Archive for July, 2011

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July 29, 2011

Looking for sponsors for water catchment protection

Context and Justification:

In the North West Region of Cameroon, water catchments are much solicited areas in villages due to permanent presence of water all over the year. According to the baseline study of North West Region (2006), increase in population pressure has resulted to a corresponding increase of human impact on the environment especially catchment areas. Deforestation, farming with the use of chemicals, grazing, bush fires, planting of unfriendly trees such as eucalyptus around catchments and the laying out of fields on slopes are some of the activities that lead to soil erosion, pollution, siltation and drying up of water catchments. Water sources in around and around catchments are being degraded and has led to shortages in water supply in adjacent communities.

 

The existence of weak and poorly trained Water Management Committees (WMC), limited awareness of community members on importance of water catchments protection and existence of conflicts between stakeholders (Farmers, Grazers, WMC and Councils), cannot be left out. These have also contributed to the unsustainable management of catchments areas around the region.

 

Although the Cameroonian government issued a decree in 2001 to organize the protection of water catchments areas, most of these water sources are treated as individual properties by those who own the land. These landlords do not respect the legal prescription in force such as: acquisition of land certificate, demarcation of catchments, fire tracing, fencing (live and dead fencing) and planting of water friendly trees.

 

This pressure on water resources highlights the hydrological, social, economic and ecological interdependencies in water catchment areas. These interdependencies demand more integrated approaches to developing and managing water and land resources. The present trajectory is made to stimulate a dynamic relationship between water catchment areas stakeholders and councils authorities, who have to work together to ensure the viability of their decisions in meeting sustainable development goals.

 

Main Objective

Provide advisory services to New Forest Project clients in order to conduce a trajectory that aims to manage and develop water resources in a sustainable and balanced way, taking into account of social, economic and environmental interests of riparian populations in rural council areas.

 

Specific objectives:

  • Increase awareness of community members and stakeholders on water catchment protection
  • Improve on the database of needs of stakeholders around catchment areas
  • Institute a plan to protect water catchments within the council areas
  • Ensure effective monitoring of catchments protection

    catchment destroyers

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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July 2, 2011

VOLUNTARY OPPORTUNITIES WITH CAEPACAMEROON

If you are enthusiastic, hard-working, self-motivated, and proactive then our volunteer programme might be for you. You don’t have to be a fully qualified teacher or medical professional to apply to join our volunteer programme, although we prefer that you have graduated from university. If this describes you, then you may be just the person we’re looking for.

VOLUNTEER TEACHERS.Qualified volunteer teachers or volunteer trainee teachers of any subject at any level. However, we do recommend that those volunteers who are not qualified teachers or trainee teachers study for a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) qualification if at all possible. It is important to have a genuine interest in making a worthwhile contribution and the ability to live in a rural environment while establishing a solid relationship with the local community.

Volunteer Nurses, Doctors, and Health Care Assistants.If you are an open-minded and flexible medical professional in any part of the world looking  for the whole experience rather than seeing yourself purely as a service provider, then you will gain a lot from this volunteer opportunity. Volunteers with medical training should come with an open mind about their role and be aware that, due to the vast differences in how healthcare is delivered, they may find themselves doing very different work to their usual practice. This can be both frustrating and very rewarding, depending on your expectations.Environmental Volunteers

We have quite a number of environmental projects, including tree planting, fruit tree propagation, water catchment protection,community forest management,vegetable gardens, fish farming, beekeeping, fuel-efficient wood-burning stove making, etc. Our environmental projects are not just located locally and could be anywhere within  Cameroon. We encourage communities and local North Westerners to take ownership of these projects and, consequently, it can be difficult to provide full-time volunteer placements. One of the main problems, however, is transport which can be time-consuming and costly; for example, our environmental projects office is based in Bamenda which is 25km north of Ndop, and it costs about US$5 to get there on public transport. However, we would be happy for any of our volunteers who are working in education or healthcare to become involved in some way with one or more of our environmental projects.

If you are looking for a full-time volunteer environmental placement, we would need to discuss with you on the phone or via e-mail what your skills are and what opportunities could be available. Previous volunteers have been involved with, for example, in-depth studies related to water catchment protection, usage and benefits, and community vegetable gardens for the benefit of HIV/AIDS sufferers. We will be placing great emphasis on environmental awareness training in schools and community clubs

 

Volunteer opportunity

 

 

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