MINFOF Wraps Up Bamenda Visit

The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), Jules Doret Ndongo paid a three-day working visit to the North West Region from May 3rd to 5th to acquaint himself with the difficulties faced by staff in the region in view of seeking solutions to them. The visit took the Minister to the Bamenda City Council Reforestation lot near GBHS Bamenda Down Town, the Divisional and Regional Delegations of Forestry and Wildlife, the Regional Nursery for Ornamental, Medicinal and Nutrition Trees as well as the ANAFOR Regional Office of Humid Savannah Zone. On each lap of the visit, the Minister was taken on a guided tour of the facilities of the offices as well as activities carried out in the centre. At the end of the tour, the Minister held a working session with staff in the North West Region during which they presented their personal and collective problems.
Prominent among issues raised is the long delay in transferring staff in the Region, some of whom have been there for 16 years, issues of advancement and reclassification as well as security to carry out their inventory and control mission of protected areas in the Region. However, the most outstanding issue is the illegal occupation of some protected areas like the Bafut-Ngemba reserve where some people have built houses and opened up plantations inside the reserve and claiming to have land titles. There is also the illegal occupation of some protected areas along the borders with Nigeria by separatist fighters who exploit the forest and its resources in an unsustainable manner.
As concerns encroachers with illegal land titles, the Minister instructed his collaborators in the Region to come up with an inventory of the encroachers and forward to the administration i...