Agency ensures you can see the wood for the trees
THROUGH ITS MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTRY AND THE NATIONAL FORESTRY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (ONADEF), CAMEROON HAS BECOME A GLOBAL FRONTRUNNER IN BIODIVERSITY BY ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF FOREST RESOURCES

Biodiversity pioneer Finding a balance between economic and environmental concerns is the job of Cameroon’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Cameroon possesses over 50 million acres of humid and dense forests, covering about 60% of the national territory. They are home to a rich variety of animals including rare gorillas, endangered leopards, and also to invertebrate species still being discovered. The forest also provides a livelihood for the semi-nomadic Baka pygmies and the Bandango tribespeople.
For many years intensive commercial timber production prized open this virgin forest for indiscriminate exploitation and poaching, prompting Cameroon to host a world convention on biodiversity. The government was one of the first African administrations to create an environment ministry and last year ministers from the Central African sub-region gathered in Yaoundé to ratify a plan to balance economic forestry operations with the conservation of ecosystems, and private sector financing with the sustainable use of forest resources.

Sylvestre Naah Ondoua Minister of Environment and Forestry

When the Cameroon-Chad oil pipeline was proposed, the ‘Yaoundé declaration’, as it was known, was used as a guideline, enabling governments to tread the fine line between economic growth and environmental concern. The Minister of Environment and Forestry, Sylvestre Naah Ondoua, explains that “when you construct a 650-mile pipeline, you inevitably influence the environment. We adopted a layout that follows ordinary roads and avoids the destruction of accommodation and biodiversity. We were obliged to pass through a forest reserve so we took compensatory actions by creating other protected zones to make up for what we have lost.”
The role of advisor to the pipeline route went to ONADEF, the National Forestry Development Agency, which since 1982 has been compiling a national inventory of all forest resources. ONADEF´s director is Jean Williams Sollo, past president of the International Tropical Timber Federation. “Our objective is the quantitative and qualitative knowledge of forest resources and to take care not only of wood but also of biodiversity,” he says. “One of our first missions was to indicate the zones which are going to remain under forest conservation or full conservation for the purpose of research.”

Jean Williams Sollo Director of ONADEF

So far the ONADEF inventory has identified over 650 tree species and the portion of the forest region it considers to be marketable. This has led to strategies that include the creation of forestry reserves, measures for their protection and studies on how to integrate the ecosystem with regional development. “When we make an inventory of our forests we have contacts with the populations,” explains Mr. Williams Sollo, “This enables us to know what they think and what they wish the forest to bring them at economic, food, health and cultural levels. We integrate all these dimensions in the inventory report. When we finish it, we send it to the ministry, which decides on the implementation and use.”

THE GREEN SHOOTS OF GROWTH The country’s National Forestry Development Agency (ONADEF) has identified over 650 tree species in Cameroon.

The inventory has already shown that the natural forests cannot replenish annual timber production, which stands at 2.3-3.5 million cubic meters per year, and so ONADEF and the government are embarking on a five year plan of replanting to regenerate lost timber resources.
Other ONADEF actions include the decentralization of forest management, the setting up of protection measures for forestry ecosystems and a special forestry development fund. The agency also has a center for the promotion of forest species at a commercial level. “We participate in trade fairs and exhibitions,” says Mr. Williams Sollo. “At the national and international levels we have succeeded in marketing some of these species.”

Mr. Naah Ondoua and his ministry are keen to attract American investors into the management of forests, where he believes tourism also offers great potential. “The framework of sustainable development, economy and the protection of the environment go hand in hand,” he says. “All companies who have the means are
invited to come and invest in Cameroon. We would like Americans to filter into the sector as forests are given out to tender. It is a logical step for Americans to accompany us in that domain given that they support us already in the economic domain.”