TI-C, REDD urge NGOs to ensure transparency in forestry sector

Transparency International Cameroon, TI-C, has called on other Non-Governmental Organisations, NGO, to join her in ensuring integrity, transparency as well as prevention of corruption in the forestry sector in Cameroon.

The call was made at a workshop TI-C organised in Yaounde, August 14. The main objective was to bring various anti-corruption organisations to work together on the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, REDD+ project, an international project to control the effects of deforestation and climate change in African countries. The project is considered as a development tool to help Cameroon in attaining sustainable development.

The Program Officer for Forest Governance in TI-C, Lucain Nyassi Tchakounte, told The Post that funding for the REDD+ project is provided mostly by the European Union. “The anti-corruption organisations are coming in to ensure that the funds are well managed and that there is transparency in all transactions in the course of the project, particularly in a country like Cameroon which ranks high on the Corruption Perception Index. The country is also considered to have a ‘totally corrupt forestry sector,’ as per a study carried out by an NGO, Forestry and Rural Development, FODER,” he added.

Tchakounte noted that TI-C cannot shoulder the weight of this project alone, hence the need for the workshop. Various organisations involved in the project were identified, their roles in guaranteeing transparency, integrity and accountability defined, as well as the establishment of the inter-relationship amongst them.