20 million German tax euros for the forests of Cameroon

The German government gives 20 million euros to the corrupt government in Cameroon to preserve its forests. The government coalition doesn't know if the money will make a difference. But they do know that they want to pay another 10 million euros.

Cameroon is an authoritarian country where freedom of expression is severely restricted. Corruption and human rights abuses are widespread, including torture and arbitrary arrests. It really doesn't take much research to find out about the friendly government in Northwest Africa. All you have to do is look at the Wikipedia entry. This can be supplemented with information from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which confirms this information.

What else should you know about Cameroon? Germany supports the government, which is considered "authoritarian", restricts freedom of expression and under which torture occurs regularly. Germany, which invented the feminist foreign policy, gave 20 million euros to this sympathetic government last year alone. To better protect Cameroon's forests. This was announced by the German government at the request of Dietmar Friedhoff, Markus Frohnmaier and Edgar Naujok (all AfD).

What does this spending look like in practice? This year, 12.4 million euros of taxpayers' money will go to "improved forest management" alone. Specifically, this money will be used to "implement sustainable land-use planning" and "expand environmental education". The question is whether the expenditure is at least worth it. But the federal government doesn't know yet: "The evaluations are still being prepared. The German government also doesn't know whether the partners in Cameroon believe in these projects enough to support them with their own money. All the government knows is that the money has been misused in two previous cases.

It is still unclear whether the projects will achieve anything. Or whether Cameroon will spend a cent on them. But on one point the traffic light is absolutely certain: another ten million German tax dollars are to flow by 2027. At least when it comes to German development aid, there is no shortage of resources.

Source: Tichys Einblick