NATURE CONCERNS, Inc.

(An integrated development and conservation organization)
P.O.Box 578 Bamenda , Cameroon
Tel: (237)767 90 34 Fax: (237) 336 10 16
E-mail: gciei2@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

Nature Concerns, Inc. is independent of the government, any political ideology or religious creed. It is a non-profit organization registered in compliance with law No. 92/006 of 14 th August 1992 and its decree of application No. 92/455 of 23 rd November 1992 . it became a legal entity as from the 1 st of March 1995 .

MISSION

Nature Concerns, Inc. strives to move environmental issues from the arid level of academic and expert conferencing to the field of the every day practice of the lives of communities involved in the struggle for production and sustainable development in our rural and urban areas.

It seeks to support and empower people in building a more secure and equitable future through the rational management of renewable and non-renewable natural resources; and also to find solutions to social and environmental problems in the spirit of generosity and mutual respect.

OBJECTIVES

•  To study our environment and its varied and vulnerable ecosystems, identifying the factors which favour or impair sustainable development.

•  To carry out feasibility studies in the following domains: sustainable tourism, sustainable agriculture and forestry; renewable energy and energy efficiency; pollution abatement; environmental health and waste recycling.

•  To partake in the on-the-ground execution of some of the projects after the feasibility studies in collaboration with beneficiary populations and other partners or stakeholders.

•  To propagate environmental awareness through the training of trainers at local level.

• To educate businessmen on the virtues of investing in environmental enterprise projects.

STRATEGIES

•  We use the concept of problem-based learning through community participation in the identification of all environmental problems such as declining soil fertility, abrupt rise in temperatures (global warming), distortion of the hydrological cycle; disappearance of vital medicinal plant and animal species which hitherto were abundant, many disease outbreaks etc, debating their causes and arriving at solutions by the communities themselves.

•  We work with community groups, other local NGOs, government departments as well as foreign agencies involved in environmental enterprise issues to propose and help implement policy initiatives especially those bound by some international conventions.

•  We make maximum use of the global information infrastructure so as to be very current with international environmental issues especially those, which affect us locally.

ENVISAGED OUTPUT OF OBJECTIVES

•  A well developed database about the natural resource potentials of Cameroon in general and those of the Western Highlands in particular; and problems inherent in their management and foreseen solutions.

•  Integrated rural development master plans for different communities.

•  Conservation/development master plans for protected areas such as reserves, national parks, etc.

•  Tourism to constitute an important conservation, economic development and poverty alleviation tool.

•  The setting up of export-production villages or promotion of bio-village development, hence availability of organic products, including non-timber forest products which can favourably compete at the level of international markets.

•  Pollution abatement and improved environmental health in our towns and villages.

TARGET POPULATION/PARTNERS

Community-based institutions (villages development associations, common initiative groups, social groupings, etc).

•  Educational establishments (primary, secondary and high schools, vocational institutions, research institutions, universities)

•  Ministerial Departments and Local Government Councils.

•  Intentional/local NGOs involved in rural development, nature conservation and non-profit tourism development.

•  Economic Operators (Travel and Tourism agencies, Hotels and industries).

RESOURCES

Our staff blends from Ecologist/Conservationists, Agronomists, Sociologists, Engineers and Tourism specialists.

It is worth noting that the resource persons have acquired much experience in the private voluntary sector. For example:

•  Participated in the consultancy team which carried out the pre-project appraisal of the Ngie Integrated Rural Development Project (Sponsored by the Netherlands Development Organisation SNV): 1995

•  Agro forestry training for farming group leaders in some parts of Cameroon , financed by the Swiss Association for International Co-operation (1996).

•  Production of the integrated development plans for some communities e.g Awing Village , Mezam Division. (1995) Participated in the World Bank Educational Mapping program, covering Momo Division (1996).

•  Encouraged the formation and registration of 160 common initiative groups and trained about seventy of them on different socio-economic development domains, partly financed by the European Union, under the Support Program for Rural Organisations (1998)

•  Participation in the European Union-financed Support Fund for Micro Urban Initiatives (1998).

•  Introduced the concept of export production villages in some villages in the North West Province , many of which now exhale in the production of many varieties of vegetables and spices such as ginger, pepper, herbs,etc which they export to neighbouring countries and to some European countries.

•  Feasibility studies for some community-based conservation areas such as the Batsan twin lakes at Mbiame and the Mbabu Bat Sanctuary, both in Bui Division (1996).

•  Rehabilitation of some watersheds in Mezam divison (1998-2003).

•  Feasibility studies for the MUWUT soap factory in Mbengwi, and Ado Paper industry in Bamenda (2000).

•  Participated in restructuring exercise of the North West Co-operative Association, by building up the terms of references, producing questionnaires and collecting data in all primary co-operative societies and unions in Santa Sub-Division (2001).

•  Production of guidelines for the revitalization of tourism in Cameroon . (2001)

•  Feasibility studies for the establishment of a micro-credit scheme aimed at alleviating poverty through the provision of seed capital to those involved in the informal economic sector, under the auspices of the Zion Credit Financing, Cameroon . (1999).

•  Pre-feasibility studies for the Mfumte Integrated Rural Development Projects, Nwa Sub-Division, sponsored by the Nwa Rural Council (2002).

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

THE ORGANIGRAMME OF NATURE CONCERNS, Inc .