How Serious Is Corruption in the Non-Wood Forest Products
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Transparency and governance in non-wood forest product commodity chains, an example from Cameroon: a need to include NWFP in the FLEGT mechanism. Julius Chupezi TIEGUHONG1, Ousseynou NDOYE, Sophie GROUWELS, Armand ASSENG ZE, Juliane MASUCH, Ignace Fokou SAKAM and William MALA 1Email: [email protected] & [email protected]; Tel: +237 75622222 Fax: +237 22204811 At the World Forestry Congresses (WFC) in 2003 and 2009, good governance and efficient institutions were reiterated as necessary indicators to consider when measuring positive outcomes resulting from long-term thinking in the forest discourse at all levels. It was further stressed that without good governance and effective institutions, the scope of sustainable forest management will remain limited. This discourse dwells on concepts such as democratisation, accountability, empowerment, equity, corruption, illegality, governance and transparency. Examined in this paper are the practical applications of four of the latter interrelated concepts as they relate to the production, transportation and trade of non-wood forest products, and looking specifically at a case study on Gnetum spp, a leafy vegetable in Cameroon. Data was collected from traders on all of the financial transactions involved in accessing, transporting and selling Gnetum spp from the zone of production to the point of export over a period of one year. A total of 18368 transactions were documented during 302 journeys. 81.6% of the transactions were illegal but covered 33.5% of the total costs of all transactions (341 250 960 CFAF equivalent to US$ 780558) over the study period. There were a total of 122 locations and major reasons for making a financial transaction with only 10.7% that covered legal transactions while 65.6% covered completely illegal transactions and 23.7% both legal and illegal transactions. Further analysis revealed the major locations and kind of agents playing the leadership roles in illegal transactions in terms of frequency and characteristics of the proportions of total amounts of money retained. A major recommendation from the paper is related to the needs of sensitising government agents on their responsibilities vis-a-vis NWFP value chains and to link the NWFP sector in the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process. Key Words: Illegality, Government agents, Non-wood forest products, FLEGT 1 Introduction According to the findings of the Commission for Africa (2005), all the difficulties caused by the interactions in Africa’s history over the past 40 years may be attributed to weaknesses of governance and the absence of an effective state. At the World Forestry Congresses (WFC) in 2003 and 2009, good governance and efficient institutions were reiterated as necessary indicators to consider when measuring positive outcomes resulting from long-term thinking in the forest discourse at all levels. It was further stressed that without good governance and effective institutions, the scope of sustainable forest management will remain limited (WFC, 2009). This discourse dwells on concepts such as democratisation, accountability, empowerment, equity, corruption, illegality, governance and transparency. Examined in this paper are the practical applications of four of the latter interrelated concepts as they relate to the production, transportation and trade of non-wood forest products (NWFP), looking specifically at a case study on Gnetum spp (Gnetum africanum and Gnetum buchholzianum), a leafy vegetable in Cameroon. This paper makes use of the definition of good governance as it was established by the Commission for Africa (2005). This definition states good governance as the ability of government and public services to create the right economic, social and legal framework that will encourage economic growth and allow in it the participation of poor people. Bad governance is exactly the opposite of good governance. In economics, growth is generally driven by the private sector, requiring governments to provide a favourable climate in which ordinary people (small farmers or managers of larger firms) can get on with their daily tasks untroubled and feel that it is worthwhile to invest in their own future. That climate is what is consistently lacking across Africa (Commission for Africa, 2005), including in Cameroon. The authors of this papers have attempted to answer a major research question: how transparent are financial transactions in the non- wood forest product commodity chain in Cameroon? This question is pertinent within the framework of the Central African Forestry Commission (COMIFAC)’s vision of improving the legal and institutional frameworks governing the NWFP sector in Central Africa. In addition, forest governance is now a concept that has become generally accepted in discussions about forests. In fact, governance and institutions are viewed as the decisive factors for success and substantial progress in such matters as sustainable production chains, combating illegality, modernising the forestry sector, and responsible business activity (WFC, 2009). In the same vein, one of the emerging economic mechanisms that promises to promote sustainable forest management and improve governance in the forest sector is the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process (Assembe-Mvondo, 2009; 2010; Eba’a Atyi et al., 2008). Hitherto, timber products were targeted with complete neglect of NWFP when talking about compliance to national forestry laws. Today, this is viewed as an oversight in light of the economic importance of NWFP at local, regional, and international levels (Tieguhong et al., 2010, 2009a&b; Tiveau, 2008; Warner, 2007Tieguhong and Ndoye, 2006; Ndoye and Tieguhong, 2004). This paper gives some insights on the impacts of law enforcement officers’ control measures in the field in relation to the NWFP value chains in Cameroon, reflecting 2 elements of transparency, corruption, illegality and governance, as enshrined in the FLEGT process. Methodology Data was collected from traders on 18368 financial transactions involved in accessing, transporting and selling Gnetum spp. (Gnetum africanum and Gnetum buchholzianum) from the zone of production to the point of export over a period of one year. All actors and corresponding transactions and values were recorded according to locations and dates. Data was collected along the two main routes from the source of production at Sa’a to the destination at Idenau. The first route (Sa’a via Yaounde to Idenau) covers a distance of 517 km while the second (Sa’a via Bangante to Idenau) covers 683 km. A literature review was conducted on past studies, including on the concepts of corruption and transparency in the natural resource management sector. Data gathered was entered into Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS software. Estimates were made on the cost of production and income of producers based on number of trips made per week/per month and the number of months of activity per year Results Controls and financial transactions A consitent follow-up with traders from the production zone to the exit point over a period of one year showed that there were 18368 financial transactions effected over a period of one year, 81.6% of which were illegal (forceful payments without the delivery of receipts to law enforcement officers) and only 18.4% legal (payments with the delivery of receipts and in conformity with the law). In terms of total amount of money spent for all transactions made during the period, 33.5% was spent on illegal transactions (341 250 960 CFAF, equivalent to US$ 758335.5, exchange rate US$1=450 FCFA as of January 2010) (Table 1). 3 Table 1: Distribution of number of transactions and amount spent, by route taken and legality status Legal status Route Variables Illegal Legal Total Sa’a-Yaounde -Idenau = 1 Total number of transactions 9198 1799 10997 % of number of transactions 83,6 16,4 100,0 Total expenses (FCFA) 68346500 131250860 199597360 % of expenses 34,2 65,8 100,0 Sa’a-Bangante -Idenau = 2 Total number of transactions 5795 1576 7371 % of number of transactions 78,6 21,4 100,0 Total expenses (FCFA) 45873100 95780500 141653600 % of expenses 32,4 67,6 100,0 Grand total number of transactions 14993 3375 18368 % of grand number of transactions 81,6 18,4 100,0 Grand total expenses (FCFA) 114219600 227031360 341250960 % of grand expenses 33,5 66,5 100,0 Among the 122 locations/reasons (locations and reasons are not interchangeable concepts but are lumped together because some reasons for making a financial transaction was not tight to a specific location such as transportation, communication, money transfer, fuel and feeding) for making a financial transaction, only 10.6% of them were legal, 65.6% were illegal and 23.8% had both legal and illegal operations (Appendix 1). For the completely illegal locations, 23 of them including Ahala, Bafang, Bafia, Bikoko, Bonabari, Buea, Limbe, Matomb, Mbankomo, Mboumnyebel, Monatele, Moungo, Mutengene, Nkometou, Nkongsamba, Nomayos, Nyassa, Obala, Olembe, Ombe, Sombo, Tiko and Yaounde, covered more than half of all illegal expenses. Both legal and illegal locations such as Idenau, Sa’a and Bota respectively had 45.1%, 19.5% and 0.2% of financial transactions as illegal (Appendix 2). Major legal expenses included transactions such as transportation (49.5%), hiring of waybills (14%), payment of custom duties (8.9%), loaders (10.5%) and offloaders (6.1%), as well as expenses related to accommodation/feeding (2.3%). The remaining 8.7% was spent on communication,