Cameroon faces increasing climate challenges, with frequent storms and droughts impacting agriculture and livelihoods.
Despite vulnerabilities, the nation is actively pursuing adaptation strategies, integrating climate resilience into development plans.
Community-driven initiatives, such as reforestation and sustainable agriculture, showcase a growing mosaic of resilience, highlighting the importance of local leadership and innovative solutions in combating climate change.
One morning in early July, the people of Ngaoundere in Cameroon’s Adamawa region woke up to the sound of water tearing through their neighbourhoods. Torrential rains, whipped by violent winds, tore roofs off houses, battered homes, and left roads inundated. Entire blocks were submerged within hours. In the nearby locality of Mbe, similar scenes unfolded — mud-brick walls collapsed under the weight of floodwaters and at least four lives were lost in the chaos, state broadcaster CRTV reported.
Such storms, though not uncommon, have become alarmingly frequent.
Nearly 450 kilometres northwest of Ngaoundere, in the village of Gawar, another climate emergency plays out in slower, quieter suffering. Aissatou Alima, a 46-year-old mother of six, bends over a parched millet field, gently working the soil with a worn hoe. Her crops used to flourish during the rainy season but the rains here no longer come when they should — or last long enough to nourish her crops.
Now, she squints at a deep blue sky that offers little promise of rain. “The seasons are confused,” she says, her face weathered by sun and uncertainty. “We wait for the rain. Sometimes it comes too strong and floods everything. Sometimes, nothing comes at all.”
For Alima, each planting season is now a gamble. Uncertain rains, prolonged dry spells, and advancing desertification have pushed many families to the brink. Yields have plummeted. In some villages, like areas around the town of Kousseri, dwindling rains have fuelled intercommunal fighting over water sources as locals struggle to adapt to climate change.
Cameroon, a country often celebrated as “Africa in miniature” thanks to its ecological diversity; spanning from dense equatorial rainforests in the south to arid Sahelian plains in the north, is now facing a climate paradox. That very ecological wealth is becoming a source of vulnerability. With rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts and flash floods which impact on livelihoods and development, Cameroon is the 56th most vulnerable country in the world and amongst the least ready, according to Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative ranking.
The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Report for Cameroon highlights that about 70 per cent of the country’s roughly 28 million people are highly vulnerable to climate-related shocks, primarily because their livelihoods, notably agriculture, are directly exposed to extreme weather events. Under current climate conditions, an estimated two million people live in drought-affected areas, while around eight per cent of the national gross domestic product remains at risk due to climate impacts.
Every year, over 1.2 million head of livestock are affected by droughts lasting more than three months. World Bank experts predict that without urgent adaptation, this figure could rise significantly — by 2050, more than 2.6 million livestock units (representing 71 per cent of the current total) could face drought-induced stress annually.
Meanwhile, Cameroon’s National Observatory on Climate Change (ONACC) reports that the Far North region has witnessed a 30 per cent decline in rainfall over the past three decades, further exacerbating food insecurity and land degradation.
Urban centres are not spared. In Douala and Yaounde, the frequency of flash floods and erosion is rising, driven by poor urban planning, inadequate drainage infrastructure, and the rapid expansion of informal settlements in high-risk zones.
Cameroon’s vulnerabilities are both structural and geographic, and the resulting environmental shocks are tightly interwoven with socioeconomic risks. Health challenges are growing too, with rising temperatures linked to malaria outbreaks in highland areas previously considered low-risk.
Faced with these cascading threats, Cameroon has come to a critical realisation: adaptation can no longer be an afterthought. The country is responding not just with despair, but with resolve — placing climate adaptation within its development agenda.
In 2015, Cameroon rolled out its National Adaptation Plan (NAP), a roadmap for integrating climate resilience into 12 priority sectors including agriculture, water, health, forestry and biodiversity. The updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of 2021 commit to a 35 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with the target divided into two components: an unconditional reduction of 12 per cent, achievable through the country’s own resources and efforts, and a conditional reduction of an additional 23 per cent, which depends on external support such as international climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building assistance.
But the shift from paper to practice is where Cameroon’s story becomes compelling. Across the country, a growing number of initiatives — both state-led and community-driven — are translating abstract policies into tangible outcomes.
In the Far North, the arid landscape around the Minawao refugee camp is slowly turning green again. Since 2018, refugees and host communities have planted over 360,000 trees — including edible species like neem, moringa, acacia, and leucaena — as part of a large-scale reforestation campaign supported by foreign donors. Using ‘cocoon’ technology that helps seedlings retain water, they are restoring degraded land and reviving the ecosystem in one of the country’s driest zones.
What began as an effort to reverse deforestation caused by a growing refugee population fleeing an Islamist insurgency from next-door Nigeria has evolved into a model of climate restoration. Refugees now care for tree nurseries, monitor survival rates, and train new volunteers.
Alongside the trees, another solution focused on fuel has taken root. With firewood becoming scarce, more than 8,000 households have been trained to produce eco-charcoal briquettes from agricultural and household waste like corn cobs, peanut shells, rice husks, and dry leaves. The process is impressively simple and low-tech: organic material is toasted in a barrel, ground, mixed with water, compressed into briquettes and sun-dried.
Today, the facility turns out about 200 kilograms of briquettes a day, and the dual approach has reduced pressure on local forests as well as provided camp residents with a renewable source of cooking fuel. It has also eased tensions between refugees and host communities, created new sources of income, and given local women leadership roles in climate action. What was once seen as an environmental burden has become a living blueprint for sustainable adaptation in a fragile region.
Still in the arid Far North, local non-profits like EPDA (Environmental Protection and Development Association) are helping farmers adopt drought-resistant crops, build water retention pits, and join savings groups to buffer against crop failure. A recent collaboration with the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance trained over 300 farmers on how to produce organic fertiliser from local materials — cutting costs while improving soil resilience.
In the northern city of Garoua, an ambitious climate adaptation plan is unfolding. In 2022, the city launched Cameroon’s first intercommunal Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP), in partnership with the EU’s Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). The plan is bold: reduce emissions by 25 per cent by 2030, boost access to clean energy, and protect the city from flooding and heat stress.
What makes the Garoua initiative stand out is its intercommunal approach. Surrounding rural districts are involved in the planning process, ensuring that urban climate strategies are not developed in isolation. Local officials, community leaders, and youth groups have been trained on climate-smart planning, resulting in green corridors, waste-to-energy pilot projects, and flood management zones.
Meanwhile, in Bamenda, young engineers and activists are finding creative ways to adapt urban living to a changing climate. One youth-led initiative, recognised by the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change, has developed energy-efficient cookstoves from recycled metal parts—cutting household fuelwood use by 60 per cent, reducing indoor air pollution, and creating jobs for unemployed youth.
In the country’s humid tropical zones, hundreds of kilometres from the dusty Sahel, Cameroonian entrepreneur Roland Fomumdam is confronting a different side of the climate crisis: seasonal food scarcity and volatile prices. His response? Low-cost climate-smart greenhouses designed and built locally to grow fresh produce year-round, independent of rainfall patterns or rising temperatures.
Since 2013, his company, Greenhouse Ventures Cameroon, has pioneered precision farming techniques that allow crops like bell pepper, tomatoes, and strawberries to be grown year-round.
Unlike earlier state-led greenhouse efforts, Fomumdam’s innovation is tailored to Cameroon’s five ecological zones and built using local materials. At one of his farms in Bangue, 35 km from the port city of Douala, weekly harvests now reach over 160 kg of bell peppers — sold at less than half the price of imported ones.
“We’ve been able to substitute importation of bell peppers by over 90 per cent,” he says. “And we can keep prices steady from January to December.”
Beyond production, Fomumdam’s Greenhouse Academy is training a new generation of precision farmers to expand climate-resilient practices. Students like Godwill Angereh have moved hundreds of kilometres to learn the techniques, motivated by the technology’s potential to address food insecurity while building sustainable livelihoods. The academy, along with farms in Yaounde, Bafang, Bali, and Dibombari, reflects a growing local movement toward adaptive, tech-driven agriculture.
Adaptation also relies on access to timely and reliable climate information. A grassroots innovation led by young Cameroonian mathematician and computer scientist Paul Ghislain Poum is helping bridge that gap. Poum developed a mobile weather forecasting system that delivers hyperlocal weather forecasts to smallholder farmers—many of whom are at the mercy of climate instability. The app provides localised weather alerts to over 200 districts, especially in regions where traditional meteorological data is scarce. For farmers without smartphones, the alerts are rebroadcast via local radio in local languages.
“This information is crucial for the population in general,” he says, “but particularly for rural farmers who suffer from production deficits due to climate fluctuations and lack of access to quality weather reports.”
Despite these promising signs, Cameroon’s adaptation landscape is still constrained by several challenges. Financing remains a major bottleneck. The government estimates that $32 billion is needed to implement its adaptation roadmap by 2030, while the Climate Policy Initiative suggest that the country’s overall climate financing needs are about $60 billion. Institutional coordination—between ministries, local governments, and donors—also requires strengthening, particularly in monitoring and evaluating adaptation outcomes.
Yet what stands out across Cameroon is the emerging mosaic of resilience—woven together by state ambition, local leadership, and the determination of communities like Alima’s to survive and adapt.
“We cannot stop the sun or the rain,” she says. “But we can plan, plant and pray. And together, we adapt.”