Management plans

Excepting the national forests, all other categories of forest come under management or simple management plans. The Special Forest Development Fund (FSDF) has been set up to ¿ensure the financing of operations for the management, conservation and sustainable development of forest resources¿.

The production forests in the permanent forest domain are subdivided into Forest Management Units (FMU) not exceeding 200 000 hectares, the basic logging concession size. The concessions consist of one or more FMUs. Management design and implementation are the responsibility of the concessionaire under state supervision. A number of instruments for this purpose have been available for at least a decade. Prepared by ONADEF, they include the ¿Guide to the preparation of production forest management plans in the permanent forest domain of the Republic of Cameroon¿ (1998). FMUs are allocated by tender following an invitation to tender. Bids are submitted to MINEF, which awards the FMU on the advice of a technical commission to review bids in accordance with the criteria of the law on implementation. Allocation of the FMU requires a security deposit within 45 days at the latest by the winner of the bid, and prior to signing the three-year provisional contract with the State. During the period of the provisional contract, the forest service allows the logging company a subdivision within the concession to be cut that year and not exceeding 2 500 hectares to allow the company to remain active while it works out a management plan. Providing the clauses of the provisional agreement are respected, the firm is allowed to sign a renewable, fifteen-year contract. The management does not simply spell out the rules for forest harvesting, processing and regeneration. It also covers measures designed to benefit the local population. Every year, a one-year plan of operations consonant with the management plan must be submitted for approval to the forest service. Private forest concessionaires/logging companies thus participate directly in the three stages of forest management: inventory, formulation of the management plan proper, and its implementation.

Production forests under FMUs in 2001 covered an area of over 3.8 million hectares, only 200 000 hectares of which comprised pilot projects submitted at the same time as the management plans approved by the forest service (i.e. 11 management plans for 11 FMUs). Others are in the planning or final stages.

As for the village community forests, the forest service decides on and approves all community forest management plans and simple management plans and assists private citizens in the formulation and implementation of these simple plans. Communities are entitled to request technical assistance free of charge from the forest service to manage forest resources contracted to them by the State upon request. Technical supervision is also provided. Private individuals are also required to draw up and implement simple management plans, also with assistance and technical supervision from the forest service.

Management plans for protected areas are prepared in accordance with MINEF¿s ¿national directives for the sustainable management of Cameroon¿s natural forests¿ (1998), and ¿rendered executive¿ by the Ministry. Nonetheless, these on-the-ground protected area management plans are only at the proposal or pipeline stage for a few areas with conservation/development projects.

last updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2009