Community conservation in Cameroon

Since the 1980s, conservation efforts in developing countries have sought to reconcile the aims of conservation biology and social development. Many approaches have been tried. However, integrated conservation centred around protected areas remains the model favoured by national policies and strategies (Busquet, 2006; Clarke, 2019).

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There are a variety of integrated conservation approaches, which all share the goal of reconciling conservation and development. Some advocate for local communities to participate as active stakeholders or for governments to transfer control over natural resources to communities and other actors (Brooks et al., 2013).

However, other approaches to conservation are emerging. Such approaches seek to preserve  biodiversity by enabling the people who have for generations conserved biodiversity on their lands naturally through their practices to continue to do so. They focus on introducing measures and making resources available to this end. Research and experience have made it increasingly clear that community conservation more effectively protects biodiversity and improves socio-economic  wellbeing in the long term (Dawson et al., 2021).

Since acceding to the Rio Conventions, Cameroon has adopted a number of texts favourable to local and indigenous communities’ participation in the sustainable management of natural resources and community conservation. They include: Act No. 96/12 of 5 August 1996 on the framework act on environmental management, Act No. 94/01 of 20 January on forest, wildlife and fisheries management, Act No. 2011/008 of 6 May 2011 on guidelines for land use planning and sustainable development, and their implementing decrees.

As part of this strategy, over recent years, the Government of Cameroon has also negotiated memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the Baka communities affected by some protected areas, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). These agreements aim to allow the Baka indigenous people to retain or regain access to their lands and resources in protected areas for their traditional activities and sustainable use (Clarke, 2019).

Cameroon’s national conservation programmes, like those of other developing countries, still favour the creation of protected areas as the main method of biodiversity conservation, even though the creation of these areas leads to indigenous forest peoples being evicted from their lands and prevented from accessing their resources, with disastrous consequences (Clarke, 2019).

The rich biodiversity of Cameroon’s forest ecosystems is world renowned. These ecosystems are also home to peoples who have lived there for centuries. In many cases, these peoples have been able to preserve islands of biodiversity around their communities through their use of the land, despite a range of challenges and pressures.

Against this backdrop, this study analyses how far the Cameroonian legal framework (and government policy) takes account of community conservation. It then examines stakeholder perceptions of community conservation initiatives. Finally, it identifies the main features of community conservation practice in Cameroon.

This study is part of the EU-funded Keta project, implemented by Forest Peoples Programme and its Cameroonian partner, Association Okani, based in south-east Cameroon. Keta means “dream” in the Baka language.