Environmental Protection and the Cameroonian Agricultural Policies: What Prospect for implementation

Abstract

Nourishing the world requires a heavy reliance on the environment. Such reliance leads to poor and unsustainable agricultural practices, such as “bushfire” and “slash and burn” farming methods, to synthetic fertilizers, synthetic organic pesticides, and overgrazing. With the constant increase in population, there is a steady loss of biodiversity caused by the population’s huge demand for food and other agricultural activities. This study critically analyzes and shows how unsustainable local and modern agricultural practices in Cameroon cause environmental degradation, which may lead to the destruction of forest cover, climate change, ozone depletion, species’ extinction and the like. These constitute the greatest environmental problems plaguing the humanity in the 21^st century and felt mostly by local communities. The study attempts to examine the extent to which the legal frameworks governing agricultural practices in Cameroon have addressed the concern of environmental sustainability and shows that unsustainable agricultural practices are some of the proximate causes of environmental degradation in Cameroon. Through empirical and theoretical approaches to data collection, the study exposes the negative impacts of unsustainable local and modern agricultural practices on the environment. The study recommends the significant and timely involvement of local communities in the processes to address the concerns of environmental degradation.