Cameroon

Minawao Refugee Camp – Cameroon

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At-A-Glance
  • Site:  Minawao Refugee Camp
  • Country/Region: Cameroon
  • Active Since: 2017
  • Trees planted: 40K trees
  • 2020 planting season: –
  • Scale-up potential: 150K trees
Impact Highlights
  • Reforestation of UNHCR refugee camp to help provide livelihoods.
Helping during a refugee crisis

Sometimes surprising partnerships lead to unexpected results. Since 2017, the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency the UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) and Land Life Company, with the support of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, have joined forces to build a Green Refugee Camp in the Far North of Cameroon.

Designed to accommodate 10,000 refugees, the Minawao camp currently hosts over 60,000 people. Land Life Company believes that by planting trees in and around the camp, so much of the pressure the land currently faces can be alleviated. Refugees and local NGOs are trained and eager to begin work scaling reforestation, creating further revenue streams by planting productive trees. 

 

Transforming the refugee experience

Planting trees can have a far-reaching impact across many aspects of the refugee experience. Providing green alternatives for food, shelter and work, we are proud to have helped cultivate a welcoming, eco-friendly sanctuary for some of our Earth’s most vulnerable people. 

Minawao residents are already benefiting the immense feeling of life that the trees have produced alongside considerable shade and wind protection. In Minawao, our vision goes far beyond planting trees. Wood is being replaced as a fuel source with eco-friendly cooking alternatives manufactured in the camp itself. And sustainable, locally-sourced shelters are quickly replacing plastic tents. Minawao residents also enjoy the shade and wind protection provided by the trees. Wood is with eco-friendly cooking alternatives manufactured within the camp to ensure the longevity of the plantings. 

Along with improving their current surroundings, Land Life Company strives to give the people living in Minawao with opportunities for the future. Providing jobs and training in the tree nursery and with planting and maintenance, valuable experience is offered to residents. Refugees also receive regular income and training certificates for the skills acquired. Thus far, with the help of these employees, Land Life Company has reforested more than 100 hectares of severely degraded land.

Minawao, Cameroon. As the region of Minawao faces critical deforestation due to the global warming and the human activity of 58000 nigerian refugees, the UNHCR and its partners Land Life Company and LWF started a reforestation project. In the next two years, they expect to plant -with the refugees- 20.000 trees in and around the site, using the "cocoon" technology to allow the plants to survive in an hostile environment.