfires in Kilum-Ijim forest have proven this. On 11th February 2014 during National Youth Day when everyone was in the celebration ground in Elak – Oku fire emerged from a farm close to the forest at Nchiiy Community Forest and got into the forest. Before community members could leave the ceremonial ground to go home and change their attire and

By Bakah Derick As the dry begins in Cameroon, concerns over the return of bushfires are on the increase. Areas of the Kilum-Ijim forest Bikov, Atumekui, Belo, Abassakom, Oku and Njinikom and other protected areas mostly affected by bushfires are in risk of being consumed again if nothing is done. In this edition of our No to Bushfires series, we talked to our environmental protection consultant Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy Apiculture and Nature Conservation Campaigner, Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) on the best practices to prevent and manage bushfires Bushfires burning a bee hive "Summarily, Fire tracing and back burning, patrols, sensitization against bushfires,  communicating on various punishment that awaits defaulters, Developing of agroforestry systems in farms around forest peripheries, Green Firebreaks that separate the forest from the farms with evergreen vegetation, Ban of smoking in the forest and farms around the forest are some of th

By Bakah Derick It is that time of the year when we have bushfires in the North West Region. These bushfires have remained a serious threat to livelihoods and the environment. These bushfires have been been largely responsible for the destruction of biodiversity, water catchments, bee hives, farms, research sources and sometimes human life. Fighting bushfires is key and to get this work community solidarity is important.  Our consultant on environmental protection is Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy. He is the Director of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) working in the Kilum-Ijim forest area located in parts of Bui and Boyo Divisions. He shared the following with Hilltopvoices as the potential causes of bushfires at this time.  The activities of hunters in and around the forest area. Some of them deliberately introduce flames with the intention to scare animals from their hideouts. This eventual turn to uncontrollable wide fires.  Slash-and-burn or Ankara is a common fa

By Bakah Derick  Bushfires are a regular occurrence in the North West Region of Cameroon especially between the months of October and February. This period is generally referred to as the dry season as a result of the absence of rain which allows for partial or complete dryness of vegetation. This dry vegetation burns easily and fast at the slightest introduction of flames resulting to huge bushfires. The introduction of flames according to environmentalists like Wirsiy Emmanuel  Binyuy working in the Kilum-Ijim protected forest area that covers Bui and Boyo division is mostly done by hunters, farmers, mentally challenged persons and smokers.  Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy attempting to put off a small scale bushfire "Hunting done by hunters in and around the forest area, Slash-and-burn farming method done by farmers to gain more land or as a method of preparing the farm for planting, Grazing done by grazers who lack skills in improved pasture cultivation and turn to burn veg

By Bakah Derick  The Bamenda-Cameroon headquartered not for profit environment and women centered issues Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW) has intensified sensitization campaigns on the prevention and management of bushfires in the North West Region especially in protected areas.  burning bee hive The two working sessions organised in Bamenda ahead of the start of the dry season being the period during which bushfires are common, the Director of CAMGEW, Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy outlined the havoc caused by bushfires hence engaging them the more into prevention and management.   "The leaders and stakeholders were made to see the need for solidarity in fighting bushfire. Considering that the forest has much to offer in different ways ti its community it was therefore necessary to see a huge community engagement in the fight against bushfire. CAMGEW wishes to thank GEF Small Grant Programme for supporting the production of this guide to fight bushfire." Se