The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

Objectives and Content of the Reforms 53remain, as revealed in the course of two audits (a third was under way in2008). Some of the problems are linked directly to administrative weaknesses,such as overlapping boundaries of local council and community territory(these boundaries are the basis for calculating the funds allocated) andinconsistencies in the databases of the Ministries of Forests and Finance.Improvements can be introduced, but difficulties in establishing afair and efficient system to allocate forest revenues to local governingbodies and communities are likely to persist in the context of limitedaccountability and poor local governance. Rural populations have littleconfidence in the state’s impartiality and commitment to the collectiveinterest, and they perceive government institutions as instruments fordiverting public funds into private hands. The work of the recently createdCourt des Comptes, the independent public body in charge of auditingpublic institutions, may address these deeply rooted perceptions.Institutional ReformsInstitutional reform was integral to wider reform in the forest sector.Some institutions had mandates that were inconsistent with the newpolicy that government should withdraw from production and marketing.In other institutions, corruption was endemic, and collaboration withother institutions and external partners was essential to gain credibility.Institutional reforms sought to:• Focus institutions on their public service functions• Align sector organization and sector expenditures with policy objectives• Expand accountability beyond MINEF• Create partnerships to monitor forestsEach of these objectives is discussed in the sections that follow.Focusing on Public ServiceIn the early 1990s, several ministries and agencies were involved inmanaging Cameroon’s forests. The Ministry of Agriculture administeredcommercial forestry, the Ministry of Tourism administered protectedareas, and parastatals carried out a variety of productive and commercialfunctions. 6 Environmental Delivered issues by The were World generally Bank e-library not to: included among theThe World Bankresponsibilities of public or parastatal IP : 192.86.100.34 organizations and were generallynot taken into account. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18The 1994 Forest Law required that forest institutions withdraw fromproductive and commercial activities and enabled the Ministry of Forests(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank