The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

2 The Rainforests of Camerooninterests; and integrating wider economic, cultural, and environmentalperspectives of the value of forests.The reforms’ initial focus on the most powerful actors in theforest sector made it possible to address other long-neglectedissues more effectively.The forest industry’s ubiquitous presence in the rainforests and its ties toeconomic and political elites made it the obvious entry point for reform.The reforms had to deal with the expanding privilege of industry andthe role of forest institutions or risk becoming irrelevant. The success ofbroader and more effective interventions pertaining to forest communitiesand cultures, forest products, and environmental issues rested on theability to rein in the timber industry and to establish clear parametersand standards of behavior for all stakeholders.Transparency, public information, and public participation builtawareness and support for the reforms.New technologies such as geographic information systems and the Internetfueled an increasingly public discourse on Cameroon’s forests, acceleratingthe pace of reform. Improved systems to track logging and changesin forest cover—some of them used in control operations by internationallyrespected nongovernmental organizations that act as independentobservers—heightened pressure on public officials to enforce forest regulations.Public disclosure of forest violations in national newspapers andinternational bulletins brought increased transparency and accountabilityto a sector plagued by corruption (a conclusion reinforced in a recentTransparency International report).The new forest regulations called for participation and public consultation,which gradually transformed latent demand for good governanceinto expressed demand. The people affected by forest policies—and agrowing number of civil society organizations—can now obtain, use, andcontribute to an increasing wealth of public information to clarify theirrights and advance their agendas.Delivered by The World Bank e-library to:Starting in southern Cameroon, The World forest Bank zoning set the stage forIP : 192.86.100.34more effective land management.Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18Zoning and gazetting introduced regulation and clarity into a chaoticsystem in which the government had acted as the landlord of the forest.(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank