Forest Governance Effectiveness of Community- and Government-managed Forests in Cameroon

Abstract

Effective implementation of forest governance principles such as transparency, participation, accountability, coordination, capacity, user rights protection and security driven by positive government interventions are instrumental for sustainable forest management. The study used satellite-derived data to explore forest loss in community forest (CF) and government-managed forest in Cameroon from 2001 to 2014. The study also examined the extent to which community forest rights are legally recognised and protected and how government interventions undermine or promote CF management effectiveness in Cameroon. The rationale was to understand the forest outcome of different forest management approaches with varied user rights and management objectives. This is considering that community forest managers have been seen as better managers of forests than government agencies, if their full rights are well recognised and protected. We used semi-structured open-ended questionnaires, followed by focus group interviews with CF management institutions and document review for data collection. Forest loss showed significant increasing trends and was higher in CF than in other forest management types from 2001 to 2014. Stakeholder perceptions of CF rights and government intervention or actions varied between CF management institutions. Community forest rights such as rights to full ownership and control, full management, unlimited duration, alienation, and due process and compensation are not legally recognised and/or protected in community forestry in Cameroon, producing negative forest outcomes. Negative government interventions such as imposing excessive bureaucratic obstacles and initial financial investment in the processing of application files for CF applications and commercial user rights of timber harvesting, colluding with local elites, individuals and corrupt municipal and administrative authorities, and retaining full administrative ownership and control of CF land and resources, also produces negative forest outcomes. The non- recognition and protection of higher level CF rights and excessive negative government interventions in CF management contributes to undermining community’s willingness and readiness to prevent deforestation activities and voluntary engagement in conservation activities involving tree planting and management for long term community benefits. Therefore, recognising, strengthening and protecting all the CF rights proposed by the Rights and Resources Initiative and avoiding negative government interventions in CF management are helpful strategies in achieving the expected conservation and local development objectives of CF in Cameroon and in the Congo basin region.