In Cameroon, the forest sector competes with other sectors in contributing to achieve national development goals. The current trend in policy making in this wise is characterized by sectorial approaches. This poses serious threats to sustainable forest management in the absence of a national land use planning, and an undervaluation of the contribution of forests to the national economy due to an ever increasing informal economy and the way other forest products and services are framed. The study builds on policy subsystem governance fragmentation and crosssectorial policy impact frameworks to highlight the reality that, despite efforts in setting bridges between sectorial development policies such as mining, forest, agriculture, energy and infrastructures, information asymmetry poses bias to policy-makers' knowledge for rational policy hierarchy setting and global policy coherence in Cameroon. And despite this reality, some examples show that policy-makers still can innovate to facilitate offsetting among competing land use sectors for the sake of a more sustainable development pathway.

Two recent remote sensing derived products providing assessment of forest cover change in the Congo Basin for the last two decades were compared and combined to obtain estimates of forest cover change in Cameroon for the period 1990–2012. The intensity of deforestation in the whole region decreased from the 1990s to the 2000s. Forest loss is observed everywhere in Cameroon but present higher intensity nearby the Atlantic coast. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the forest loss in Cameroon reveals that an important part of the loss is happening outside the permanent and the non-permanent forest domain. The Landsat spatial resolution used in the two products allows us to capture change caused by agro-industrial exploitation as well as shifting cultivation, infrastructure and selective logging when the area affected is large enough. But it fails to monitor forest degradation and small scale deforestation events.

Cameroon's for est sector has for many decades been characterized by industrial, large-scale, concession-based and export-oriented timber production. Over the past two decades, many innovative regulations have been adopted that largely responded to the external requests of the country's technical and financial partners. By using data and information collected over more than a decade, complemented by semi-structured interviews, we assess how some of the most relevant regulations have been implemented. Findings indicate that over the years, a clear disconnect appears between what is promised and adopted in the rules and regulations governing the industrial sector, and what is actually implemented on the ground. We discuss how such disconnect may have originated and how it may negatively impact the sustainable development of the industrial forest sector. We propose some technical and policy options that may improve the sector's management, positively impact Cameroon's international image and possibly strengthen the country's engagement in international regimes such as FLEGT and/or REDD .

In Cameroon, sustainable timber management relies on the model of large logging concession. However, over the past fifteen years, small-scale logging has become a common activity, with two different forms. First, the creation of community forests in the late 1990s allowed village associations to legally harvest, process and trade timber, almost always with the support of external actors such as NGOs or private operators. Second, individual chainsaw milling, almost always informal, has grown considerably. The article compares the economic, social and environmental impacts of these two options of small-scale logging. Although much focus has been put on community forestry over the latest two decades, it remains a marginal activity with a turnover of less than € 2 million per year and a small impact on rural economies. Conversely, informal chainsaw milling represents an annual turnover of € 93 million, with a flow of revenues around € 30 million for the benefit of rural population. From an environmental perspective, none of the two options seems to substantially conserve or degrade forest resources, but more research is needed on the issue.

The chainsaw milling sector remains largely ignored by — national and international — public policies in the attempts to achieve sustainable timber management in Cameroon. Some perspectives are proposed to legalise the small-scale logging sector without reducing its current socio-economic impact on rural and urban livelihoods.

The study presented in this article focuses on firewood and charcoal in Cameroon. The study analyses subnational secondary data combined in some cases with additional collected data on firewood and charcoal consumption as well as their market prices. The findings estimate a total consumption of 2.2 million metric tons for firewood and 356,530 metric tons for charcoal in urban areas of Cameroon. Firewood and charcoal contribute to the GDP for an estimated amount of US$ 304 million representing 1.3% of the GDP of Cameroon. In addition, the sub-sector provides about 90,000 equivalent full time jobs while 80% of the people in Cameroon depend entirely on wood-energy for household energy supply. Unfortunately, there is no government policy to develop the wood-energy sub-sector.

L'étude présentée dans cet article s'est intéressée au bois de feu et au charbon de bois au Cameroun. L'étude s'est basée sur l'analyse des données secondaires issues d'études récentes conduites à des niveaux sous nationaux, complétée dans certains cas, par des collectes additionnelles de données tant sur la consommation du bois de feu et du charbon de bois que sur les prix de vente de ces produits sur le marché. Les résultats ont été que, les consommations totales en zone urbaines du Cameroun sont estimées à 2,2 millions tonnes et 356.530 tonnes pour le bois de feu et le charbon de bois respectivement. Le bois de feu et le charbon de bois contribuent au PIB pour un montant estimé à 304 millions de dollars US représentant 1,3% du PIB du Cameroun. De plus, le sous-secteur procure environ 90.000 emplois équivalents plein temps tandis que 80% de la population dépend entièrement du bois-énergie pour l'approvisionnement des ménages en énergie. Malheureusement, il n'existe pas de politique gouvernementale pour le développement du sous-secteur bois-énergie.

El presente artículo describe un estudio llevado a cabo sobre la leña y el carbón en Camerún. El estudio se basa en el análisis de datos secundarios recientes a nivel subnacional, que han sido completados en ciertos casos con datos adicionales sobre el consumo de leña y carbón, así como sus precios de mercado. Los resultados indican que el consumo total en áreas urbanas de Camerún gira en torno a 2,2 millones de toneladas de leña y 356.530 toneladas de carbón. Se estima que la leña y el carbón contribuyen con 304 millones de US$ al PIB de Camerún, lo que corresponde a un 1,3%. Además, el subsector genera un equivalente de 90.000 trabajos a tiempo completo, y el 80% de la población de Camerún depende completamente de la dendroenergía para el suministro de energía en el hogar. Desafortunadamente, no hay una política gubernamental para desarrollar el subsector de la dendroenergía.

This pape r analyses the contribution of some non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to the economy of Cameroon through the lens of livelihoods, food security, employment and financial values. Specifically, the work aims at determining the income generated from vegetal NTFPs sales, the value of self-consumption and the number of jobs provided, in order to assess the contribution of NTFPs to the national economy. A combination of literature review and in-depth data collated by CIFOR from households and markets for different periods corresponding to specific NTFP funded projects in Cameroon was used. The results show that NTFPs constitute a regular source of income (even though not the most important) for rural households due to their diversity. About 38% of vegetal NTFPs are used as food and the annual economic value for 16 of them is estimated at 32 billion XAF (64.7 million USD). Their value added is estimated at 6.4 billion XAF (13 million USD) representing 0.2% of the GDP of the country with at least 283,000 people involved.

The national policy framework for forest and forest resources management in Cameroon has often been blamed for hindering the development of the non-timber forest products (NTFP) sector. Various actors, both international and national, have gathered to propose major changes to the forestry law in order to support NTFP development. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) What are the provisions of the current forestry policy for NTFPs? (2) What are the major changes proposed for NTFPs and the reality on the ground? (3) How do forest users view the legal forestry framework? (4) Aren't there better ways to improve NTFP management in Cameroon? Informal and formal interviews held with producers, traders, forest administrative agents and civil society actors show that the government tends to address the local communities' participation concerns through decentralisation in the forestry sector but without guaranteeing an efficient implementation. This situation appears to be a structural factor affecting other sectors of activity in the country, and resulting in little hope that the long awaited reforms in the forestry sector will have a determining impact, unless critical actions are taken against corruption and nepotism. The development of a well-structured civil society and the recourse to new technologies appear to be the best way to improve NTFP governance and efficiency in Cameroon.

Traditional wildlife hunting has been described mainly from studies of local practices and from the monitoring of urban bushmeat markets. However, the overall value chain connecting hunters to end consumers remains largely unknown, thus preventing any estimate of the actual socio-economic importance of the bushmeat sector. On the basis of existing literature, this paper provides an order of magnitude for the financial and economic benefits of the bushmeat commodity chain in Cameroon. The following conservative conclusions were arrived at:

However, bushmeat in a country like Cameroon needs to be managed so as to guarantee the food security of urban and rural populations, as well as maintain a substantial source of revenue for communities, all of this without depleting the resource. Achieving this goal requires policy makers to disassociate wildlife harvesting from ‘poaching’ and the extirpation of species. It is crucial to go beyond the dominant narrative of a (real but over simplified) notion of a conservation crisis, to address its important livelihood and welfare dimensions.

In Central Africa, trophy hunting constitutes an incentive-based approach for sustainable wildlife management. We collected data from the wildlife administration, safari hunting enterprises and local wildlife management committees, to provide an order of magnitude of the financial performance of this sector in Cameroon. In 2012, trophy hunting was likely to generate an annual turnover of € 7.5 million and its added value could amount to only 0.0001% of GDP although these hunting zones cover 12% of the national territory. The profit margin for professional guides had become negative, with a net annual profit around € −0.7 million. The severe crisis in the trophy hunting sector is mainly due to an increase in the management costs of the hunting zones and the diminishing price of hunting safaris. The State plays a crucial role in enhancing the financial attractiveness of trophy hunting by the restoration of security in the Northern region and by technical measures to (1) clarify the allocation process for hunting areas, (2) simplify regulations and (3) establish an incentives system for law enforcement at national and local levels.

This study base on existing scientific literature makes an economic evaluation of carbon stocks gained under different deforestation and forest degradation scenarios (100, 50 and 25% avoided deforestation) during a 20 years period (2010–2030). It analyzes the associated financial commitments to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction, and further discusses deforestation avoidance in the context of the 2035 emergence ambition of Cameroon. The Cumulative Stock of carbon potentially avoided during the period 2010–2030 for the 3 scenarios are 151.10 Mt, 75.55 Mt and 37.77 Mt respectively for 100%, 50% and 25% avoided deforestation. This can lead to an anticipated cumulative carbon revenue of 1 670 648 017. 37 US$; 835 324 008. 69 US$; and 417 662 004. 34 US$ respectively for the 3 deforestation scenarios. Other services such as biodiversity are discussed as co-benefits that can be derived from forest management. The current study thus provides basic information which can help to enrich the debate on the feasibility of REDD implementation in Cameroon.

A participatory landscape monitoring initiative was introduced in the Sangha Tri-National landscape at the frontier of Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic in 2006. The initiative allowed a broad range of stakeholders, called the Sangha Group, to monitor changes in local peoples' livelihoods and the environment. The group held annual meetings to discuss changes in the landscape. The intention was that the work of the Group would enable adaptation of management interventions. Simple simulation modelling techniques and a set of indicators were used to track changes in the landscape. Indicators were identified by local people who were then invited to assess them annually. The large number and diversity of stakeholders occupying a vast area of forest and a shortage of skilled enumerators meant that indicator values were difficult to measure consistently. However the existence of the models and indicator framework did enrich the discussions amongst the stakeholders and helped them to understand the main drivers of change in the landscape. Interventions of aid agencies and conservation organisations had little impact on local peoples' livelihoods but external influences, notably the global financial crisis in 2008 and the civil strife in the CAR sector beginning in 2011 caused a serious deterioration in livelihoods and the environment in the landscape.