The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 37as of April 2008, 177 communities had gained approval for managementplans covering nearly 632,330 hectares from the Forest Administration(figure 3.3). By 2008, agreements had been concluded to create 143 forestson 545,944 hectares. More than 75 percent of community forestsare located in Eastern, Central, and Southern Provinces, forest-rich areaswhere communities are familiar with logging.Local Council ForestsThe 1994 Forest Law permits a local council to create its own forest“estate” (Domaine privé de la Commune) in the permanent forest domain,on the condition that it prepare a management plan that is approved bythe Forest Administration.Like community forests, local council forests have been promoted byexternal donors. Perhaps the best-known example is the first local councilforest—the Forêt Communale de Dimako, a 16,000-hectare forestapproved in 2001 on the basis of a management plan developed withfinancing from the French government. Currently, only six local councilforests are gazetted (Dimako, Djoum, Gari Gombo, Messondo, Mouloundou,and Yokadouma), totaling about 153,500 hectares, of which121,000 hectares are managed according to an approved plan. Another11 forests (nearly 247,000 hectares) are at various stages of gazetting,and a further 4 (nearly 92,000 hectares) are preparing to initiate gazetting(Ngueneng and others 2007).Figure 3.3. Creation of community forests as of April 2008, CameroonNumber of requests450400350300250200150100500402177143Delivered by The World Bank 39 e-library to:The World BankIP : 192.86.100.34Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18Number of community forestsRequests introduced since thebeginning of community forestsCommunity forests with simplemanagement plan approvedCommunity forests withmanagement conventionCommunity forests waiting formanagement convention signatureSource: MINFOF, 2008(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank