Forest stakeholders in search of common community maps

Stakeholders of the forest sector, NGOs and Government have come together in a project to design a common methodology to design community maps that are replicable and widely used.

The project, launched in Yaounde on January 27, was hinged on the premise that existing methodologies are not comparable and as such, maps designed with specific targets may not be applied in different villages because the same types of people were not consulted.

Identifying the Campo Ma’an in the Southwest Region, Samuel Nguiffo, Executive Secretary of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) using an existing map, demonstrated that this area is exposed to conflicts.There is an encroachment into forest reserve given that 2/3 of the land is covered by mining permits.

To him, growth in population, immigration, investors, conservation, construction and mining were not predicted in the zone demarcated 40 years ago.

Against this background, TimotheeFometeNembot, Forestry Economist andCoordinator of the project, explained that so many maps designed by several people and projects are not comparable, don’t tell the same story, thus the need to come up with a common mapping protocol.

Within this context, he said an Advisory Committee coordinated by the Ministry of Economy, bringing together MINDATD, MINFOF, MINDCAF, MINMIDT, MINEPDED, MINEPA, MINADER and the national Institute of Cartography would work together to formulate the methodology.

He stated that Government has come up with laws which are difficult to implement when it comes to village boundaries, stressing that villagers are in the best position to tell the boundaries of their villages, the resources they use and how these can be taken into account.

The Forestry Economist underscored the importance of basic and topographic maps in which community rights are included as a preemptive measure for conflicts.

“In a community where there is a map, once there is an investor and other stakeholders, this would be put on the table to serve as the best way to anticipate; not wait for a project before realising that the area is used by the community,” he stated.

The first proposals of the methodology would be available in the first quarter of the year, validated by the steering committee, after which the draft protocol would be tested on a pilot site.

Nembot, however, warned that the methodology alone is not the essential thing, but how it can be used in future to receive funding for nation-wide reforms.

He said he hoped that, with the tool available by the end of the year and recommendation by Government for wide utilisation, stakeholders would first request for the maps when they come to the community as a basis for dialogue.