Without proper land use planning, forest communities often lose out from exploitation of natural resources
YAOUNDE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Central African governments must include local people when planning how to use land if they want to resolve problems caused by resource-hungry agribusiness and mining companies that have put the Congo Basin rainforest under pressure in recent years, experts say.
“Cameroon and other Central African countries need national forest laws and forest zoning plans that are developed after proper consultation and with the involvement of local forest communities,” said Samuel Nguiffo who heads the Cameroon-based Centre for Environment and Development (CED).
“This permits them to be part of the resource management process, and may help tremendously in improving the ongoing forest and land reform system in countries in the region,” he added.
Participants at an August conference in Yaounde on sustainable management of Central Africa’s forests urged the adoption of a “land zoning” approach.
This means land use planning that allows natural resources to be managed sustainably. It aims to protect the interests of the local population and improve their socio-economic wellbeing.
‘‘In the absence of land use planning, the exploitation of resources such as land or forest is virtually unguided and uncontrolled to the detriment of the local people,” said Gideon Niba Shu of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Experts say Central African forest land is being lost in the face of heavy competition for industrial use, as countries develop their economies.
In Cameroon, for example, nearly three quarters of projects being carried out under the national “Vision 2035” investment push are concentrated in areas that are home to 4.7 million hectares of virgin forest, figures from the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife show.
Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo, coordinator of the Cameroon Network for the Fight against Hunger (RELUFA), said deforestation for development was fast gaining ground in Congo Basin countries, threatening rich forest reserves – similar to what happened previously in the Amazon.
“Thanks to land zoning in the Amazon region, the situation has improved,” Bamenjo said, calling on Congo Basin countries to adopt the same approach.
“It is in the interest of all to manage the forest in a sustainable manner and halt accelerated abuse,” he added.
PALM OIL DEMAND
According to a 2011 report by the United Nations and the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Congo Basin reported a net loss of forests of around 700,000 hectares or 0.23 percent per year from 2000 to 2010.
In the past four years, the situation has worsened due to incursions by agro-industrial companies and mining firms from around the world, hoping to clear trees to plant rubber and oil palm, and exploit rich mineral resources, experts say.
“This phenomenon is driven partly by the high demand for palm oil in Asia, with Africa becoming the best opportunity, as seen already in Liberia, Ghana, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon,” said Arend van der Goes, an environment and social development consultant.
In this context, land zoning is seen as increasingly important, because it helps decide which land areas can be used for agriculture and mining, and which should be set aside for forest conservation and other uses, van der Goes added. But Cameroon and other Congo Basin countries don’t have mechanisms to bring local forest communities into the planning process.
“Land zone planning has to be balanced, taking into consideration the environmental, social and economic needs of the local people. This is very lacking in Cameroon’s 1994 forest zoning plan, for example, bringing conflict that would have been otherwise avoided,” van der Goes said.
CED’s Nguiffo said the ongoing conflict over the allocation of concessions in Cameroon’s Campo Ma’an forests would not have happened had a land zoning approach been applied.
With Cameroon’s population now topping 22 million and many development activities underway, there is “an absolute need for a new land zoning system” that takes into consideration payment for ecosystem services and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) schemes, he added.
Cameroon’s 1994 Forest Law, also called the Forestry Code, provides orientation on forest land use, but with a rising population and devolution of powers to local governments, it is no longer seen as adequate, while reforms are slow.
COMMUNITIES GOOD FOR TREES
Augustine Njamnshi, executive director of the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP Cameroon) said Cameroon needed a more coordinated approach to land use management, as the country moves forward with its REDD+ programme.
Civil society groups are now working with the government to enhance the ability of forest communities to participate in land-use decision making by providing information and training, he added.
Forest experts say the land zoning system is working out well in countries like Brazil, but has experienced some teething problems.
“The 2012 Brazil forest code and (land) zoning takes into consideration the right of the local communities to be part of the resource management process. Although some environment experts say the code remains controversial, the reform process…is still ongoing,” said RELUFA’s Bamenjo.
A July report issued by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S.-based research group, and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a global forest policy coalition, found that communities are far more likely to stop trees being cut down than governments or business.
From 1980 to 2007, Brazil legally recognised about 300 "Indigenous Lands", giving indigenous people the right to exclude others, and to manage and use the forest sustainably, with the government retaining formal ownership.
WRI analysis found that, from 2000 to 2012, forest loss was only 0.6 percent inside the indigenous lands compared with 7 percent outside
(Reporting by Elias Ntungwe Ngalame; editing by Megan Rowling)
Elias Ntungwe Ngalame is a Cameroon-based freelance writer with an interest in climate change, environmental and governance issues.
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