CAMEROON COUNTRY DIAGNOSTIC REPORT – NOVEMBER 2017 Community forestry in Cameroon: a diagnostic analysis of laws, institutions, actors and opportunities Members of the CoNGOs consortium 1 CAMEROON COUNTRY DIAGNOSTIC REPORT – NOVEMBER 2017 Public report of a diagnostic study carried out in 2016. Author information: This report was compiled by Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Fern, Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Association OKANI. Cover photo: Baka women collecting non-timber forest products in Nomedjoh, Cameroon. Photo credits: Indra Van Gisbergen Published by IIED, November 2017 http://pubs.iied.org/G04191 Citation: CED, Fern, FPP, IIED, Okani (2017) Community forestry in Cameroon: a diagnostic analysis of laws, institutions, actors and opportunities. IIED, London. International Institute for Environment and Development 80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399 Fax: +44 (0)20 3514 9055 email: [email protected] www.iied.org @iied www.facebook.com/theIIED Download more publications at www.iied.org/pubs 2 CAMEROON COUNTRY DIAGNOSTIC REPORT – NOVEMBER 2017 Contents Table of Figures........................................................................................................ 4 List of Acronyms ...................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 6 2. Executive Summary ............................................................................................. 7 3. Existing legal and institutional framework ........................................................ 8 3.1 Administrative system in Cameroon ..................................................................... 8 3.2 Formal land ownership, use and allocation in Cameroon ..................................... 8 3.3 Communities’ land ownership, use and rights in Cameroon ............................... 12 3.4 Statutory community forestry in Cameroon ........................................................ 15 4. Communities, community organisations and other stakeholders ................. 17 4.1 Demography of forest-dependent communities and peoples in Cameroon ........ 17 4.2 Social relations and governance of communities ............................................... 18 4.3 Social and economic organisation within communities and existing market behaviour ................................................................................................................. 19 4.4 National and regional networks and associations .............................................. 21 4.5 Existing national processes related to forests and lands .................................... 23 5. Constraints on effective and equitable community-based forest management ................................................................................................................................. 25 5.1 Difficulties with the statutory community forestry model ..................................... 26 5.2 Challenges related to internal governance ......................................................... 27 5.3 Market barriers ................................................................................................... 28 6. Options to enhance community-based forest management .......................... 29 6.1 Options to develop shared understanding about how to tackle elite capture in community forestry ................................................................................................... 30 6.2 Options to separate out and strengthen first-tier business organisations at community level ....................................................................................................... 30 6.3 Exploring options for and advantages of second-tier regional association and third tier national federation amongst progressive community forest businesses ..... 31 6.4 Options to use the insights from the above to inform policy advocacy strategies ................................................................................................................................. 32 7. Conclusions and recommendations ................................................................. 33 Bibliography and References ................................................................................ 35 Laws and legal instruments ...................................................................................... 35 Books, articles and other sources ............................................................................ 35 3 CAMEROON COUNTRY DIAGNOSTIC REPORT – NOVEMBER 2017 Table of Figures Figure 1. World Resources Institute Interactive Forest Atlas of Cameroon. ......................................... 11 Figure 2. Allocation of community forest agreements up to 2016 ........................................................ 15 List of Acronyms ACFN African Community Forestry Network ACRN African Community Rights Network AFECONET Africa Forest Enterprises Connect Network CED Centre for Environment and Development CFP Community and Forests Platform FCPF Forest Carbon Partnership Facility FLEGT Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (Action Plan of the European Union) FPP Forest Peoples Programme GFBC Groupement de la Filière Bois du Cameroun GIC Groupe d’intérêt commun GIE Groupement d’intérêt économique IIED International Institute for Environment and Development ILC-NES International Land Coalition National Engagement Strategy LANDNET Land Tenure Network MINADER Ministère de l’agriculture et du développement rural (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) MINDCAF Ministère des domaines, du cadastre et des affaires foncières (Ministry of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure) MINEPAT Ministère de l’économie, de la planification et de l’aménagement du territoire (Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development) MINFOF Ministère des forêts et de la faune (Ministry of forest and fauna) MINMIDT Ministère des mines, de l’industrie et du développement technologique (Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development) NTFP Non-timber forest products PNDP Programme National de Développement Participatif REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and fostering conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks RACOPY Réseau recherches actions concertées pygmées REFACOF Réseau des femmes africaines pour la gestion communautaire des forêts 4 CAMEROON COUNTRY DIAGNOSTIC REPORT – NOVEMBER 2017 REFOCOD Réseau de forêts communautaires de Dja – a local community forest network in the Dja region (near to Lomié) RFC Réseau de foresterie communautaire VPA Voluntary Partnership Agreement (Agreement between Cameroon and the European Union under FLEGT relating to the verification of the legality of timber production) 5 PROJECT REPORT 1. Introduction This brief study has been produced by the partners of the CoNGOs consortium both to share our different knowledges and experiences, and to set out a joint understanding of the current state of play in relation to community forestry in Cameroon. This study uses the term “community forestry” in a broad sense, referring not simply (or not only) to community forestry as strictly defined under existing Cameroonian laws, but also a broader conception of community forestry which encompasses the holistic, sustainable and equitable management by a community of its customary forest areas. The study will: • consider existing institutional and legal frameworks in Cameroon (and their strengths and limitations); • set out demographic, cultural and socio-economic factors affecting community forestry; • identify key actors and institutions (which will include a focus on cooperatives and other producer groups which reflect community utilisation of natural resources (including land for agriculture) in forested areas; • Analyse the constraints – legal and practical – to effective community forestry in Cameroon; and • Consider options and strategies which can be adopted (principally within the framework of the CoNGOs project) to enhance the effectiveness and viability of community-based forest management within Cameroon, and the benefits received by communities from it. This study is not intended to, and will not, involve an exhaustive study of the (extensive) literature on community forestry in Cameroon. The consortium partners between them have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the various areas covered by this study, and each section will reflect a considered synopsis of the critical factors by the partners, with references to key sources from literature and other sources of data. Community-level work within this project will primarily take place in two regions of Cameroon – the East Region and the South region – and this study will therefore focus particularly on factors which are relevant to those two regions. www.iied.org 6 PROJECT REPORT 2. Executive Summary Community forestry has been a feature of the formal forest governance system in Cameroon for over 20 years. During that time, a number of community forests have been set up under the forestry law. Unfortunately, despite the high hopes held for it at the outset, community forestry is widely considered a failure in the country: it has not led to widespread forest management by communities living in forested areas (only 1.18% of the surface area of