But a CIFOR project in Cameroon is doing just that – providing marketing advice that not only improves the economic conditions of poor rural families, but also improves their forests.

Following plummeting cocoa and coffee prices in the mid 1980s and the devaluation of the national currency in 1994, Cameroon’s rural population has turned to the forests for its livelihood and nutritional needs. Over the years this gradually placed pressure on forest habitats.

One example of this is in the area of Lekie, where intensive agriculture has degraded the native environment and allowed a serious invasion of forests by “kodengui” (Chromolaena adoratum), a weed native to Central America and now found in much of West and Central Africa.

Fortunately, CIFOR and its partners in Cameroon may have just found a solution for Lekie, one that finds the right balance between environmental and economic needs.

For some years now, CIFOR and a local non-government organization, Association for Development of Environment Initiatives (ADIE), have been working with women groups in the Evodoula and Elig-Mfomo regions of Lekie to encourage local women to use non-timber forest products (NTFPs) as a source of household income.

One particular NTFP CIFOR is helping local women to take advantage of is Gnetum africanum or “eru” as it is more commonly known. The leaves from the eru vine are widely traded in Cameroon and exported to Nigeria before ending up as an important ingredient in the tasty casseroles of many West Africans living in Europe. Eru leaves are also sometimes used for medicinal purposes.

According to CIFOR researcher Abdon Awono, no-one knows for certain how much eru is still available in the forests. “It’s difficult to say what the quantity of eru is like in the natural forests because of a lack of NTFP inventories. But from our work with women in a number of villages, it seems they are spending a lot more time having to travel further into the forests to find the amount of eru they’re accustomed to,” Abdon said.

CIFOR has been training women in how to better cultivate and market eru and other NTFPs. Much of this training has focused on communities in Lekie, where the forest is particularly degraded.

“In Lekie, CIFOR is helping women to domesticate eru in the forest farm lots bordering on their villages. CIFOR and ADIE’s aim is to help them increase the supply of eru while also helping them to better understand how the eru market works, what the local prices are and how to sell orders in advance,” Abdon said.

“At the same time, this approach is helping to clear the forest of kodengui and other invading species. To plant the eru the women dig-out invading weeds and replace them with the kinds of shrubs the eru vine can use to climb up. This is helping to gradually restore small areas of forest.”

The success of the project has caught the interest of both local and international media, with stories appearing on BBC international television and local radio. CIFOR values the use of the media to influence decision makers in developing sustainable forestry policies. The eru story is a case in point. Cameroon’s former Environment and Forestry Minister, M. Oben Tanyi Mbianyor heard one of the programs and contacted CIFOR and ADIE. He asked them to extend their work to Cameroon’s Southwest Province, where eru consumption is high and local populations need advice on how to sustainably produce and market it. The former Minister personally facilitated this by arranging for a women’s group from the South West to visit the project in Lekie.

According to CIFOR Regional Coordinator in Cameroon, Ousseynou Ndoye, CIFOR’s NTFP work with women in Cameroon has been extremely rewarding and has significantly increased people’s awareness of the important role forests play in reducing poverty.

“It just goes to show that we don’t have to give in to the pessimism surrounding the future of the world’s tropical forests. There are many practical ways poor people can improve their livelihoods and safeguard forests at the same time. All it takes is commitment, locally, nationally and globally,” Ousseynou said.