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Cameroon’s forests are home to two endangered subspecies of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Photo courtesy of Greenpeace/Filip Verbelen.
Satellite images show deforestation on fringes of UNESCO World Heritage Site in Cameroon
With more than 3,000 hectares cleared so far and more to come, Greenpeace and other organizations call for detailed land-use strategy in Cameroon
by John C. Cannon
In its push to become a middle-income country in the next two decades, Cameroon has courted investments in its vast natural resource wealth in the form of mining, logging and large-scale agriculture. But deforestation and land prospecting revealed by a recent Greenpeace Africa investigation highlights a lack of coordination in determining how to use the country’s land.
In 2011, Economy Minister Emmanuel Djoumessi Nganou was quoted by Reuters: “The private sector in general, and the agricultural sector in particular, must play a leading role in our country’s quest to become an emerging economy by 2035.” The government had just approved plans for an oil palm and rubber plantation of more than 45,000 hectares by the company Sud Hevea Cameroun. Current estimates put the number of jobs the company has created or will create at more than 6,000.
But Greenpeace and several other organizations say that instead of having an overarching strategy that governs how land should be used for extractives, communities, and conservation, concessions and permits are distributed by individual ministries that are stymied by corruption and don’t often communicate with each other.
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