By R.A Riggs, J.D Langston, and F. Mboringong, December 2022
Located in west central Africa, Cameroon is considered ‘Africa in miniature’. Diverse cultures, religions and peoples live across coastal cities, grasslands, and rainforests in a country that is half the size of British Columbia. About 46% of Cameroon is forested, and a lot of this forest is located in in the Congo Basin – the second largest rainforest on earth. Spanning 6 countries and considered ‘the lungs of Africa’, conserving the Congo Basin is a global priority. International organizations frequently commit large sums of money to saving the Congo Basin forests, including $1.5 billion at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021. Yet for people living and working in the forests of southeast Cameroon, there is a different reality.
Cameroon’s forests are rich in wildlife, including gorillas, elephants, pangolins, chimpanzees, and many more.
Cameroon ranks 134 out of 163 countries on the Sustainable Development Goals Index. Rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, mineral ores, high value timber, and agricultural crops like cocoa, the country aims to extend this natural wealth into benefits for its people. Yet barriers exist – some stem from colonization, others from instability and conflict – such as the anglophone crisis in the northwest and southwest regions and the Boko Haram attacks in the Far North. These conflicts absorb significant state budget resources that might have otherwise been spent on rural development. Deeper problems affecting sustainable development go beyond conflict; they lie in the capability of institutions to deliver society’s most basic needs. To try to understand and confront these issues, we can look towards the TRIDOM landscape in the heart of the Congo Basin.
The Trinational Dja-Odzala-Minkébé landscape (TRIDOM) contains 11 protected areas spread across Cameroon, Gabon, and the Congo. Interspersed between protected areas are villages, logging concessions, mining, and agro-industries. The landscape is 178,000 km2 and is 97% forested, habitat for to the critically endangered western gorilla, endangered common chimpanzee, forest elephants, and pangolins. The TRIDOM covers the ancestral lands of the several Indigenous peoples, including the Baka hunter-gatherers, considered as the guardians of the forests. The lack of accessibility means the population density remains low but is gradually increasing with the development of cross-border highways. With a deforestation rate of less than 0.05% since 19921, the TRIDOM is one of the largest intact forest areas in Africa.
 Dirt roads maintained by logging companies connect villages deep into the forest |
 Villages are surrounded by community forests and diverse agroforestry systems |
The Cameroon segment of the TRIDOM landscape is 49,000km2 (28%). Whilst a low deforestation rate indicates effective protection measures, it does little to capture the true state of people and forests in Southeast Cameroon. Communities with strong ties to the land are rich in culture but struggle with extreme poverty. In the past ten years, local development processes have led to more schools and healthcare facilities, but many schools lack qualified teachers. Despite positive efforts led by non-government organizations, the historic marginalization of the Baka people inhibits access to healthcare, education, and participation in local governance. The widespread consumption and trade of bushmeat is a wicked problem; it is essential to livelihoods but a risk to biodiversity conservation2, 3. It is not a lack of willingness that keeps people in poverty – there are many local NGOs, individuals, and leaders that inspire and achieve better lives for their communities. But the options are slim, the pathways are steep, and actions take time to lead to meaningful change.
Village development funds go towards schools & teachers, based on community priorities
The story is too familiar; a community with ancestral ties to the forest, no state recognition of ownership, a timber company failing to deliver on benefits promised, a payments-for-ecosystem services scheme that never arrived. In Cameroon, decentralization of forest governance is yet to translate into widespread social-economic improvement. Whilst production forests have delivered some benefits, forest resources have also enriched elites and enabled disingenuous actors to manipulate benefit flows 4, 5. NGOs have worked hard to develop carbon payment schemes in the landscape, yet there is still no institutional framework at the national level. In partnership with government, conservation NGOs have put their efforts towards anti-poaching and community development, but are undermined by project cycles and fly-in-fly-out spectators reporting on a snapshot of issues – all of which are more complex than reported. The lack of development in Cameroon’s forests has consequences for conservation – desperation in an unregulated system where money buys power, and the wealth is in natural resources.
The current reality may be bleak, but the future doesn’t have to be. There are two foreseeable scenarios ahead for the people of the Congo Basin in Cameroon. One is to unleash natural resource wealth through infrastructure development, extractive industries, and an injection of private investment. Another is to actualize the billion-dollar international commitments and build state capacity for local benefit flows from forests. Neither of these pathways guarantee positive outcomes for all, but they would be a welcome change from the communities tired of stagnation and the status quo.
Forests are central to the lives of the Baka people – food, medicine, and sacred areas
In both of these scenarios, local people need effective platforms for engaging on the future they want. Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) is one mechanism, but there are a multitude of formal and informal structures that can be used by government, companies and NGOs giving voice to local aspirations. Examples include the GEF funded project on integrated land use planning using a bottom-up participatory approach, or timber certification schemes that mandate social responsibility. Development brings risks and opportunities, and local people are especially vulnerable when institutions are weak. Decades of learning show that investments that include long-term community engagement with sustainable funding deliver benefits far beyond short-term projects. Donors and companies have not yet grasped that developing institutional capacity takes time, resources, and local champions – individuals and communities cannot confront elites without systems of support.
The challenges of the Congo Basin are familiar – they characterize conservation and development trade-offs all over the world. The disconnect between the wealth held by states, companies, and donors and the realities of people living in the word’s most important forests should not be accepted as permanent. Research that contributes to understanding development pathways, decision-making, and leverage points for harnessing social and environmental good can be part of local and global efforts to reduce inequality and hold institutions accountable to their commitments. The United Nations 2030 Agenda asks for action towards people, planet, prosperity, and peace. The Congo Basin is ready for action.
Citations
- Tadoum M, Tchamba M, Tanougong A. Spatio-Temporal Dynamic of Land Use in the Dja-Odzala-Minkebe Landscape between Cameroon, Congo and Gabon: Influence on the Evolution of Forest Cover in a Context of Cross-Border Cooperation. Open Journal of Forestry. 2021;11(3):222-37.
- Lhoest S, Dufrêne M, Vermeulen C, Oszwald J, Doucet J-L, Fayolle A. Perceptions of ecosystem services provided by tropical forests to local populations in Cameroon. Ecosystem Services. 2019;38:100956.
- Lhoest S, Vermeulen C, Fayolle A, Jamar P, Hette S, Nkodo A, et al. Quantifying the Use of Forest Ecosystem Services by Local Populations in Southeastern Cameroon. Sustainability. 2020;12(6):2505.
- Tsanga R, Cerutti PO, Eckebil PPT, Mendoula EE. Environmental and socio-economic impacts of community forestry and individual small-scale logging in Cameroon.Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry: Routledge; 2022. p. 256-70.
- DEFO L. Six years of industrial logging in Ngoyla (East-Cameroon): what have been the outcomes for local populations? International Forestry Review. 2022.