YAOUNDE, CAMEROON AFRICA, NOVEMBER 2010 (NEWS.CAMEROON-TODAY.COM)  -  The Government of Cameroon along with its partners reviewed the current laws pertaining to forest governance.

cameroon forest – Forestry and Agriculture affect daily life

A workshop was held in Yaounde on Tuesday November 2, 2010 in order to evaluate the current regulations with respect to forest management and control.
The various people who have vested interests in the management of forests have been on the lookout for ways and means to overcome the various challenges that they have been facing over the past ten years in the management and control of the laws and rules concerning forestry.

The latest rectifications in the laws would be basically aimed at improving the existing laws such that they could equip them to handle the future better and set the pace fir global visibility wherein these laws can be used for reference globally.

The workshop that just spanned across a single day was held at the Yaounde Monte Febe Hotel on Tuesday and it got together the entire forestry fraternity both from within and outside the government departments. The workshop was totally focused on critically reviewing the existing laws and finding out where they were mistaken following which they would be corrected for the better.

Addressing the vast throng of people who had assembled to grace the occasion, the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, said there has been immense growth in the deployment of the amended laws. “All the evidence shows that the reforms that were embarked on in the last ten years have born fruits but there is still a lot to do”, he said, adding that, “we are not perfect but we have the will to implement the forestry policy that the Head of State has defined which aims at ensuring that there is good governance on the way we manage the forest”.

The workshop essentially included presentations, demonstrations and debates by means of which, participants discussed on relevant issues like, “management of forest resources: 10 years of reforms”, “balance sheet of forest control in Cameroon and perspectives, “national strategy for the fight against corruption in the forestry sector”, as well as “an evaluation of the governance reforms by the private sector”.

A study conducted in the 2003-2005 period by an individual evaluator of enforcement of forest regulations in the country had made pertinent observations on aspect like felling timber without the required authorization, cutting of trees that did not have the stipulated minimum diameter , illegal logging in areas that were beyond the permissible limits, usage of roads that were not to be accessed legally, felling of unauthorized specimens of wood etc which were responsible for the decreased efficiency in the logging sector.

But Prof Ngolle Ngolle was highly optimistic that with the right level for synergy with development partners, overcoming these hurdles was not very distant. “With the involvement of and implication of other actors, like the European Union and the World Bank, we believe that together in the spirit of partnership and in a common course to ensure the preservation of our forest and wildlife and our biodiversity, good governance necessarily demands good control”, he said. “We believe that the future of Cameroon’s forest is intact and is quite promising as long as there is this common will to ensure strict and effective control of forest management”, he added.

The workshop also comes under the purview of the deal inked between the government of the country with the European Union and the sincere measures implemented by both countries to guarantee and encourage legal trade of timber as well as authorized logging thereby promoting positive growth of the forest sector. This dream is being made a reality by means of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan which is a key element of the voluntary partnership agreement between Cameroon and the European Union.

Through signing the deal both countries have agreed to improve forest governance, endorse timber products that are being exported from Cameroon and enhance the country’s competitive advantage on the global scene. Some of the important delegates of the workshop conducted on Tuesday include the Ambassador of the European Union in Cameroon, Raul Mateus Paula besides a host of other important names from the forestry sector.