The Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) identifies ways that Cameroon can achieve its overall development objectives while fostering the transition to a greener, more resilient, and more inclusive development pathway. The CCDR finds that climate change is already a threat to Cameroon’s development and the country faces the challenge of changing the current development model to create opportunities to improve resilience and to put the country on a stronger development trajectory. Currently, about two million people (nine percent of Cameroon’s population) live in drought-affected areas, and about eight percent of the country’s GDP is vulnerable. Tropical forests cover almost 40 percent of the country and provide an estimated eight million rural people with traditional staples including food, medicines, fuel, and construction material. Changes in temperature, rain and droughts put these people at greater risk of increased poverty. Furthermore, populations living in certain regions are more vulnerable to climate hazards, especially in the Far North where debilitating droughts have contributed to alarming rates of food insecurity and loss of livelihoods. To achieve more rapid, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, moving away from the state-led development model, and putting the private sector at the forefront of economic activity are needed. Without reforms, the proportion of the population subsisting on an income at or below the international poverty rate would still be about 15 percent in 2050, well above the global target of three percent, whereas changing the development model could bring that proportion down to about three percent by that year. The report also puts adaptation at the heart of climate action as well and identify four priority areas for intervention and which are: (i) agriculture, forestry and other land use; (ii) cities; (iii) infrastructure; and (iv) human capital.
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