MPs worried about forest people’s rights

A two-day workshop to champion their rights in law reforms ends today in Yaounde.

Several parliamentarians, Senators, civil society actors, international experts and representatives of indigenous people working in the domain of forest governance in the Central African sub-region, are expected to come up with a plan of action today, June 23, 2015, on fostering the integration of forest people’s rights into law reforms.

They started participating yesterday, June 22, 2015 in a two-day sub-regional platform holding within the Congo Basin Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Implementation - Championing Forest People’s Rights Project which also aims to enhance collaboration between MPs and the civil society for better forestry governance in the Congo Basin.

The conclave is jointly organised by the Centre for International Development and Training, CIDT, based in the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, the Forest Peoples’ Programme, FFP, and the Community and Forest Platform (CFP) Cameroon. Funding is from the United Kingdom, UK, and the European Union, EU.

Speaking during the opening of the workshop yesterday, CIDT’s representative and the Project Manager, Aurelian Mbzibain, said the forest is the principal source of employment, energy and food for over 70,000 people in the Central African sub-region.

He saw the need for the integration of forest people’s views and concerns in the management of resources and for ensuring that their rights to education, information, forest exploitation benefits and forest resources, amongst others, are given due consideration in forest governance.

While EU’s representative, Carl Frosio, underscored the need for the civil society and parliamentarians to continue collaborating, the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E. Brian Olley, cautioned the participants not to limit themselves to theory but table concrete proposals.

In the same vein, the representative of the Central African Network of Parliamentarians for the management of the Congo Basin’s Forest Ecosystems (REPAR), Hon. Martin Oyono, hoped that the platform will boost work of the various committees set up to follow-up the implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade - Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) agreements signed between the European Union and government in 2011.