The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, last Thursday October 25 visited the site in Nkolbisson, Yaounde hosting the equipment and trainer's training for the Support Programme for Forestry and Wildlife Management (PAGFF) funded by the government of Japan to the tune of 800 million Japanese Yens (about FCFA 4 billion). As a coordinating authority of the programme, the MINEPAT's visit was to evaluate the effectiveness of the training, the state of the equipment for the programme donated by Japan and the path already covered.
According to the consultants of the Japanese firm, PASCO Corporation Japan Overseas Forestry Consultants Association, the course on analysing satellite images is on a good footing and the trainees are scheduled to be on the field (forestry zone) in the weeks ahead. "We have been lecturing on basic remote sensing technology and also on how to use computer applications. They are to go to the East region to get field data and do the analysis themselves," Kei Sato, Remote Sensing team leader from Japan said. Launched on July 10, 2012 in Yaounde, the programme is to contribute in providing Cameroon with support in the area of forest governance, notably to set up a database of information on current and past forest management, to gather and control parameters for the release of pollutants, to build the capacity of staff of the Ministries of Forestry and Wildlife and Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development and to eventually enable the national institutions to be competent in assessing and controlling the level of deforestation and the emission rate of biomass, so that Cameroon can be admitted to REDD funding. Trainings abroad, notably in Japan are also envisaged in the five-module programme which was initially planned to round off on December 31, 2013 but which due to some delays would now end on April 30, 2014.
