The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

14 The Rainforests of Cameroonsector regarded by many observers as virtually impervious to change, in acountry that has been notorious for corruption.The remainder of this chapter describes the context—Cameroon; itsforests; and their economic, social, and political importance—in greaterdetail. The challenges, alliances, and conflicts that characterized thereform process, as well as the content of reforms, are discussed in thesecond and third chapters. The fourth chapter assesses the impacts ofthe reforms, and chapter 5 presents the data and analysis to support thatassessment. Chapter 6 summarizes lessons, conclusions, and prospects forfurther reform.The Natural and Cultural SettingCameroon’s 16.5 million inhabitants occupy a territory of 475,000square kilometers marked by profound changes in climate and terrainfrom the dry Sahelian north to the humid south. The country’s ethnicand linguistic diversity—Cameroon claims more than 200 ethnolinguisticgroups—is also considerable, and strong cultural identities are associatedwith the major ethnic groups and the ecological zones where theylive. In the humid, forested south, the dominant Bantu ethnic groupsare characterized by social structures that generally revolve around familyclans with more diffuse authority. A number of marginalized indigenousgroups also depend on the humid forests for their livelihoods, mostnotably the Pygmy peoples (Aka, Baka, Bakola, and others). ThroughoutCameroon, political parties and associations have been superimposedon traditional structures. Recent attempts to decentralize administrativefunctions—however faltering—have imbued local authorities with a newprominence.The Congo Basin rainforest, which covers more than 198 millionhectares in six countries, including Cameroon, is “the second largest contiguousrainforest in the world after those of the Amazon Basin” (GFW2000:9). Cameroon’s share of these forests occupies 19.6 million hectares(CBFP 2006), about 40 percent of national territory. In surface area,this densely forested zone resembles that of Gabon (22 million hectares)and the Republic of Congo (22 million hectares), but its population densityis much higher Delivered than in by neighboring The World Bank Equatorial e-library to: Guinea, the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, Gabon, IP : 192.86.100.34 or the Republic of Congo, all of whichThe World Bankare also in the moist equatorial Mon, 09 zone. Nov 2009 17:06:18Cameroon’s rainforests (map 1; see map insert) have been describedas “some of the Congo Basin’s most biologically diverse and most threat-(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank