Forests Communities’ “Bundles of Rights” in Cameroon: A Forgone Aspiration towards Sustainable Management of Industrial Forestry

Abstract

Forests ecosystem englobes abundant natural resources in which the world population highly depends on for their existence. Internationally, the 1992 Rio Declaration and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity amongst others, has categorically prescribed universal legal standards for the protection of the rights of forests communities. In Cameroon, forests with its natural resource endowments (timbers and non-timbers) has been considered by many as the cultural heritage of most local communities and a source of government revenue. Without mincing words, the forestry law and other related laws have given local communities bundles of rights to sustainably use and manage forest resources. However, these rights remain wanting due to ineffective implementation. As a result, local communities are prone to abject poverty, misery and paradox of plenty or rather put it “Tragedy of the Commons”. In this vein, the paper therefore, seeks to address the following worries: What type of rights do these forests communities exercise? Are the provisions of the law with regard to local communities’ rights and interests in the sustainable management of industrial forestry respected and if so, to what extent? What difficulties do local communities encounter in exercising these bundles of rights? Legally, the methodology employed in this article is purely doctrinal which is based on both primary and secondary data. The paper therefore, concludes with some robust recommendations which if effectively implemented and enforced will go a long way to guaranteed the rights of forest communities and thus, enhance sustainable industrial forestry management.