An approach for the evaluation of rural governance in Cameroon: are community forests really forests for the communities?

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of the traditionalexploitation of timber, in a community framework, to the respect of governanceprinciples in actions for the fight against poverty in some rural communities inCameroon. In 1990, the government of Cameroon adopted laws on the freedomof association that authorised teaming up for the search of possibilities for abetter economic welfare of populations. It is in line with this that in 1994, a newforest law which authorises willing communities to organise themselves andrequest the government to grant them a portion of the national forest of thepublic domain to be managed by them and for their personal interest. Also, andwith the help of the international community, Cameroon elaborated in 1998 itsfirst poverty reduction strategy paper that encouraged amongst others,community actions in the search of solutions to the economic crisis that strokethe country. Through the application of a logit model to the responses collectedthrough a survey carried out on a sample of 200 individuals of the East regionof Cameroon, it was noticed that timber exploitation in a community frameworkdoes not necessarily lead to the strengthening of the links of belonging to acommon community, and to the equitable redistribution of revenues from theexploitation of the community forest.