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Countries Appendix CAMEROON (42.1%) Cameroon once had one of the strongest economies of sub-Sahara Africa, but this had been clobbered by the fall in oil, coffee, and cocoa prices, and the devaluation of the CFA Franc which pushed many rural people to clear additional forest for crop production. In addition, Cameroon does not have an effective forest conservation program. Officials acknowledge the importance of preserving Cameroon's biodiversity, but lack a national forest management plan. The primary conservation approach is for the government to acquire about 20% of the country's land and set it aside for conservation. However the country still has many environmental problems. In the north, deforested lands are giving away to desert and impoverishing much of the local population. In other areas, deforestation from logging, fuelwood collection, and subsistence farming threaten one of Africa's largest remaining rainforests. It is feared that with such extensive forest cover, that Cameroon will become one of the leading tropical wood exporters as other African sources are depleted. Already foreign loggers - 90% of the logging companies operating in Cameroon are foreign-owned - are moving in and taking a heavy toll on the country's forests and wildlife. The trafficking of bushmeat thrives in Cameroon in conjunction with the timber industry. Indigenous forest peoples, the pygmies, have difficulty because of the government refuses to recognize their land rights, yet prohibits them from living in national parks. As Cameroon recovers from its economic crisis that followed the devaluation of the CFA Franc, building and public works projects are increasing domestic demand for timber products. In 1999 Cameroon banned the export of some endangered hardwoods, though not Sapelli and Ayous, the country's largest hardwood exports. The move came after several years of heavy logging and the country's failure to successfully implement a policy aimed at reducing raw log exports and encouraging processed wood exports. Exxon, Shell, and ELF are planning an oil development project in Southern Chad that environmentalists worry could become another Ogoniland, Nigeria. To sponsor the 600 miles pipeline that runs through rainforest and requires new roads, the World Bank is diverting funds from health, education, environmental protections, and clean water projects. . . . . . For current information I highly recommend trying the CIA and FAO links below. |
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