VZCZCXRO9333
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHYD #0836 1801007
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291007Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7906
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1629
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1878
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000836 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
ACCRA FOR GEOFFREY HUNT 
DEPT ALSO FOR OES/ARMBRUSTER 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS 
EUCOM FOR J5-A AFRICA DIVISION AND POLAD YATES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CM SENV
SUBJECT: EMBASSY, CARPE PROMOTE ENVIRONMENT TO CAMEROONIAN 
STUDENTS 
 
¶1.  (U) DCM, together with CARPE Director John Flynn and 
Yaounde CARPE representative Antoine Eyebe, at a June 28 
Embassy-hosted event, presented certificates and prizes to 
three Cameroonian students who had participated in a World 
Environment Day event organized by CARPE. 
 
¶2.  (U) Twenty students from the Government Bilingual High 
School of Yaounde participated in a field trip to learn about 
agroforestry techniques in nearby farming areas in an event 
organized by CARPE (the Central Africa Regional Program for 
the Environment) and ICRAF (the World Agroforestry Center) to 
mark World Environment Day.  Three of the students who 
excelled in a quiz competition after the event were awarded 
certificates and cash prizes at the Embassy.  DCM Nelson 
noted that the USG and the government of Cameroon (GRC) work 
closely together on numerous environmental efforts, with 
CARPE as one of the USG's most important partners.  He 
praised the students, and their teachers and school 
administrators, for their commitment to the cause of 
enviromental protection. 
 
¶3.  (U) In his remarks, Flynn -- who was in Yaounde to attend 
a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) meeting with local CARPE 
representatives -- noted that the environmental work being 
done in Cameroon by CARPE and the WWF is both significant and 
innovative, and stands as a model for other countries. 
CARPE, a dynamic program in its fifth year of funding, works 
in 12 different high-biodiversity landscapes in Central 
Africa that cover some 80 million hectares -- an area 25% 
larger than Texas.  It has developed  management systems for 
national parks, preserves, protected areas, and logging 
concessions that include "some of the wildest reserves in the 
world," according to Flynn. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Flynn praised the Global Forest Watch, a pilot 
program developed with Cameroon's Ministry of Forestry and 
Fauna (MINFOF) to monitor legal and illegal logging using 
satellite technology and NASA imagery.  The program is an 
effort, he said, to get governments to "take care of their 
forests" (though it has been the unfortunate subject of 
"conspiracy theories" that the U.S. is trying to exploit 
African resources).  Another USAID program works with IUCN 
(an environmental NGO) to develop networks among 
parliamentarians.  National representatives work on policy, 
regulation and legislative reform, and on creating advocacy 
programs through civil society.  A small-grants program has 
been set up to help create a "constituency for conservation," 
serving public diplomacy by making U.S. efforts more visible 
to the public.  The Congo Basin Forest Partnership is another 
program that has "attracted enornmous attention," Flynn said, 
and Central Africa is now "leading the world in forest 
management" in setting up a certification system for timber. 
Governments and environmentalists in South America and the 
Far East are taking notice, he said, of creative ideas coming 
from Central Africa. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The WWF, according to Flynn, has been a leading 
innovator, engaging local communities as "allies in 
conservation," and in developing progressive programs for 
safari hunting that include revenue sharing with local 
residents.  It also works positively with logging companies 
to promote sustainable management of the forests.  He 
cautioned, however, that some local engagement has been "more 
destructive than good," with local chiefs selling their 
leases and pocketing the money, while outside companies do 
the logging.  (Note:  In a meeting with the DCM in December 
2006, Dr. James Leape, Director General of the WWF, said the 
Congo Basin is a global priority for WWF, calling it "the 
next frontier for conservation";  the other priorities are 
the Amazon and fisheries.  Cameroon, he said, is one of the 
strongest programs, and the USG is the WWF's most important 
partner; a USAID grant to WWF constitutes 40% of their 
program.  End note.) 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Flynn also remarked that recent Chinese 
exploitation of African resources presents one of the biggest 
contemporary challenges to the environmental community, 
building railroads and ports and pouring in "massive" numbers 
of workers to environmentally sensitive areas. 
MARQUARDT