Dream to Reality: Together, We Are the Future
by Fontoh Desmond Abinwi Fontoh
I am Fontoh, age 29 from Cameroon, Director of Crusaders for Environmental Protection and Ozone Watch, and National Coordinator for the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network, Cameroon. 10 years ago, the rapid destruction of a community forest in my village for livelihood prompted me to be part of a climate movement. Further, at aged 23 years, my peers always insulted me for going to study rocks and claiming to be involved in keeping a legacy for Mother Nature. This became worst when a close friend told me “Desmond, a guy who plants trees, what gains will you have? Your friends are in search of corporate jobs and you are here planting trees”. Further, within our community, we faced challenges of massive forest degradation.
Most community members practised deforestation, sand extraction, yet the forest had the lone water catchment which supplied 10000 inhabitants. Some members had bad attitudes toward defecating and polluting water sources. Further, bush fires were every phenomenon that resulted in massive loss of forest cover. With this, together with the team, we decided to restore the community forest which was long-degraded. In this light, we started a campaign of reforestation and environmental education wherein we planted 1500 trees in the first year.
Our activities were stalled when Cameroon started facing the ongoing crisis. With high rates of shooting and burning of houses, we became scared to continue our activities. But, together we the team I lead, we braved the odds organized a village meeting with all parties, and asked them to permit us to go on with our activities despite the War. We came to a consensus after countless dialogues. In the first 2 months of restoration, we lost one of our team members, which lowered our morale but still, we did not stop. In tight and difficult scenarios we have planted 7500trees trained kids and youths through community schools.
One of our major successes was for 3 years we succeeded to halt bush fires which were one of the factors contributing to the degradation of the forest. Rather unfortunate, this year we lost about 2000trees as a result of the fires.
Through our Climate-kid-storytelling-Educational project, we have been able to create 5 eco Clubs in 5 schools, wherein kids through storytelling, arts, and design have been able to be taught the need to connect to Mother Nature especially with the uprising need to conserve and protect our planet. Through this idea we have carried our school clean-ups, empowered kids on forest conservation and they have participated in tree planting exercises. Also in mega competitions, poster competitions, arts and drama competitions.
The idea is to engage kids to have the spirit of environmentalism and tell the African story of conservation and the way forward. We have trained 400 kids on connecting to nature through arts, tree planting, outdoor experiences, and mega competition. We hope to reach more schools as our goal is to advocate for EE to be included in Kids Curriculum, which is a rare case in Africa and Cameroon in particular.
Further, through our Beat the Bottle project, we are engaged in the transformation of plastic bottles into timber lumber, pavements, and tiles. This will go a long way to help youths, especially the internally displaced. We have picked 10000kg of plastics and trained 60 youths on its transformation to pavements and tiles.
Currently, we aim to plant 25000 trees in 4 years. 7500 trees have been planted alongside the rehabilitation of the lone water catchment a source to a population of 10,000 inhabitants. We are also involved in community conservation of the Cross River Gorilla through the creation of a wildlife corridor. Our efforts have also permitted me to achieve the following international recognition: I was selected amongst the Top 100 young African Conservators, Selectee for the Northern American Association for Environmental Education Awards, and Delegate for the YouthForClimate PreCOP26, Milan.
I will end by providing my favorite quotes: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Starting small, and focusing on service matters. Connections with others who share your passion are just as important as money. “Together, let us protect Mother Nature in all fairness and equity.”
About
I am Fontoh Desmond from Cameroon, Holder of an MSc in Climate Change and founder of Crusaders for Environmental Protection and Ozone Watch. I am also the Cameroon National Coordinator for the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network. I am passionate about service in mother nature with a focus on Biodiversity Conservation, Environmental Education, Climate Smart Agriculture, and Women in Climate change actions. My recent works spanning from the chomba community forest conservation, Beat the bottle, Organic-smart farming, Cross River Gorilla conservation, and more, permitted me to attained heights such as Top 100 Young African Conservators, Northern American Association for Environmental Education Awardee, Tony Elumelu Awardee, Okwelian fellow, and Cameroon lone representative, Delegate for the youth PreCOP26, Youth4Climate Event Milan.