BIMBIA-BONADIKOMBO, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Stepping into the Bimbia-Bonadikombo community forest in Cameroon, the chatter and hooting from the people and cars in neighboring villages gives way to silence.

A guide and hunter Charles Mokwe, slashes through the thick canopy, slowly making his way along a trail of grass and bush marked with tracks of cutting grass and porcupine.

 One could hear shrieks from both far and near. “Those are probably the sounds of  animals,” Mokwe says.

 “Though human encroachment has scared many animals to far distances, we still find some during our hunting expeditions.”

The Mount Cameroon forest project that includes the Bimbia -Bonadikombo community forest (BBCF)measuring 3.735 hectares, situated on the west flanks of  Mt.Cameroon  looks an ideal  biodiversity conservation project in readiness for the country’s REDD+( reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and carbon sequestration) ambition.

The community forest is a biodiversity hotspot under a three way partnership between the local communities, the government, the Mount Cameroon Project [MCP] the coordinating body in Fako division of Cameroon’s South West region. The project government says is a biodiversity conservation strategy implemented through participatory land-use plan with mapped out areas for settlements, agriculture, community forests including a national park that has contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of the forest community in the area.

“The project is a people oriented conservation programme geared at improving on the livelihood of the local population,” says Eben Ebai Samuel, Southwest regional delegate for forestry and wildlife.

But just along the western edge of the Mt Cameroon Park, there are signs of trouble. Stakes are planted in the ground and a nursery nearby is filled with oil palm seedlings. This is part of an ambitious plan to expand the Cameroon Development Corporation, a Cameroonian palm oil company, to develop a 123,000-acre palm oil plantation next to the forest reserve. The project could possibly overlap with the forest in some places.

“This would be a disaster,” says Ekwoge Abwe, who works with the Ebo Forest Research Project with the help of village volunteers and funding from San Diego Zoo Global, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other groups. The office of their research project is located in the Botanic Gardens in Limbe.

“If this takes place, you would have a good chunk of the community forest disappearing,” Abwe says.

 “The habitat would be chopped down and exacting more pressure on species and leading to population declines and local extinctions. For those species that are not resilient, that may be the end.”

Cameroon is among a growing list of African nations following the foot-steps of  Asian agro-industrial companies like in Malaysia and Indonesia, which have made hundreds of billions of dollars by converting huge tracts of rainforest into palm oil plantations. The two Southeast Asian countries produce about 85 percent of the world’s palm oil.

This development is threatening community forest that has stood its own in forest conservation since the 1994 forestry laws.

“Our forests are in danger if government does not reinforce and apply the law to stop encroachers,” says chief Njie Masoki, chairman of the Bonadikombo traditional council.

Community and state co-management of protected forest areas were established in Cameroon following the 1994 forestry law as part of relatively new forest governance dynamic aimed at improving livelihood and reducing poverty especially among the forest community population.

 The community forest initiative involves the transfer of forest taxes to councils and communities, creation and management of council forest, guaranteeing rural communities access rights to their forest resources among other benefits. However, though the Cameroon community forests initiatives were designed and implemented to meet the general objectives of forest management decentralization for democratic and community management, the expansion of agro-industrial plantations and the spread of management conflicts in many of these communities have shown that the broad expectations have largely not been met.

 Cameroon lost 18 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2010, with an average annual decline of 0.9 percent, or 220,000 hectares, according to the State of the World’s Forests 2011 report issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

This runs counter to plans drawn up by the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), which focuses on sustainable exploitation of the forest and its resources and Cameroon’s plans towards economic emergence with a two digit growth by 2035. Present economic growth stands at just 4.5 %.  

Reports say much of the forest loss is due to increasing pressure from other sectors such as commercial and subsistence agriculture, other infrastructure development and especially palm oil plantations. For example, a 73,000 ha oil palm plantation has been allocated in a rich biodiversity forest area in Southwest Region of the country that is breeding conflict between the community and the palms oil company.

“These persistent conflicts between communities and palm oil or rubber plantation companies completely defeats the purpose of  the community forest scheme,” Chief  Njie says.

Community Forest in Cameroon

According to the 1994 forestry law, the involvement of grassroot community actors in the management of forest and wildlife resources is primordial to improve on the livelihood of the local population and save forest.

 Community forestry emphasizes the roles of indigenous and local communities in conservation, and the importance of generating local livelihoods through sustainable forest use. This enable communities to manage and benefit from forests, so that forests can be recognized as a livelihoods asset that contributes to their continuing welfare.

 “A community forest forms part of the non-permanent forest estate, which is covered by a management agreement between a village community and the Forestry Administration. Management of such forest – which should not exceed 5,000 ha – is the responsibility of the village community concerned, with the help or technical assistance of the Forestry Administration,” Article 3(11) of Decree says.

 The law was the first in Central Africa to promote community forest management as a strategy to sustainably manage forests and promote local development. As of 2011, a total of 301 community forests covering over 1 million ha had some form of management agreement in place.

It provides for the establishment of community-managed hunting areas, council and community forests with the granting of royalties to councils and communities resident in forest management units and hunting areas. Statistics from the ministry of forestry and wildlife shows that about 43% of allocated community forests obtain an annual exploitation certificate each year while exploited volumes in local communities represent about 25% of authorized volumes.

Government officials however say these are carried out on the basis of established agreement between the state and the forest communities.

 ‘’ On the basis of a management agreement signed with the state, villagers have the opportunity to manage and exploit the products of their community forests and realize opportunities for development,’’ says Eben Ebai Samuel, Southwest regional delegate for forestry and wildlife.

According to the Law, 40% of taxes levied from Forest Management Units like logging concessions go to municipalities and 10% to the local villages. The law also guarantees property rights of communal forests to municipalities and the rights of use of community forests to local villages. Government officials say the law is very clear on that even though local councils and villages as of now only benefit from logging concessions.

“Local villages and councils are entitled by law to use and sell all types of forest resources although in practice the main community forest benefits have been  from commercial logging,” says Vincent Onana of the ministry of forestry and wildlife.

Environmentalists say the rights of communities must be respected.

“It is both the responsibility of the government and the companies to ensure that the rights and wellbeing of local communities are respected,” says Augustine Njamnshi of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

Environmentalists are fighting on several fronts in Cameroon, where the government has pledged to expand palm oil production by more than 26 percent by 2018 as part of an effort to become a top exporter in Africa. That means an additional 25,000 acres of new plantations each year.

A Cameroonian company, Safacam, is developing plantations that appear to overlap with two reserves, according to Global Forest Watch.

 Greenpeace also claims that Sud-Cameroun Hevea, a company owned mostly by Singapore’s GMG, is developing rubber and palm oil plantations that threaten the Dja Faunal Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the largest and best protected rainforests in Africa.

Like Mt Cameroon, most community forest in Cameroon lacks the protection and funding of a national park like Dja Faunal. Even without the palm oil, the forests  face a myriad of other threats, from raids by bush meat hunters trapping and shooting primates, antelopes and elephants, to incursions from illegal loggers, activities that challenge the countries REDD+ ambition.

 Though the plantation officials and government argue the projects could provide good paying jobs and improve conditions in the villages lacking electricity, clean water and  health care facilities environmentalists think they could be located far from the community forest reserve.

For Abwe, it’s hard to argue against jobs, but he hasn’t given up hope the plantation can be pushed back.

“We are encouraging the people to conserve what is left,” Abwe said. “Many villagers depend on the forest for their livelihood. If all the biodiversity goes, there will be nothing left for them.”

(This article was produced under the aegis of the CSE Media Fellowship Programme)

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - A programme to empower local communities manage their forest is helping Cameroon government improve forest governance and management amidst challenges.

Cameroon has been active in REDD+ process (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and carbon sequestration) with the country’s readiness preparation proposal approved by the World Bank in 2013.

However, the government says adequate consultation and participation of forest residents in the planning and execution process was necessary for effective REDD+ participation and reaping of benefits.

We need to build on existing forest governance and clarify the legal framework for REDD+, engage rural and indigenous communities, and ensure transparency and communication for all to reap the benefits from our resources,” said the minister of forestry and wildlife Philip Ngole Ngwese in January 2017.

The Mount Cameroon Forest is one of the community forests with an established“ management agreement between the community and the state, with the Mount Cameroon Project as coordinator.

The project stretches through 11 villages with a heterogeneous population of 122.900 inhabitants, from the slopes of the mountain to the Atlantic Ocean. It generates  income for many families, contributing to poverty reduction, officials say.

Created in 1998 following Cameroon’s 1994 forestry law that decentralized forest management, the Bimbia- Bondikombo Community Forest stretch for example is a success story, officials say, despite numerous challenges that need to be addressed.

The forest constitute mangrove along the coast, an evergreen lowland forest, the sub-mountain and mountain forest and the savanna above 2000m. The mountain slope presents clear evidence of active volcanism like lava flow of recent eruption [1999 and 2000] crater lakes, caves and waterfalls.  The Forests are rich in podocarpus and bamboo, Prunus Africana and contain unique flora and fauna.

The forests in the Mount Cameroon area hold great cultural significance for the local people and play a crucial role in regulating water supplies, the project officials say.

Bimbia through Bonadikombo is one of the rare communities that rely solely on its community water supply project and not the state owned Water Corporation, thanks to its constant water supply from the Mount Cameroon forest.

Fuelwood and building materials are collected from the forest with products like honey which is of great importance in many herbal remedies, the residents attest.

“We harvest honey from the mountain forest and market it through our cooperative. Carving is also a major income source, with products exported internationally,” says Henry Njombe a resident in Bokwango in the forest area.

A forest of all seasons
The bio-diversity of the Mount Cameroon forests will appeal to anyone who loves nature.

In the rich forest a cushion of leaves sits perched neatly atop cross-cutting branches pulled in place by the creature that built the nest.

Further inside, a stream of cold water rushes through stones coated in lush moss and bird droppings. The sun’s rays pierce through the forest canopy with bright spots dotted here and there like a dancing floor in a night club as I move along to get abreast with the marvels of nature.

As sounds of birds heralds the arrival of midday in the distance, Charles Mokwe a mountain guide volunteer who accompanied me through the Mt Cameroon forest and National park, pointed at the tree with the nest.

“This should be the nest of some animal but I cannot tell whether it is a chimpanzee or monkey or whether it is recent. Even with increasing human encroachment, there are still some wildlife in the forest here protected by the National Park project though not the big species of animals we use to see in the past,” Charles said, clearly excited by the discovery of animal nest not so deep in the mountain forest – a place he said was once a biodiversity hot spot, but is now threatened by the expansion of farmland, agro-industrial palm oil plantations, grazing fields, bushfires and the trappings of other encroaching development activities.

Like most forest areas in Cameroon, the rich forest and wildlife species along the flanks of Mt Cameroon are seriously under threat by encroaching human activities and climate change, necessitating constant tree regeneration activities and tightened animal conservation.

This explains why the conservation of trees by Mount Cameroon project is focused on the regeneration of threatened trees and the reforestation of degraded landscapes. Some 30000 capacity tree nursery containing threatened tree species are nursed and planted back into degraded forest in the area annually to ensure conservation sustainability, the project officials explained.

“ Assisted by the local communities we do annual tree planting in the project area,’’ says Louis Nkembi CEO of Environment and Rural Development Foundation, ERUDEF an NGO working in the Mt Cameroon forest area.

He regrets that the wild chimps and elephants are no longer there due to excessive human activity.

“Wild chimps and elephants that used to be the pride of the Mount Cameroon forest are no longer there. We can only find them now at the Limbe wildlife conservation center,’’ Louis Nkembi said.

The project also includes wildlife conservation at the Limbe Zoo and a Botanic Garden with endemic plant species.
    
Challenges
The Cameroon community forest project government says, is facing various challenges. Key amongst them is insecurity especially at frontier zones that have remained disturbing phenomena to the peaceful co-existence of the habitat and biodiversity of the different forest areas and national parks.

“Our forest is constantly being invaded by illegal poachers and criminals reason why we are reinforcing security around major national parks,” said the minister of forestry and wildlife Philip Ngole Ngwesse while on visit to the Bouba Ndjidda National Park at the beginning of 2015 according to newspaper report.

He said over 700 ecoguards have been deployed in the different protected forest areas in the country since the massacre of hundreds of elephants at the Bouba Njidda national park in 2012.

A report Cameroon elephant slaughter WWF noted that between January and March of 2012, heavily-armed foreign poachers invaded Cameroon and killed over 300 elephants in Bouba N’Djida National Park. Since the incident, which drew worldwide media attention, Cameroon has moved to bolster security in its protected areas.

The exploitation of local communities by land grabbers is another disturbing phenomenon environment experts say. Critics say that lack of proper consultation and weak legal processes leave local communities displaced and impoverished, while the environmental and economic effects have been devastating.

‘’Agro-industries in complicity with government officials have acquired land adjacent  many community forests for their palm plantations and illegal logging in these areas are going on without the consent of the forest dwellers, making the community forest management programme highly controversial,’’ says Samuel Nguiffo of Center for Environment and Development, CED an NGO in Cameroon.

Local opponents have accused these invading agro-industrial companies of corruption, using donations of goods and services to garner support from the government and some elite. Civil society organizations and human right groups have challenged claims of environmental sustainability by these agro-industries.

‘’Talk about environmental sustainability by agro-industries and other forest land grabbers is only on paper. On the ground forest community dwellers are relocated without their consent,’’ says Augustin Njamshi, head of Bio-resources Development and Conservation Programme-Cameroon [BDCP] an NGO in Cameroon.

Critics say that lack of proper consultation and weak legal processes leave local communities displaced and impoverished, while the environmental effects have been devastating.

“In the classification of forest in Cameroon, the rights of the forest inhabitants are not respected,” says Jean Calvin of Cameroon Ecology, a nongovernmental organisation.

The community members are not entitled to own or transfer the land, nor to veto potential investors, Calvin explained. This allows businesses to take forest land from its inhabitants.

“We have been forced to move from our forest habitat to other villages where we have difficulties earning any income,” lamented Monono Martin, head of the  Moliwe village community in the Southwest.

“There are no animals to hunt, our medicinal plants from the forest have all been destroyed,” he said.

Environmental experts are critical of the government’s welcoming attitude towards land investors and the increasing displacement of forest communities.

“Land grabbing by heavy investors has caused rapid disappearance of resources, triggering massive movement of the population from resource-depleted zones to other areas where resources are available, causing conflict between communities,” said Andy White of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an international NGO in a press report during a visit in Cameroon in 2013.

“Many women are unable to freely access and control productive resources and this places them in a weaker position in terms of agricultural productivity and economic growth, food security, family income and equal participation in governance,” says Benard Njonga a Cameroonian agronomist who works to promote the interests of local smallholder farmers

Only two kilometres from Korup National Park in the Southwest , for example, the community forest gives way to an industrial logging concession. The Moabi trees found there is particularly favoured by loggers for its hard, dark wood and high market price have all been ferried away.

The Moabi’s fruit that used to be a key component of the subsistence of the women in the local community, especially for the rich oil pressed from the nut have all disappeared.  The women relied upon it for their survival.

A few years back it was harvested by women from Farbe village in a forest grove 12km from the village, in the middle of the logging concession.

But those trees are now gone, cut down between 2009-2013 and exported to Europe to make garden furniture and coffee tables. The people around the Korup National Park are poorer, hungrier as a result of European tastes for luxury.

‘’The future of these communities are at stake as their forest is stripped of trees,’’ say Sameul Nguiffo of CED.

A new global study released  on September 30th on the eve of a major land rights summit, reveals that indigenous peoples and local communities lack legal rights to almost three quarters of their traditional lands, despite claiming or having customary use of up to 65 percent of the world’s land area.

Pointing to their findings as evidence of the significant disenfranchisement of one of the most basic of human rights, the authors report that failure to recognize land tenure for 1.5 billion people worldwide is hampering efforts to combat hunger and poverty, igniting social conflict, and undermining efforts to reduce deforestation and the impacts of climate change.

“Greed and power”
Experts say what communities on the ground in Cameroon see is no different from what is unfolding in other neighbouring countries in West and Central Africa attributing the forest land gabbing conflict to greed and power.

“The slow pace of good intentions—the efforts to protect communities of forest dwellers and subsistence farmers who have no wealth except for the land that they cultivate—has been overtaken by greed and power,” says Samuel Nguiffo

He says so much human tragedy could be averted if land rights in many African countries didn’t erode so soon after they are established calling on the Cameroon government to speed up reform process to protect community forest.

“We know there has been a surge of new laws and reform processes recently,” added Samuel Nguiffo, “but these efforts are too slow and do not meet the challenges presented by rapid development and exploitation in the extractive sector. Cameroonians will not sit by and watch their future handed over to the highest bidder.”

(This article was produced under the aegis of the CSE Media Fellowship Programme)

 

BERTOUA, Cameroon (PAMACC News)—As night falls, scores of timber trucks line up at a weighing station outside the city center here, one of the last rituals before the long road trip to the port city of Douala, nearly 600km away.

Every day, trucks like these, with logs of timber stream through bumpy earth roads onto the highway at the dead of night; and head to Douala, from where they are shipped to foreign markets.

“The East region is very rich in timber,” says Andre Lepot, a resident in Batouri, a town that has become known for timber exploitation, more than anything else. “We have seen this happen since we were kids.”

Timber is Cameroon’s second most important export commodity after crude oil. In the past decades, logging has increased, attracting Chinese, Lebanese, French, and other foreign companies.

The country is one of the leading exporters of tropical timber to the European Union.

“We have observed a surge in timber trade activities with the increased presence of foreign timber business operators especially from China and Indonesia in the sector,” says Bernard Njonga, coordinator of the Local Development Initiatives Support Service, an NGO in Cameroon.

“Cameroon’s forest has continued to be logged to feed the country’s growing timber market.”
Logging in Cameroon is shrouded in illegality. Illegal timber exploitation is severe and getting worse in the country, say officials and environmental protection workers.

“Without being an expert, I can say that before exploiters fell only large trees,” says ZeVina, a resident of Ebolowa in the South region, another timber exploitation center. “But today we see timber of all dimensions transported away in trucks.”

Ze describes Cameroon's timber sector as anarchic. Both legal and illegal exploiters are involved in unlawful activities, particularly harvesting timber below the legal size, and outside designated concessions, he says.

Weak legal systems and deteriorating control mechanisms are fueling an unprecedented frenzy of illegal logging and wildlife trade that is fast depleting the nation's natural forest resources, PAMACC News found.

“Illegal forest exploitation and logging business in the country has been compounded by ineffective and discriminatory law enforcement,” says Njonga. “This betrays the sincerity of the government in forest governance reforms.”

In the East and South regions, vast expanses of forests now lay bare, one of the main consequences of rampant and illegal exploitation.

According to Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring platform, Cameroon lost 657,000 hectares of forest between 2001 and 2014, with the annual rate of loss rising over the period to around 141,000 hectares in 2014.

“The government does not respect its laws and many forest malpractices go unpunished,” Augustine Njamnshi, board member of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA told PAMACC News in an interview.

“When laws are not implemented or are implemented selectively, then there is injustice, and this weakens the legal system in the country.”

Dr. Joseph ArmatheAmougou, the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change Focal Point for Cameroon admits that the non-respect of forestry laws has to a large extent weakened forest governance reforms.

“Cameroon is a state of law, and so for any forest governance reform to yield the expected results, the laws must strictly be respected,” he says.

Apart from the European Union imposed monitoring system, the country lacks a credible forest law enforcement mechanism, a situation that has continued to drive illegal logging and forest depletion.

Several control points have been set up on the route from the forest to the port city of Douala. But corruption means that tons of illegally felled timber still makes it to markets in Europe and Asia.

Timber is central in the country’s development agenda. In the last few years, Cameroon has invited multiple foreign investors in large-scale investment projects as the country drives towards economic growth.  

Unfortunately, many of these investments and potential investment opportunities are nestled in the heart of the country’s productive forest spans. In many cases, the projects are not only breeding conflicts between investors and forest communities, but also fuelling illegal activities.

There is thus increasing environmental footprint of these foreign investors in Cameroon and government’s heavy reliance on them for funding of its multiple ongoing infrastructural projects has made the country vulnerable to illegal practices.

“In many instances, the government is helpless in dealing with cases of illegal logging by these foreign business operators,” says Samuel Nguifo, Executive Secretary of Center for Environment and Development.

With the country facing serious development challenges, there is a growing quest for and reliance on foreign capital, and it is thought this dependence has led to oversights on illegal activities especially in the exploitation of forest resources in Cameroon, Nguiffo explains.

A May 2016 World Bank/IMF report indicates that Cameroon has an accrued external debt of US$5,289 million and is ranked 10th among 42 African nations whose debt statistics were studied in 2016.

Experts see the dependence on foreign investors as a significant threat to the country’s willpower to strictly control illegal practices fueling corruption and poor governance in the forest and natural resource sector.

Like in Cameroon, sustainable management of forest resources has been perilous in many countries in the Congo Basin region. Environment experts argue scaled up support for governance reforms that need to be at the heart of government forest management programs are virtually absent.

Environment experts are worried that the growing illegal harvesting and trade of timber will have devastating impacts on the environment and contribute immensely to global warming which is currently threatening the Congo Basin and the world as a whole.

Thus, the promotion of sustainable forest management is imperative to create and preserve jobs and contribute to improving rural livelihoods, protect the environment, mitigating climate change, preserve biodiversity and above all reduce poverty, experts say.

External Pressure
Some European countries have urged Cameroon to reinforce its laws on forest exploitation and timber trade.

Cameroon was one of the main sources of tropical wood imports to the European Union in 2014, at around a fifth of the total, followed closely by Malaysia, according to EU data.
Britain recently imposed or warned of sanctions on 14 UK importers believed to be illegally sourcing wood from Cameroon, according to Greenpeace.

That followed a similar move by the Netherlands in early March 2016 demonstrating that timber from Cameroon is “coming under increasing scrutiny in international markets,” Greenpeace said.

“Cameroon’s authorities must examine this new set of sanctions and start investigating the companies in question as a first step to tackling the illegality and corruption in the timber sector,” said Eric Ini, Yaounde-based Forest campaigner for Greenpeace Africa.

In 2009, Cameroon appointed an independent observer, NGO Agreco-CEW, to oversee the allocation of forest concession. But its recommendations are not implemented, according to Samuel Nguiffo.

A May 2016 report from Greenpeace, for example, said Cameroon's timber exporter Compagnie de Commerce et de Transport (CCT) had sourced wood from La Socamba, a company logging several kilometers outside its designated area, which it sold in Europe and China.

CCT and its suppliers are now facing an audit, which has yet to be officially announced, Greenpeace said at the end of June.

Cameroon bows to pressure
In what looks like bowing to pressure from the European Union and forest governance stakeholders, Cameroon government has suspended 23 forest exploitation companies and two community interest groups (GICs) working in the logging sector for six months, a November 09, 2016 release by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife stated.

The sanctions according to the Minister Philp NgoleNgwese, generally relate to the non-compliance with sustainable management standards such as breach of the terms of reference, the exploitation or fraudulent use of the forest resources.

The suspension, which involves “the immediate cessation of activities, will not be lifted until after the close of the litigation opened against the offenders, as well as the payment in full of the charges that will be levied against them,” the minister said in a statement.

Minister Ngole Philip Ngwese also threatened to withdraw the authorization in the event of non-lifting of the suspension due to the continuation of activities after notification of the measure or a new offense in the last 12 months following the infringement leading to suspension.

Officials of Etamfa Sarl and Entrepise Forestiere du Cameroon, two of the companies suspended for illegal logging refused to comment when approached by PAMACC News.  

In a similar sanction in 2012, the Cameroon Treasury recovered the sum of CFAF 1 billion, compared to CFAF 100 million a year earlier, representing the fines imposed on operators for violations of logging regulations, statistics from the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife showed.

Intensified control measures
The government says it is working with other stakeholders to strengthen control measures against illegal logging. Among these measures is the increase of forest guards on checkpoints along the road from the East region through the South to the shipping port in Douala.

The Kadey Divisional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife, Bangya Dieudonne admits "illegal exploitation of wildlife and logging activities existed in the region but said the government was intensifying and renewing its strategies to combat the scourge.”

“The government is training and deploying more guards in the field to intensify control. Many youths here have received training to detect and report cases of illegal logging to us and the forces of law and order,” said Bangya.

Officials of FODER, an NGO in forest protection in the region that carried out the training also attest monitoring of illegal forest activities has intensified.

“Forest people, mostly youths have been trained and equipped as community observers to report what they see in logging activities to help save the forests. These residents are on the frontline of the fight against deforestation. We call them the rainforest defenders of Central Africa,” RodrigueNgonzo from FODER told PAMACC News.

He said the training provided communities and civil society with new tools to monitor changes in forest use and their environment so they can inform local authorities and the forces of law and order in real-time for prompt action.

According to officials of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, empowering forest people, taking climate action and protecting forest resources are at the heart of changing the new narrative and putting government activities firmly on the path to sustainable development.

AnicetNgomin, Head of Monitoring, Regeneration, Reforestation and Woodland Extension Unit, in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, pointed out that since the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Ministry has embarked on assessing the gravity of illegal forest exploitation challenges and has intensified interaction with the concerned communities.

“Creating opportunities for an empowered people, capable of taking action and contributing to the protection their forest resources will certainly help in the fight against forest resource depletion,” Ngomin said.