Forest Governance Facility Launches Environmental Projects

By Lydie Yuri

The Forest Governance Facility, FGF, Cameroon, has launched projects on seven community forest in the Northwest, Southwest and West Regions of the country. The projects were launched during a workshop in Bamenda, recently.

The workshop that was jointly organized by Western Highlands Nature Conservation Network, WHINCONET, the Mbororo Social Cultural and Development Association, MBOCUDA, and Community Initiative for Sustainable Development, COMINSUD was sponsored by the FGF.

Speaking during the launching ceremony, Paul Anspach, Manager of Forest Governance Facility Cameroon, said the process started in July 2006. He said they called for proposals to encourage NGOs, Private sector, Parliamentarians and the media to submit proposals for funding of activities oriented towards improved governance in the forestry sector and the sustainable and equitable management of forest resources. 

Anspach also said the launching was to update and implement the simple management plan of seven community forests in the Northwest, Southwest and West Regions. He cited the partnership between COMINSUD/MBOSCUDA and the FGF Secretariat covering the support to the participatory and consensual management of nature resources in cattle raising zones, transhumance corridors and protected areas.

Anspach said expected results will be based on the simple management plan of seven community forests to be updated and an inventory of key revenue-generating activities carried out for each of the concerned community forests. Mr. Anspach said nine projects were selected and two succeeded in the Western Highlands.Organizations such as WHINCONET, COMINSUD and MBOSCUDA, were awarded the grants because of the scale of intervention (geographical) and their performances under previous partnership contracts with the Secretariat of the FGF. 

WHINCONET, COMINSUD, MBOSCUDA consortium will cover areas like; transparency in the management of forest royalties, reduction of deforestation/ forest degradation in (Northern Regions), development of alternative sources of income, as well as the organization of a national information and awareness raising campaign on key issues in forest governance to name a few.

All of these addressed specific aspects of governance in the forestry sector, with a focus on community forest, management and utilisation of the forest royalties and their respective contributions to local socio economic development.

Talking to The Post, Anspach said FGF is an initiative currently sponsored by the Department for International Development, DFID, and The Netherlands Development Organization, SNV, to encourage the participation of non governmental actors in discussions around good governance, sustainable and equitable management of the forest and environmental sources.

The Facility, he said, contributes to the Forest and Environment Sector Programme, FESP, the framework for all activities undertaken in the forest sector of Cameroon. The Facility also contributes to environmental policies.

In his speech at the occasion, the Coordinator of COMINSUD, Fon Nsoh, said an evaluation conducted showed that the initiated projects were well executed, reasons why FGF found it comfortable to continue with funding for these organizations.

Fon Nsoh thanked government technical services for their collaboration in realising good results.He also lauded the efforts of Dr. Michael Vabi, Board member of the FGF and Julius Fon of SNV FGF Focal Point for their technical back up, that enabled the project to qualify for the third round of

financing. In his presentation on “The Challenges of incorporating sustainable management initiatives” Dr. Vabi said the Western Highlands was very rich in natural resources, and called for increase in productivity. For his part, Mr. Donatien Ngouanat, Economic Adviser at the Northwest Governor’s office called on stakeholders to promote sustainable forest highlands and it should reflect the community and protected areas.