The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 35the area under community forests with the area under national parksand production forests.Cameroon’s first community forests, Mbimboé and Bengbis, wereestablished by 1997, but further progress was slow. To speed the adoptionof community forestry, the government was given a specific deadline toidentify prospective areas for designation as community forests. The conceptualdissonance of this process—asking government to dictate the locationof a community forest in a domain (the nonpermanent forest) wheregovernment was not supposed to intervene—called for an adjustment. InDecember 2001, communities were officially granted the right to stop theallocation of a vente de coupe in their locality by claiming their interestin creating a community forest, which they would manage themselves.Communities very frequently invoke this preemptive right (droit de préemption);they then have two years to make a final decision and prepare tomanage the community forest area that has been set aside for them.Every community forest must be managed under an agreement signedby the community and the local Forest Administration office. Under thiscontract, the Forest Administration entrusts a section of forest (no morethan 5,000 hectares) from the nonpermanent national domain to thelocal community, with the understanding that it will be managed, conserved,and otherwise used in the interests of the community (Oyono2005). The community is entitled to technical support from the ForestAdministration to manage the forest in accordance with a simple managementplan defining the activities to be undertaken (Oyono 2005).With very few exceptions (see box 3.3), the search for revenue hasbeen the impetus for creating community forests. According to MINFOF,Box 3.3Protecting forest biodiversity at the urban margin:Bimbia Bonadikombo Community ForestThe rainforest on the western foothills of Mount Cameroon has many speciesof national and international importance. Its vibrant biodiversity—1,500 species,of which 24 are endemic and 43 rare or new to science, are gathered in arelatively small area—is Delivered under by threat, The World given Bank the e-library area’s proximity to: to the town ofLimbé (population 85,000) and its The surrounding World Banksettlements. Economic hardshipIP : 192.86.100.34and population growth have Mon, heightened 09 Nov 2009 the 17:06:18 demand for forest products.Box continues on next page(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank