The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

30 The Rainforests of CameroonFigure 3.1. Cameroon’s forest zonesNational forest estatePermanent forestsNonpermanent forestsState forestsProtected areas for wildlifeNational parks• Game reserves• Hunting areas• Game ranches belongingto the state• Wildlife sanctuaries• Buffer zones• Zoological gardensbelonging to the stateLocal council forestsForest reserves• Integral ecologicalreserves• Production forests• Recreation forests• Teaching and researchforests• Plant life sanctuaries• Botanical gardens• Forest plantationsCommunity forestsPrivate forestsOther forestsSource: GFW 2005.According to the 1994 Forest Law, the permanent forest domain is tobe extended gradually through gazetting to cover 30 percent of nationalterritory, represent the full range of forest ecologies, and be managedsustainably. In this domain, local uses of forest resources are restricted,and production forests and local council forests occupy the largest shareof the area. The nonpermanent forest domain—community forests, privateforests, and other forests—is zoned for other uses and occupies about5 million hectares. These areas may be converted to nonforest uses. Privateforests have never been inventoried, and their area is not known.Zones were identified geographically by remote sensing, based on vegetativecover and coarse demographic analyses. Local consultations, socialstudies, and assessments of traditional tree and land tenure arrangementswere extremely limited and clearly insufficient. In some instances thegovernment appeared to think that a zoning map could simply substitutefor consultation. As a result, some observers have regarded the zoningplan as an instrument Delivered to remove by The forests World Bank from e-library the control to: of local populations.In fact, zoning and especially IP : 192.86.100.34 gazetting have helped to clarify for-The World Bankest use rights and supported Mon, communities’ 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18 ability to challenge regressivepractices and prevent infringements on their rights (box 3.1).(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank