Support for the sustainable management of community forest resources

The NGO Réseau des ONG locales du Sud-Est du Cameroun (ROSE), a network of local NGOs from south-eastern Cameroon, brings together a group of NGOs working on rural development and natural resource management issues carried out by local populations in the Boumba-et-Ngoko department.

The project area is 90% covered by upland forest (900 m). The low population density of 5 inhabitants/km² has, up to now, allowed this forest cover to be maintained.

Cameroon’s current forestry policy allows communities to be granted forests by the State for exploitation purposes. Despite this, local populations are currently unable to make optimal use of this opportunity, owing to a lack of technical capacity to draw up the necessary inventories and management plans, a lack of equipment to exploit their forests themselves, and a lack of negotiating capacity with logging companies.

In addition, tree-cutting by-products are not put to use, and non-timber forest products are poorly exploited.

In light of this situation, the NGO ROSE, through this project, seeks to give the inhabitants of 38 villages the means to exploit their forest resources in a way that is both more sustainable and more profitable. Around 43,000 inhabitants, holders of 22 community forests covering a total area of 110,000 ha, are concerned by this project.