The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 31Box 3.1Did forest zoning remove land from local populations?Traditional rights to local forest land and products may have endured in Cameroonfor centuries, but they were not recognized in any official sense. Sincecolonial times, all forest land had been vested in the state. Zoning and gazettingwere undertaken specifically to remedy this lack of secure use rights. Forestzoning and gazetting first determine how specific areas of forest land wouldbe used (or not used) and then clarify and enforce the rule of law with respectto those decisions. With clearly defined use rights, regressive colonial practicesand relations of power can be challenged. Citizens can express their views andtake legal action to challenge infringements on their rights.In Cameroon, it is forest gazetting—not zoning—that confers these legalpowers. Gazetting places forests in a given legal category, and land ownershipcan be formalized only after title to a given area has been debated publiclyand opposing claims heard. Without question, forest zoning and gazetting inCameroon could have been more effective, democratic, and participatory, butdata on gazetting show that boundaries proposed in Cameroon’s original zoningplan frequently have been modified to take the current occupation of landinto account, often to the detriment of timber concessions that have alreadybeen allocated.Source: Tchuitcham 2006; authors.The forest zoning plan is expected to cover the totality of the country’sforests (estimated at 30 million hectares). The plan has been completedfor southern Cameroon, where 14 million hectares have been zoned. Ofthese, about 6 million hectares have been apportioned as rural communityand private forests, about 6 million for long-term forest production(forest concessions), and the balance for conserving biodiversity.The Gazetting ProcessGazetting is a highly sensitive and potentially controversial process,given that it legally Delivered establishes by The the World status Bank and e-library prospective to: use of a specificforest area (figure 3.2). IP Gazetting : 192.86.100.34 entails consultation with localThe World Bankcommunities, a process that—to Mon, 09 Nov compensate 2009 17:06:18 for limitations pointedout earlier—can dramatically alter the boundaries proposed by the(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank