The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

OverviewCameroon’s forest sector has undergone reforms ofunprecedented scope and depth.The barriers to placing Cameroon’s forests at the service of its people,its economy, and the environment originated with the extractive policiesof successive colonial administrations. The barriers were furtherconsolidated after independence through a system of political patronageand influence in which forest resources became a coveted currency forpolitical support.These deeply entangled commercial and political interests have onlyrecently—and reluctantly—started to diverge. In 1994, the governmentintroduced an array of forest policy reforms, both regulatory and marketbased. The reforms changed the rules determining who could gain accessto forest resources, how access could be obtained, how those resourcescould be used, and who would benefit from their use.This report assesses the outcomes of reforms in forest-rich areasof Cameroon, where the influence of industrial and politicalelites has dominated since colonial times.The reforms sought to replace chaotic and often secretive arrangementsDelivered by The World Bank e-library to:for accessing forest resources The with World a more Bank organized, transparent, andIP : 192.86.100.34sustainable system that would Mon, 09 benefit Nov 2009 greater 17:06:18 numbers of people and theenvironment. In essence, the story of Cameroon’s forest reforms is largelyone of regulating access to natural resources; balancing public and private1(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank