integrating customary and legal systems for forest product governance, cameroon

THINKING beyond the canopyTHINKING beyond the canopy

Integrating Customary and Statutory Systems

13th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology, Montpellier

Session 42 Effective and equitable law and policy for NTFPs

24 May 2012

Verina Ingram, Sarah Laird, Abdon Awono, Ousseynou Ndoye, Terry Sunderland, Estherine Lisinge and Robert Nkuinkeu

The struggle to develop a Legal and Policy Framework for NTFPs in Cameroon

THINKING beyond the canopy

The struggle in Cameroon….• Diverse & many forests, people & products

>700 NTFPs

≈280 tribes & linguistic groups

• Subsistence

and traded

• There is policy

and not….

• Products and species are regulated

and not…

• Policy and regulatory focus on timber


Why: plural tenure

• Historical layers• Current consequences

1884


• Droit d’usage• Customary user rights• Free usufruct rights• Paid access for 13

Special Forestry products

• No access protected areas

Mixed bundle resource rights


Laws• 1974 Land Law ‘squatters’

– Public state land– Private land– National domain land

• ‘Vacant’ & ‘occupied/worked’

• 1994 Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries Law– Special Forestry Products – Quotas & permits– Community & council forests

• Agricultural & Livestock regulations


Plural governance arrangements

Ingram EFTRN 2News 53 012


Taxation• Formal

– Quotas & permits – Market traders– Regeneration taxes

• Ineffective, low revenues, untransparent, favours powerful,

urban & elites

• ‘’Informal’’ (corruption)– Permits – Transport

• Increases price for consumers, decreases trader’s buying price ,

encourages informality, unpredictable


Conclusions• Vibrant NTFP sector exists – larger than timber sector

• Steps taken to develop regulatory and policy framework

• But current situation characterised by uncomplementary pluralism, inconsistent & inappropriate laws, unenforcement and corruption

• Customary law still dominates for majority of NTFPs

• Insufficient protection for products with high commercial demand and traded in large volumes

• Result in regulatory framework that undermines sector , livelihoods and sustainability

• Beneficiaries are powerful few, urban and elite at cost of many, local and small scale forest and rural actors


Recommendations• The range of NTFP values acknowledged. Subsistence use

recognized & with small-scale, local trade exempt from taxation & intervention

• Land tenure and resource rights rationalized.

• Customary law respected & complementary to statutory law.

• Regulatory framework streamlined and clarified. NTFP laws better elaborated and defined

• Consultations inform legal & policy framework

• Rational, legitimate and just taxation

• Regulatory framework for NTFPs streamlined and made clear.

• Government institutional capacity improved

• Outreach by government and others


http://www.unutki.org/news.php?news_id=84&doc_id=101

Wild Product Governance Chapter 2

Contacts: [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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Thank you !

integrating customary and legal systems for forest product governance, cameroon

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