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)

 

Under unique conservation model, a luxury lodge in Kenya and a conservation organization will work together to help a local community protect a critical ecosystem

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) — Habitat loss poses a significant threat to biodiversity and people’s livelihoods in Kenya and beyond. Rapid land conversion, mostly driven by human population expansion, is behind this threat, and current trends demand innovative and long-term solutions to address it. For this reason, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Cottar’s Safari Lodges are teaming up to design and deliver conservation programs to support the Olderkesi community in the Masai Mara region in its conservation efforts.

“This conservation partnership joins one of the oldest ecotourism lodges in Kenya’s tourism industry with the oldest conservation organization in Africa. Such a partnership approach is key in supporting the conservation of the Olderkesi Conservancy and surrounding lands—we’re able to draw together Cottar’s longstanding relationships with the community with AWF’s conservation expertise to protect a critical elephant corridor in the Masai Mara,” says Kathleen Fitzgerald, vice president for land protection at African Wildlife Foundation.

The Olderkesi Group Ranch is host to one of the few remaining wildlife corridors in the Mara ecosystem. It is a part of a vital corridor between the Loita/Ngurman Hills and the Masai Mara National Reserve, hosting more than 3,000 elephants and thousands of transient plains herbivores, such as wildebeest, zebra, gazelles and giraffes. Similar to other parts of the Mara, wildlife in Olderkesi is threatened by land use change, habitat loss and blockage of corridors due to human activities. The ever-increasing human–wildlife interface has resulted in increased conflicts, leading to retaliatory killings.

The Olderkesi community area is an essential component of the Serengeti–Mara Ecosystem. It remains one of the last group ranches that have not been subdivided, and thus communities still have access to communal grazing areas, unlike other group ranches in the Mara. “This partnership will enable us to ensure the long-term survival of this critical ecosystem while providing jobs and supporting the local communities in protecting the land upon which they depend,” Calvin Cottar, director, Cottar Safaris.

The Masai Mara Reserve offers one of the Kenya’s premium wildlife reserve and important habitat areas for a great variety of wild African animals. It is unique for its great wildebeest migration, Africa's greatest natural spectacle and central point of branding for Kenya‘s tourism sector.

Ken-Arthur Wekesa is a Senior Manager, Media Relations African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)

LAGOS, Nigeria (PAMACC News) - TROPICAL Wood Exporters Association of Nigerian (TWEAN) in partnership with thirteen state governments has commenced moves to regenerate the nation’s forests.

The exporters have adopted a policy of planting seven trees for every tree that is cut, which is higher that the Nigerian government's policy of plating two trees for every tree that is felled.

Disclosing this to newsmen in Lagos, TWEAN Secretary General, Mr. Joseph Odiase said that the group in collaboration with some state governments have embarked on massive forestation programme with a view to arresting the menace of deforestation.

Odiase said that between Ogun and Ekiti states in Southwest Nigeria, the group has acquired over 1,000 hectares of land for tree planting.

The group scribe hinted that Osun, Kogi,Kwara, Taraba, Benue, Edo, Akwa-Ibom Jigawa, Katsina, Niger, Oyo and Ondo states were in   discussions with exporters to create tree farms in the states.

He explained that wood exporters are ready and willing to partner with the federal government to ensure that the effect of climate change in Nigeria was reduced to barest minimum.

Besides wood exporters, the Processed Wood Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria is also deeply involved in the forest regeneration drive.

He explained that issue of deforestation is the concern of every Nigerian adding that wood exporters will support government in the move to regenerate the nation’s forest.

“We must protect and preserve the forest for the present   and future generations because these forests also help in the sustenance and preservation of the environment.

“We are working with the Ministry of Environment as they have promised to provide technical support when it is needed.

“In as much as our businesses are important to us, we cannot jeopardize the environment for economic gains because we are not the only ones operating in the nation’s economy.

“We will not only abide with the government policy of planting two trees for every one cut,   we are also embarking on a massive forest cultivation programme.