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:
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[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.