Cameroon : Indicators

First ideas of elaborating both Cameroon's forest policy and forest law emerged during the drafting of the Tropical Forest Action Plan of FAO (1985-1989). This document was published in 1993, revised in 1995 and was used as baseline text to inform the forest law promulgated one year later. Since its publication, this forest policy document has never been overhauled and does not embed current developments such as REDD, PES... This document is complex, voluminous and it is therefore not easily comprehensible by the public. Read more...

Cameroon has one of the best forest laws of Congo basin countries. It was formulated between 1989 and 1993 under the aegis of FAO and the Breton Woods institutions, and was voted by the first ever pluralist National Assembly of Cameroon. This forest law is available, and there was an effort to ensure a wide dissemination of its content. This forest law is severely criticised as it contains more than 75 references to implementation decrees which are not totally available up to date. Read more...

All forest regulations, procedures, and decrees that have been signed are available though it is sometimes difficult to have access to them. These regulatory documents are not always signed within the expected timeframe. This is the case of the implementation decrees of the 1994 forest law which were elaborated one year after the law had been promulgated. Current diffusion and dissemination mechanisms of these regulatory instruments are not adapted to local realities (public and private media, national newspaper, radio, public notice boards). Due to their high number, it is not possible to make an exhaustive list of these decrees. Thus, only key ones will be mentioned here. Read more...

There is not yet a national policy document on REDD in Cameroon. However, it is already known that the country will combine both project and programme approaches to the implementation of REDD. A REDD pilot project for estimating carbon stock with technical support of GTZ is being implemented by the government which also intends to set up a REDD national steering committee soon. Regulations on agricultural, road and infrastructures, and energy sector are available, but with the same technical restrictions as the law applying to the forestry sector. While conservation and management of national parks are part of the forestry regime, there exist no specific laws on bio-fuel in Cameroon. However, there are already trials of small scale cultivation of biofuel plants such as Jatropha and Sunflower. Read more...

Cameroon has ratified more than 23 forest and environment-related international agreements. Furthermore, Cameroon has committed to new ongoing policy processes at the international level, including those in the areas of good governance, the protection of climatic balance and cross-border collaboration in the field of protected area management (VPAs, Kyoto Protocol, REDD, cross-border collaboration agreement).
The decisions to ratify conventions are published in the media (written press, radio, television and official gazette). Texts of those conventions are made available in various public services (legal service of the MINFOF). The list below provides some of them with their ratification or acceptation date. Read more...

In Cameroon, there is a well-rooted unofficial customary forest law which gives ownership of forest and land to local communities. This contrasts with existing codified statutory law which grants land and forests to the State except those owned by private persons. The statutory law only gives usage rights to local communities; it overrules customary law and traditional rights creating therefore conflicts between the State and forest dwellers. Read more...