Cameroon: Govt to Accelerate Crackdown On Illegal Forest Exploiters

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The Post (Buea)

4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008

Nformi Sonde Kinsai

The government has once more pledged its commitment to punish illegal forest exploiters in the country, whose activities contravene the rules and regulations put in place by the 1994 forestry law.

This promise was the outcome of an audience the Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, granted the Director General of World Wildlife Fund, WWF International, James Leape, and the Director General of the German Development Bank, KFW, Bruno Wenn, on July 31.

Speaking at a press briefing on the same day at the Yaounde WWF Regional Office for Central Africa, Leape commented on the discussions he had with the PM and noted that a lot of progress has been made since 1999.

In 1999, Leape was a special guest at the first-ever heads of state conference on the Congo Basin Rainforest in Yaounde that was convened by President Paul Biya.The WWF boss remarked that for long, his organisation has been working in the region with government and local partners to make sustainable forest management a reality.

Leape stated that within the last 18 months, much has been done in regard to forest certification.He said some 1.2 million hectares of forest in the Congo Basin has achieved certification under the world's leading sustainable forestry network - Forest Stewardship Council, FSC.

Leape said forest certification guarantees sustainable management of forest resources, which ensures the needs of the local people."Certification caters for the rights and interests of the local people," he stated.

He observed that Cameroon has one of the best forestry laws in Africa and commended government's commitment to clamp down on illegal forest exploiters.He said many other countries can learn from the activities of Cameroon in regard to efforts aimed at sustaining forest resources.

Bruno Wenn corroborated the WWF Director General, noting that one of the areas of his bank is interested in Africa is climate change whose consequences are a danger to all the nations in the world.

He said on such bases, maintaining a strategic partnership with Africa in order to share global responsibilities and limit activities that causes climate change is paramount.

Re-echoing that Cameroon has made progress in environmental protection since 1994, Wenn said there is need to improve on governance, transparency and efforts aimed at catering for the local communities who are the real custodians of the forest.

He said the KFW Bank has set up a trust fund to help Central African governments to create national parks hoping that the various states would strengthen their reforms in that direction.

Stating that sustainable forest management in the sub-region can only be achieved through collaboration, he said KFW has also approved a programme to help the governments to combat deforestation.

During the press briefing, a code of ethics and principles concerning indigenous peoples and conservation in Central Africa was signed between Leape and Laurent Somé, WWF Regional Director for Central Africa.

Somé highlighted that the code is meant for WWF CARPO, its employees and its partners.

Somé had earlier on in a welcome note described the meeting of forest stakeholders as a conservation network in the making.

One Parfait Minbimi, a renowned conservationist and a major stakeholder in the forest certification process, was given an award, while Elie Hakizumwami, Regional Coordinator of the Global Forest and Trade Network, GFTN, outlined what the institution is all about.He talked on GFTN objectives, benefits, targets achievements and the challenges.

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