02-09-2023 | di COOPI

Central African Republic. Young people save the forest

Protecting the environment was this year's national theme chosen by the government of the Central African Republic for the International Youth Day on past 12 August. Present at an event for its celebration organised by COOPI in the framework of the "Youth, Hope of the Central African Republic: Masséka békou ti Bé-Afrika" project, financed by the European Union's Bekou Fund, the Minister of Youth Promotion and Sport Aristide Briand Reboa was keen to reiterate:

It is an urgency! The continuation of our Country and then the whole world depends on what we are able to do”.

The reference, in particular, is to the protection of the forestall ecoregion that - from north-eastern Congo - reaches the south-east of the Central African Republic. It is a green lung of the contemporary world and one of the few remaining humid forests. The area is in danger of disappearing due to the increasing construction of road infrastructure, poaching and reckless felling of trees carried out either by foreign companies or by locals for their own survival.

We realised that the wealth of our Country lies in the forest. It is often thought that it is companies that destroy the forest... but in reality we young people also destroy it, by taking wood or cultivating inappropriately”.

Confirms Merlin Bedingo, president of the M'Baiki youth. In order to tackle this scourge, on the same day COOPI organised both a training session for 50 young leaders on environmental protection and management and an activity to plant new trees.

In his time, President Kolingba had implemented a reforestation policy... I was still in primary school when we went to plant trees and we did it with joy and courage".

The minister recalled, referring to the efforts of his predecessors to protect the natural environment. Even today the Government intends to implement environmental protection policies. As Flore Florence Fali, director general of the “Jeunesse” governative programme, reminded us, the prospects for the future are encouraging:

 

Data available for Ministry of Water and Forestry and Rural Development seem to prove that after 30 years the forest is finally taking hold on the savannah and this is unique in the world. Great forest protection efforts have been made with the goal of preventing erosion, protecting wildlife, and preserving this rare wealth that is the great Central African forest. Unfortunately, young people themselves are often the destroyers of their environment, but this time they have organized themselves to make their modest contribution to the quest for lasting peace, but also for the reconstruction of the country from all points of view."

 

The “Masséka békou ti Bé-Afrika”  project was created precisely with the aim of supporting young people in the reconstruction of the Country after the conflict and is part of the activities carried out by COOPI since 1974 for sustainable socio-economic development.