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This is the fourteenth chapter of 'Conflict or Consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads'.IntroductionAn increasing trend in large-scale land acquisitions has been observed globally since about 2007 driven by rising food commodity prices, amongst other factors. This phenomenon has attracted the label of ‘land-grab’ due to widespread concern over the threats it presents to the human rights of communities living from the land being acquired. Africa has arguably been the region most affected by such land deals and the authors of this study have recently witnessed this trend in Cameroon. Coinciding with the moratorium on palm oil in Indonesia in 2011, at least four new large-scale oil palm plantation projects have been announced in Cameroon and several existing oil palm and rubber plantations are seeking to expand their current land allocations. This paper examines an oil palm plantation project planned by BioPalm/SIVA in the Océan department of Cameroon. It assesses the plans and processes undertaken by the project proponents, reports on the views of local communities and analyses the project’s compliance with national and international laws, with particular emphasis on the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

In this report, it is argued that national REDD readiness planning activities in Cameroon, including activities involving the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), lack effective actions to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities, miss solid data on the drivers of deforestation and gloss over critical land tenure, carbon rights and benefit sharing issues.The nine sub-national REDD projects currently underway lack transparency, meaningful participation or free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and disregard issues of land tenure, customary rights and benefit sharing.This document has ‘open access’, you are free to print a copy from our website.You may also reproduce the text with appropriate acknowledgements to FPP.

Dans ce rapport, nous soutenons que les activités de planification de la préparation nationale à la REDD au Cameroun, notamment celles dans lesquelles intervient le Fonds de partenariat pour le carbone forestier (FPCF), ne disposent pas de mesures efficaces pour assurer la participation des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales, qu’il leur manque des données fiables sur les moteurs de la déforestation et qu'elles passent sous silence des questions essentielles en matière de tenure foncière, de droits carbone et de partage des avantages. Les neuf projets sous-nationaux de REDD actuellement en cours se caractérisent par l’absence de transparence, d'une réelle participation ou de mécanismes de Consentement libre, préalable et éclairé et ne tiennent pas assez compte des questions relatives à la tenure foncière, aux droits coutumiers et au partage des avantages. This document has ‘open access’, you are free to print a copy from our website.You may also reproduce the text with appropriate acknowledgements to FPP.