The Rainforests of Cameroon :Experience and Evidence from a Decade of Reform

Topa, Giuseppe ; Karsenty, Alain ; Megevand, Carole ; Debroux, Laurent

World Bank

关键词: ACCESS TO FOREST;    ACTION PLAN;    AGRICULTURE;    AGROFORESTRY;    AMAZON BASIN;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-7878-6
RP-ID  :  49622

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

In 1994, the Government of Cameroonintroduced an array of forest policy reforms, bothregulatory and market-based, to support a more organized,transparent, and sustainable system for accessing and usingforest resources. This report describes how these reformsplayed out in the rainforests of Cameroon. The intention isto provide a brief account of a complex process and identifywhat worked, what did not, and what can be improved. Thebarriers to placing Cameroon's forests at the serviceof its people, its economy, and the environment originatedwith the extractive policies of successive colonialadministrations. The barriers were further consolidatedafter independence through a system of political patronageand influence in which forest resources became a covetedcurrency for political support. These deeply entangledcommercial and political interests have only recently, andreluctantly, started to diverge. In 1994, the governmentintroduced an array of forest policy reforms, bothregulatory and market based. The reforms changed the rulesdetermining who could gain access to forest resources, howaccess could be obtained, how those resources could be used,and who will benefit from their use. This report assessesthe outcomes of reforms in forest-rich areas of Cameroon,where the influence of industrial and political elites hasdominated since colonial times.