Abstract

Managing the environment for sustainability and growth has become an important issue the world over. Urbanization as a growth factor has contributed immensely towards degrading the environment. Using time series data from 1980 to 2014, this research work studied the effects of urbanization on environmental degradation in Cameroon using environmental sustainability variables such as energy consumption, adjusted net savings and carbon dioxide emissions and growth enhancing factors such as industrialization, economic growth, urbanization and foreign direct investments under the environmental Kuznets hypothesis (EKC) framework. Employing the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) as the estimation technique, the study revealed that industrialization was able to sustain the Cameroonian environment through fallen carbon dioxide emissions and degraded the environment through increasing energy consumption and fallen adjusted net saving. Gross domestic product per capita accelerate environmental sustainability through decreasing carbon dioxide emissions and decreasing energy consumption while decreasing adjusted net savings implied increasing environmental degradation. Foreign direct investment promotes environmental sustainability through fallen carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumptions while fostering environmental degradation through fallen adjusted net savings. Urbanization increased environmental degradation through increasing carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption while accelerating environmental sustainability through increased adjusted net savings. Also the environmental Kuznets curve also holds for the study. Based on these, policy recommendations such as means to increase foreign direct investment, improve environmental friendly industries, measures to discourage urbanization and means to curb the ills associated to urbanization should be redressed.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Cameroon is blessed with an abundance of natural resources including agricultural resources, mineral, forestry etc. A good number of human factors drive, influence and affect the natural environmental in different ways at the global, regional, national and local levels. These drivers of environmental change affect our natural environment differently. It may vary in nature and scope but in a simplified way can be broadly grouped together as demographic; economic and social factors; science and technology; conflict; and governance Cutler (2013). Critical social dimensions as a result of environmental degradation include poverty and health. Policy and institutions, although most often thought of as the response to mitigate such change, may also drive environmental change and impact directly on human vulnerability. Although each driver can be treated individually, there are links between the different drivers – sometimes acting in concert to maximize negative impacts and sometimes producing positive change {Cutler; 2013).

The implementation of macroeconomic reforms by the Cameroon government initiated principally by the IMF and The World Bank in the late 1980s and early 1990s, epitomized by the Structural Adjustment Program (SAPs), have had mixed impacts on environmental sustainability, mainly through the processes of livelihood diversification and increased human mobility. A key response to the poor performance of the formal sector has been the diversification into an intensification of informal sector activities as people try to make ends meet. Many of these activities are based on natural resources and include craft production, charcoal production, collection and trade of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), artisan mining and metal works. Although entry into many such activities is easy, their profitability and efficiency is undercut by bureaucratic controls, lack of investment, limited capital and inadequate support for market engagement (PRSP (2010-2020). There is little incentive for users to invest in technologies and to manage resources sustainably. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing focus on other livelihood activities that could more effectively combine conservation and development interests, such as ecotourism and community-based conservation initiatives in Cameroon.

Livelihood diversification has always played some part in providing a “pathway” out of poverty for poorer groups of people. Since the mid-1980s, it has become evident that livelihood diversification has increased as a response to economic and social changes while increasing environmental hazards. These changes have led to a saturated agricultural labor market, reduced access to common property and increased mobility. In general, these programs resulted in an increase in the number of people living in poverty and decreased access to social services, such as health and education.

The agricultural sector in Cameroon is composed of more than 70% of total population (ECAM III) .Many rural dwellers have sought to intensify their agricultural activities by supplementing their major activities with other income generating activities. For example pastoralists in the North West and Grand North regions of Cameroon, for instance, have included crop cultivation into their daily activities to supplement livestock keeping. Other supplementary activities include petite trading in a range of products, wage employment, both local and outside the area, including working as a hired labor, farm worker and worthy to be noted for this research; migrant laborer, renting property and gathering and selling wild products (non-timber forest products). Market failures and the need for consumer items have become an important force pushing agriculturalists’ into diversification using wildlife, ecotourism and consumptive utilization all with little environmental protection care.

Migration as a livelihood diversification strategy is important in providing much needed resources for investment in rural production through remittances. In Cameroon and other sub-Saharan African countries such as Ethiopia, Senegal, Somalia, Mali and many others, migration is widespread and in all these countries it is linked to income generation strategies (World Population Growth Report 2008). Migration may represent a rational allocation of total household labor to maximize household utility. In some local communities in Cameroon, an increasing scarcity of traditional male labor, due to migration, has also promoted new roles for the women left behind. These women become the main decision-makers, particularly within the agricultural sector. The gendered division of family labor has in some instances changed as a result of the loss of male employment through urban job retrenchment, forcing women to seek additional income-generating activities to support the family. The consequence has been that problems induced by environmental degradation, such as deforestation or declines in water quality, have far-reaching consequences on entire families as time spent on looking for wood or water directly affects household incomes. Various policy responses propagated by the IMF-World Bank seek to address these problems. Currently, several African countries are involved in the World Bank-initiated Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) and millennium development goals, the latter whose second phase includes the environment as an important aspect of poverty reduction.

As good as these activities are in sustaining household livelihoods in the short-run, if poorly managed as has been the case in most developing countries, they may have detrimental impacts on environmental resources. The indiscriminate felling of trees(total forest area by 2005 in Cameroon was slightly above 210000sqkm and by 2011 it dropped to slightly above 195000sqkm (2012

1.2 Statement of Problem

Population distribution in Cameroon is still largely rural with many more villages than towns, and has been experiencing major transformation in terms of population composition and distribution, health and other socio-economic transformations with positive and negative implications for the environment and development, the rural population stood at 10.3 million while the urban population stood at about11.4 million as of the year 2012 (ECAM III). The challenge is not to arrest urban growth and development but to use the available resources (both human and capital and also both rural and urban) in a more productive and efficient manner, ensuring better and more equitable returns to people while at the same time lessening pressure on the environment.

Changing demography and particularly the changing age structure of the population, a high rate of urbanization which has an annual growth rate of 3.8% by the year 2012, industrialization was 4.6%, some natural phenomena, faster rate of population growth (2.5%) in relation to economic growth and other socio-economic factors are major drivers of environmental change in Cameroon (2013 finance bill for Cameroon), with significant impacts on the natural resource base. Due to this, it is imperative that the above factors are addressed to enhance environmental sustainability. Each year, the above factors increase, but the amount of natural resources with which to sustain these growth, to improve the quality of lives in both the rural and urban areas and to eliminate poverty remain finite, increasing the challenge of sustainable development in a sustainable environment. Demographic change (rural and urban), industrialization, natural disasters are the major driver of land coverage change and pollution (organic water pollution, CO2 emission, greenhouse emission, HFC emission, methane emission, nitrous oxide emission, PFC emission, SF6 emission): its primary and most direct impact is through opening new land for agriculture, health, settlement and infrastructural development, although other extractive activities such as logging and mining are also significant.

By the 20th century, the total Cameroonian population was less than 20 million. From 1980 to 2000, the growth rate of the industrial sector was about 5% on average, transportation facilities also grew considerably. By 2020, the urban population of Cameroon is expected to be above 25 million up from 11 million in 2000 (Cameroon Economic Social and Financial Report 2013). These result from rapid growth of urban agglomerations throughout Cameroon with cities springing all over the country with having a population of well over 2 million inhabitants (ECAM III). This fast rate of urbanization places strain on infrastructure, environment and other services. Many of the newly urbanized live in slums and are faced with all sought of hazards including environmental, social and health hazards. There is thus a growing and urgent need for integrated approaches to environmental planning and management.

In the absence of alternative livelihood opportunities and strategic management of the environment, this rapid population growth, industrialization and urbanization has resulted in decreasing environmental sustainability, deplorable health and social conditions and resource depletion both natural and artificial. Between 2008 and 2009, Cameroon’s surface area for logging reduced from 6117000ha to 6087000ha: this amounts to a decrease of 1.1 percent per year. It is estimated that 60 percent of the tropical forest areas cleared in Cameroon as a whole between 1990 and 2000 were converted to permanent agricultural smallholdings (Cameroon Annual Forest Report, Ministry of the Environment and Forestry Cameroon 2011). However, migration to urban areas is not inevitably destructive, nor does it necessarily lead to the formation or growth of dangerous and unhealthy slum areas (Aboagye 2013). It is important to recognize the valuable role urbanization can play in stimulating the economy if it can thus, increase aggregate demand. The challenge lies in reversing the current pattern, and enhancing the efficiency of and the value derived from natural resource use.

Population, industrialization, urbanization and natural disasters present major challenges because of the patterns of production and consumption that shape the world, as well as the problems of pervasive poverty.  According to Cutler (2013) population growth, urbanization and industrialization affects the natural resource base in many ways. First, it causes increased demand for food, water, arable land and other essential materials, such as firewood, increased pollution, and increased traffic in all areas. Second, expanded agricultural activities encourage encroachment into forests and woodlands. Third, they encouraged the growth of slumps with deplorable social, health and economic hazards. These consequences are more pronounced in the context of high levels of poverty. Fourth, the degradation of the natural resource base in turn impinges on the livelihoods of all, but particularly rural and growing communities. More small farmers are forced to work harder, often on shrinking farms on marginal land, to maintain household incomes. Fifth, global population growth and the increasing demand for fossil fuels and other resources, (Cutler, 2013) also places new stress on Cameroon’s environment.

Improved human well-being is a crucial objective of sustainable development in a sustainable environment and is closely linked to environmental goods and services. Human well-being is multidimensional and requires access to resources to live a good life in good health, such as income, food, clean water, and energy; personal security through the absence of conflict, the ability to mitigate environmental disasters, and good governance, good social relations which include all people and promote fairness and equity and the opportunity to make choices. This implies a condition in which people are not just physically well, but have choices and live in dignity. The extent of well-being, as reflected in income, health, education and inequity, is an indication of how successful or unsuccessful development policies have been. In turn, the well-being of people affects their ability to effectively and sustainably manage resources (Curtler 2013). How these social factors impact on the environment is a product of a complex cultural milieu and habits.

Cameroon’s economy is more reliant on agriculture with around 70 percent of Cameroonians working in the agricultural sector of which the majority is subsistence farmers tilling small plots of land to feed their families, with only a minimal surplus that can be sold (ECAM III). Industry and services contributed less than 30 percent and 35 percent respectively. Also, agricultural productivity, in terms of value-added per agricultural worker is low comparatively. This means that, with high dependency on agriculture and falling productivity at the same time, poverty is increasingly entrenched in rural population, the urban population not left out. The contribution of natural resources to GDP is often undervalued.

The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed serious economic decline or stagnation in the Cameroon economy (United Nations Commodity Trade 2010). Agricultural productivity failed to keep pace with the growth of population and suffered particularly from falling productivity in the export and industrial sectors and from declining markets and prices. Population growth rates in the period 1990-2003 were higher than the growth of GDP per capita in 2003 at 2.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively (Cameroon Economic Social and Financial Report 2009). Food imports (cereals and grains) were and still are essential for Cameroon to maintain an adequate total food supply and, in certain cases, to keep food costs down. Debt has mounted and pressures on resource use have increased.

In response to the economic hardships of the 1980s, policy makers in Cameroon undertook programs of economic reform with guidance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These reforms, spearheaded by the Structural Adjustment Program (SAPs), aimed at stabilizing the economies, liberalizing exchange rates, freeing the productive energies of the private sector; protect the environment and opening up to trade and investment (Forgha et al 2014). As the negative impacts of these policies were realized, new approaches to economic planning and development adopted, including the now widely used Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS).

Therefore, for sustainable development to be realized in Cameroon, policies on environmental sustainability should be strengthened alongside other socio-economic factors to meet up with the challenges of modern development. The millennium development goal number 7 of 2010 for Cameroon laid a premise for ensuring environmental sustainability to curb the ever increasing environmental degradation resulting from industrialization, urbanization and other socio-economic and cultural actions. As per this goal, preserved and protected environment was 13 percent in 2000 and rose to 18 percent in 2008 (GESP, 2010-2020). Targets for reduction of combustible solid fuel fail to reduce from 82 percent in the year 2000 to an expected 42.9 percent by 2010 despite the strategies and policies put in place. Access to safe drinking water was made to increase slightly from 40.9 percent in 2001 to 43.9 percent in 2007 and a projection of 72.1 percent is envisaged by the end of 2015 (GESP, 2010-2020). Access to good sanitation increases from 8.5 percent in 2001 to 31.7 percent in 2007. Again the government put into place actions on environmental management on rural activities, biodiversity management and reforestation. These actions will continue till phase 11 of the Forestry/Environment Sector Program (FESP) and National Forests Development Agency (ANAFOR). ANAFOR piloted the planting of 2225167 trees with support from the civil society 64 percent, councils 31 percent and logging companies 5 percent. Considerable measures were also taken to reduce pollution of all kind by 2015. There were also policies for wildlife sector development with the creation of packs with 30 protected areas by 2010, Operation Green Sahel where 890.000 trees were planted. Despite all these measure, environmental degradation still exist and remains one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change of the Nations. The challenges for development are already considerable for Cameroon, and environmental degradation will further multiply the stress.

In order to better understand the effects of environmental degradation in Cameroon under increasing urbanization, it is therefore necessary to quantify these effects. It is for this reason that this study is structured to answer the following question; to what extent does urbanization influences environmental degradation in Cameroon amongst other factors.

1.3 Objective of Study

1.3.1 Main Objective

The main objective of this work is to assess the effects of urbanization on environmental degradation in Cameroon.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

To achieve this objective, the following specific objectives were designed;

1. Determine the effects of urbanization on environmental degradation in Cameroon.
2. Examine the effects of FDI on environmental degradation in Cameroon
3. Demonstrate the effects of industrialization on environmental degradation in Cameroon
4. Show the effects of economic growth on environmental degradation in Cameroon