CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Globally, development has been facing serious challenges due to difficult terrain, severe weather conditions, and extensive forest cover. These problems are affecting development and constraining availability of land use, due to the nature of topography which is hilly, deep valleys and swarms. These areas suffer from poor connectivity both in the developed and developing countries, rural and urban setting as there is also inadequate general infrastructure which is a constraint to development.  The accessibility of these areas is a very big problem, which makes the delivery of public and private goods and services in these areas to be cumbersome as compared to those areas which are more connected and accessible. The effects of environmental constraints to development are not the same between the developed and developing countries, countries within the same continent and between regions of the same country (Toa, 2003). 

Development in Fundong Sub Division has equally been facing serious environmental constrains like elongated hills, deep valleys, swarms and thick forest covers. (Planning commission, 2013).

According to the Asian Development Bank (2005) environmental constraints to development have major consequences on human development such as limiting the provision of economic and social amenities and increase cost of transportation. These environmental constraints have contributed or have caused the reversal of development projects like construction of firms, industries, offices, schools, portable water and just to name a few. The environmental constraints to development today giving the changing climatic conditions will grow significantly imposing a big threat to human development across most of the world’s regions. These changing climatic conditions and the physical morphology of environment such as mountains and deep valleys are depicting the picture of environmental constraints to development in Fundong Sub Division. Development patterns have evolved in response to various environmental constraints which include difficult topography, complex geological structure, adverse climate and poor soils in many regions today. These regions have been experiencing low pressure for development and there has been continued migration of the productive population from one region to the other and rampant witnesses. Most of the difficult environments are stocked with unproductive and aged people who are fragile and with unattractive environments.

1.1 Research Context.

Globally, the environmental constraints to development, such as elongated hills, deep valleys, swarms and thick forest coupled with environmental hazards like landslides, erosion and flooding causes a problem to developmental projects through the zoning and development process. These constraints are generally well understood and the community accepts this as a matter that should be considered and other socio-economic constraint such as primary dependency, instability, corruption, human capital and natural capital depletion are general factors that inflame the level of environmental constraints to development (HEI POLICY, 2014).

Also, another depending factor is the greenhouse gases, temperatures are likely to rise between 2 and 4 °C within the next century. The main impacts of climate change will however, not be felt through higher temperatures but through a change in the hydrological cycle. Rainfall is likely to increase around the poles and the tropics while in the sub-tropics average precipitation is likely to decrease. Not only the average annual or seasonal rainfall will change; there will also be an increase in the number of extreme events resulting in more frequent and severe floods and droughts (IPCC, 2007). Climate is likely to have a significant impact on the economic development of many countries round the world. Climate is one of the main factors that determine relief of an area. Most areas with rough terrains characterized by hazards such as storms, floods, droughts cyclone, landslide and stiff topography makes development difficult to realize. All regions in most less developed countries (LDCs) have State-specific requirements to meet their developmental aspirations and targets of which poverty alleviation and the creation of infrastructure command high priority (Thomas, 2007).

 However, certain regions such as those in the arid and semi-arid regions are at disadvantageous situation in terms of difficult terrain, severe weather conditions, dispersed habitations, small and under-developed markets, long international borders, poor connectivity and inadequate general infrastructure. The cost of delivery of public services in this region is higher compared to other regions due to their typical topography. These acts as constraints in terms of development compared to other region. With the procedures for environmental clearances being generally identical for all region, the region having a large forest cover find it difficult to get environmental clearances, even for infrastructural projects which hamper their developmental initiatives. Besides, these regions are unable to exploit and use their resources (forest, land, water and mineral) for income generation and at the same time; they have to incur significant expenditure for maintaining these resources (Fulco et al., 2007)

Mountainous areas in Cameroon are among the poorest and most disadvantageous. Harsh climatic and environmental conditions, remoteness and often difficult to cause small scale development in these regions. Mountain areas frequently face political, social and economic marginalization and lack access to such basic services as health and education. The fragility of mountain ecosystems makes the impacts of sustainable development more severe and more difficult to correct in area like this, than in other region in Cameroon. The western high land of Cameroon which runs from mount Cameroon up Far North of the country is example of regions in Cameroon that experience difficulties in development (F.A.O, 2011)

1.2 Statement of the problem

The world is made up of different environments with different specificities and activities in such an environment like developmental activities, agricultural activities and business activities just to name but these. The world is subjected to environmental constraints affecting the activities carried out in any of these different types of environment. The development of every environment depends on the physical, human, economic, social and cultural characteristics of environment. Amongst the environmental characteristics of the environment are topography, vegetation cover, the soils, morphology and the geology structure being the main mechanism of development. These characteristics either act as a constraint or a plus to the development projects if an environment is suitable. The Fundong municipality is actually facing some environmental constraints which have acted negatively on the development of this area.

Fundong is an environment subjected to some constraints basically those affecting the developmental progress of Fundong subdivision. Amongst the environmental constraints to development in Fundong subdivision, are mountains, swarms, valleys, hills, limited natural resource, and natural hazard. These environmental constraints to development have made it a nearly impossibility for developmental activities to effectively attend it level of development. The developmental projects like roads, water supply, infrastructural and socio economic projects have been an uphill task to getting these projects executed. This has led to developmental problems like, high prices of goods and services, limited water, high transport cost and low level of infrastructural development.

Seeing the above environmental constraints, it is clean and clear that development in this area is a big problem. With these developmental problems observed in Fundong Sub Division, this project therefore brings to focus the realities on the ground and seeks to provide an insight on how these environmental constraints can be dealt with to ensure developmental progress in this municipality.

1.3 Research question

The research question of this research aim at laying a platform for objectives of this work which start with main research as follows,

Main question for this study,

What are the environmental constraints to development in Fundong subdivision? The following specific questions are posed:

• What are the developmental dynamics in Fundong Sub division?
• What are the different environmental constraints to development in Fundong subdivision?
• What are the possible measures to the challenges of environmental constraints to development in Fundong subdivision?

1.4 Research objectives

 The major aim of this study

To examine the environmental constraints to development in Fundong.

 This study is addressed by the following specific objectives.

1. To investigate developmental dynamics in FSD.
2. To examine the different environmental constraints to development in FSD.

To evaluate the possible coping strategies to the challenges of environmental constraints to development in FSD.