ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE


CLIMATE CHANGE AND DESERTIFICATION: THE ROLE OF THE PAN-AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARIANS’ NETWORK ON CLIMATE CHANGE (PAPNCC)


In a country known for its vast arid regions, the topic of desertification has been placed high on the agenda by those working for the Pan-African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC). The President in charge of the network details the actions that have been taken to help in the fight against further desertification.


Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, MP Mr Cyprian is a Member of Parliament for Donga Mantung Centre Constituency, north- west of Cameroon. He was elected into the National Assembly in 1997, and is currently making his fourth mandate in Parliament. He is the Executive President of Pan-African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC).


drought, abusive exploitation of sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems of uplands. The ecosystem is negatively affected mainly by human activities. This causes degradation, which


Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, MP


What is desertification? The United Nations Framework Convention on the fight against desertification defines desertification as “the degradation of lands in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid regions dried up as a result of various factors among which are climatic variations and human activities”. Desertification therefore


originates from natural phenomena that occur periodically such as


12 | The Parliamentarian | 2014: Issue Three - Cameroon


in turn leads to overgrazing, intensive deforestation, the disruption of the traditional system of cultivation partly leading to a shortage in rainfall, and the break-up of the traditional equilibrium between agricultural and pastoral activities. Desertification affects nearly 40


per cent of the global land surface. It directly affects about a billion people in the world and threatens millions of others. A poor management of agricultural and pastoral zones coupled with frequent droughts has increased the vulnerability of arid regions thereby aggravating the process of desertification. This is evident by the accelerated


erosion of soils due to wind and water run-off, an increased salinization of


soils, a progressive disappearance of biodiversity and a decrease in soil productivity. This leads to the impoverishment


of the populations who largely depend on these ecosystems. It is worth noting that desertification and drought are not only an African1 phenomenon.


Defining climate change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on its part defines Climate Change as “changes in climate directly or indirectly attributed to a human activity altering the composition of the global atmosphere and which comes to add to the natural changes in climate observed during comparative periods”. Adopting this Convention was


a way of fighting against climate change and its negative effects, i.e. the modification of the physical environment or biotopes that have significant harmful impact on the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36