News/Stories

• Forest dwellers can earn money from conservation but only with clear land rights

  Yaounde, Cameroon (22 April 2008) - Experts from forestry institutions say that to ensure equity in the implementation of a new plan to reduce deforestation, it is essential to clarify land rights in and around forests.

  English ; French

• Illegal Logging: Need to Look Behind the Chainsaw

  Since the nineties, global concern over illegal logging in tropical forests has mounted. Numerous initiatives have been established and agreements signed to promote the sustainable use of forest resources and combat illegal forest practices. The European Union's Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) is one of the most comprehensive and ambitious attempts of timber-consuming countries to reduce illegal logging. more

• Forests and trade: the challenge of selling tree products in Central Africa
  

  In our globalized world, products can be produced in one country and sold at the other end of the world, often with huge profits. In Central Africa, these profits hang in trees, and often stay there because they cannot reach the market; and so, fail to bring in badly needed money for rural families. The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and CIFOR bundled forces to advice rural households on marketing and domestication. Techniques that, when properly applied, can boost rural incomes. more

• Forest Animals: Eat and/or Protect?
  The Bush Meat Dilemma in Central Africa

  It’s a common view along roadsides that border forests in Cameroon: dead monkeys and other wild animals hanging from a stick, for sale. The meat of forest animals - bush meat - is a common dish in many tropical countries, especially in West and Central Africa. For many forest dependent people of the Congo Basin, bush meat is their primary source of protein and of income. But for how long? more

• Sowing the seeds of gender equity

  They are every day images of rural Asia or Africa: women working hard in a field or rice paddy, collecting kindling for a fire, pounding grain into flour, selling crops by a dusty road, or taking them home in a string basket for the family meal. According to the FAO, women account for more than 50 per cent of the workforce necessary to produce the food consumed in developing countries. more

• Women for Change

  In their village of Akom II on the border of Cameroon’s Campo Ma'an National Park, the women leave home six days a week to dig in the fields, forage in the forests, and feed their families. Among them is Mrs. Helene Eboto. When she has time, Helene writes about environmental, social and women’s issues for the theater. But time is a scarce commodity for Helene, a dynamic individual forever busy with her community and her family. more

• DRC Government seeks CIFOR’s advice on forest tax scheme to reduce poverty

  The importance of good governance in implementing forest-related poverty reduction schemes has been highlighted in a recent report on Cameroon forestry tax initiatives aimed at helping local people.

  According to CIFOR's Paolo Cerutti a co-author of the report, Forest Taxation in Post 1994 Cameroon*, using forest taxes to reduce poverty have shown mixed results in Cameroon. more

• Living on the edge: Central Africa’s crossborder trade

  “Trade not aid” is often championed as the best solution to Africa’s problems. It’s usually said in reference to the
  difficulties African countries face in exporting their products to Europe or America. The unfortunate irony, however,
  is many African countries find it difficult to trade with each other. Tariffs, custom duties and other barriers seriously hamper intra-African trade. And have for a long time. more

• A tree business without felling

  Esther Foungong is a young (28) trader and entrepreneur on Makenene market, Center Province, Cameroon. She sells safou (Dacryodes edulis), a highly traded forest product in the Central African country. more

• 16 October, 2006
  Forests and Food, the under-valued link

  On 16 October, the international community commemorated the World Food Day. This day was instituted following the 1996 World Food Summit. During this summit, world leaders committed to reducing by half the number of hungry and malnourished people before 2015. Some parts of the world made significant progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition. more

Press Release

• October 11, 2007
  Bringing Together Health And Forestry Practitioners For Forest Community Well Being

  Yaoundé, October 11, 2007- An international research center in Yaoundé says the welfare offorest communities in the world’s tropical countries can be significantly enhanced by bringingtogether forestry and health professionals.

  The call reflects emerging international interest in a range of forest and health issues, such asglobal warming’s impact on forest-derived medicines, and the links between forest damage anddiseases such as malaria, Ebola and HIV. more

• March 13, 2007
  To Reduce Poverty and Conflict African Governments Moving to Recognize Local Community Rights to Own and Manage Forests

  YAOUNDE, CAMEROON (13 March 2007) - Government officials, researchers, and civil society leaders from West and Central Africa convened today in Yaoundé to share experiences and assess the impact of recent reforms involving recognition of community-based property rights and devolution of management authority to indigenous and other local communities in forest regions. Cameroon has achieved significant process, while other Central African countries are learning from Cameroon to herald similar progress in the near future. more

• March 9, 2007
  Government of Cameroon and CIFOR sign Host Country Agreement to help forests and people

  Yaoundé, March 9, 2007: The future of Central Arica’s forests in supporting millions of livelihoods and providing a vital habitat for much of the world’s rich biodiversity was significantly enhanced today with the signing of a Host Country Agreement between the Government of Cameroon and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). English : French version