CAJAD poised to begin pre-testing in timber sector

The Center for Assistance to Justice and Animation of Development CAJAD is now set to begin pre-testing of its evaluation methodology in the Cameroon Timber sector.

Three Regions, the East, Littoral and Southwest Regions have been chosen as areas for this activity. This disclosure was made on Friday October 17 during a Press Dinner offered by this organisation in Limbe.

This falls within the frame work of VPA-FLEGT an initiative given birth to by the European Union with an intention of fighting the illegal exploitation of forests in Cameroon.

Explaining the origin of the initiative Ntonifor Charly, the Development and Environment Officer of the organisation said due to the illegal exploitation of our forests, the European Commission took the decision to combat this state of things.

The European Union he said worked a plan of action that is embodied in what is referred to as FLEGT. VPA he said is a voluntary Participatory Agreement between the European body and countries that constitute part of the initiative.

FLEGT as such is there to enforce forest laws that will adhere to the plan. The aim of this plan he said, is simply to improve forest governance, optimise profits and ensure the complete participation of stakeholders.

FLEGT Action plan he said among other things include the registration of wood entering the European Market through what he referred to as traceability.

It equally involves a bilateral agreement between the European Union and other countries and once agreed upon is legally binding. Though 15 African countries were involved initially Ntonifor Charly said at the moment only Ghana, Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Cote D'Ivoire and Sierra Leone were still part of it.

As concerns the evolution of VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon, he said in November 2007, Cameroon and the EU entered an agreement in which Cameroon was represented by 7 ministers. While the carier ministry was MINEPAD, he said the Ministry of Forestry and Wild Life-MINFOF was responsible for its implementation.

The signing of the agreement was however only successfully done in Brussels on October 6,2010 and ratified by the Cameroonian government in 2011. With the MINFOF ordinances of February 2013, regulation of wood entry into the EU was programmed to begin on March 3,2013.

Mr Tchepnang Bathelemy, the Manager and Chief Executive Officer of CAJAD which in partnership with FODER another NGO are carrying this initiative in Cameroon said the evaluation of impact in Cameroon could not be done without rules and regulations and data base.

The project as such he said was switched into mounting a methodology on how to do evaluation in Cameroon. This he said involved consultations and collection of indicators from the East and Littoral Regions and from Manyu in the Southwest Region.

Harping on the main activities so far carried out since the project was launched in April 2014, Tchepnang Bathelemy said CAJAD has been working in partnership with a national and an international consultant who had visited Cameroon twice since the project started. Stakeholder consultations have been organised and a National Consultation workshop he said adding that CAJAD and FODER in company of the international consultant carried out consultations with stake holders through one-to-one discussions in local communities.

Regional workshops he further said were carried out with key stakeholders in 7 meetings in villages in the South West , East and Littoral Regions. Two press dinners have so far been organised in Yaounde and Limbe he said.

Results of consultations have been harmonised and a draft document produced. Every thing he said was now set for pre-testing in the three Regions.