Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A structured interview survey was used to gain further insight and clarification
about certain substantive issues. These included among others, the difficulties be-
tween forest management transfer and actual community forest ownership; and
approaches to sustainable forest practices and strategies. Thus, forest stakeholders,
viz. officials in the ministry of forestry and wildlife, managerial staff of forest
NGOs (local and international) as well as members of local forest communities
were interviewed.
16.4 Evolution of Forest Administration and Policy
Reforms in Cameroon
According to Fonyam (2001), of all the five-year Development Plans by the Cam-
eroon government, beginning from 1961, only the fifth (1981/1986) and sixth
(1986 - 1991) contained vague phrases alluding to the environment. In 1984 a de-
cree on the organization of the government assigned an additional responsibility to
the Ministry of Planning and Regional Development, namely, that of regional de-
velopment policy and matters relating to the environment. A subsequent decree
led to the organisation of the department of Regional Development and Environ-
ment. Section 51(1) of decree no. 84/797 entrusted a Sub-Department of Human
Settlements and the Environment with the task of formulating a national environ-
mental policy and drawing up periodic reports on the country's environmental
situation. The Sub-department was also charged with proposing all the measures
for rational management of natural resources, the protection of the environment,
the prevention of natural disasters and the fight against pollution. But the depart-
ment was handicapped by the lack of adequate human and financial resources.
Historically, Cameroon's forest sector has been hampered by weak institutions,
lack of transparency and corruption. Legislation introduced by the Ministry of Ag-
riculture and replaced by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1994, such
as the 1981 Forestry Law and the subsequent 1983 Implementation Decree did not
provide an adequate legal framework for land use planning and production activi-
ties. The prevailing land tenure regime assigned usufruct rights to anybody who
cleared and cultivated the state owned land that make up most of the dense forest.
This provided an incentive for deforestation (O'Halloran and Ferrer 1997). These
legislative orders failed to address either the existing concession system that en-
couraged rent-seeking behaviour and inefficiency, or the distorted tax system,
which was designed to protect an inefficient sector.
The logging concessions allocation system was not transparent and gave the in-
dustry incentives to unsustainably exploit the forest. In addition, the lack of trans-
parency in the allocation mechanism fuelled rent-seeking behaviour. This was ex-
acerbated by the fact that there was no prerequisite condition for the companies
receiving the concessions to embark on sustainable forest exploitation methods.
Concessions were awarded for a period of five years and based on mutual agree-
ment between the timber companies and government authorities. Although these
contracts were renewable, the preceding five-year period, considered to be short,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search