The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 39sustainable levels. Most important of all, the strategy was accompaniedby maps that showed valid titles and made it easy to unmask loggingoperations based on expired or illegal titles. The booklet and maps wereupdated several times and made available to interested parties.The planning strategy made it possible to predict which concessionsor ventes de coupe would become available and helped the private sectorprepare for possible participation in competitive allocation. The strategycentralized the planning, allocation, and monitoring of concessionsand forestalled discretionary allocations by provincial and departmentalauthorities—allocations that had been much more difficult to detect anderadicate.The Concession and Vente de Coupe Allocation SystemThe reforms introduced a competitive bidding system for awarding15-year renewable harvesting right to forests, with provisions for sustainableforest management. To secure the winning bid for a concession, abidder must demonstrate adequate technical expertise and investmentcapacity and offer the highest financial bid. In acquiring a concession, thewinner commits to develop a management plan and to comply with specifictechnical, social, and environmental obligations. Cameroon was thefirst country in the world to adopt this approach. Comparable approachesare being adopted in other countries in the Congo Basin and Ghana andare being considered in Brazil.Less than 10 years after this system was implemented in Cameroon,harvesting rights went from being administratively distributed, shorttermconcessions, free from any forest management obligations, to beinglong-term, competitively awarded concessions, accompanied by forestmanagement obligations spanning the duration of the contract.Competition rapidly increased the rental of forest land (in the form ofan annual tax, based on the area of the concession). From a base of $0.60per hectare in 1990 (set administratively), the area tax rose to averages of$5.60 per hectare for UFAs in 2006 and to $13.70 per hectare for ventesde coupe in 2005. Perhaps most important, the bidding process attractedmore environmentally and fiscally responsible companies to Cameroon.How the Auction Works Delivered by The World Bank e-library to:The World BankThe allocation of UFA concessions IP : 192.86.100.34 and ventes de coupe is supervised bythe Interministerial Commission Mon, 09 Nov for 2009 Awarding 17:06:18Forest Concessions (CommissionInterministérielle d’Attribution des Concessions Forestières),which includes representatives of various ministries (Forests, Finance),(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank