Governance arrangements, vulnerability and forest users in the Cameroon savannah

THINKING beyond the canopy THINKING beyond the canopy

Governance arrangements, vulnerability and forest users in the Cameroon savannah

Central African Forests and Institutions (CAFI) conference

Paris, September 20-21 2013

Session: Climate change and forests

Verina Ingram

THINKING beyond the canopy

Aim

Examine how beekeepers use and perceive

the forest, their vulnerabilities and pressures,

and the individual and collective

(governance) solutions used to secure their

livelihoods.

THINKING beyond the canopy

Meth

odolo

gy

Background

• Rapid assessment Key informant interviews

• Production zone selection – stakeholder interviews

Field work • Botanic assessment - forage species

• Observation - apiculture activities

VCA

• Structured interviews 375 actors, 40 processors, 10 villages & 6 market surveys

PAR data collection

• Participatory action research: problem analysis, market, participatorily strategic plans

• Capacity building events: support for group organisation

• Market price tracking (1-3 years)

Analysis • Data analysis SPSS and Excel, SWOT

• Preliminary findings verified in meetings & peer cross-checked

Outputs

• Scientific

• Articles & book chapter, value chain maps, reports (VCA, harvest impacts, botanic assessments, baseline studies)

• Public

• Policy brief, product sheet, technical datasheet, guidelines for sustainable NTFP enterprises

Lit. review

• Literature review – chains, actors, production zones, governance arrangements

2004

2012

THINKING beyond the canopy

Methods used

• Built on existing studies of,

and with, value chain actors

• Situational analysis &

snowballing to determine

chain, activities and actors

• Mix of qualitative and

quantitative methods

• Participatory action research

enabled understanding of

context e.g. governance, use,

history of chain

THINKING beyond the canopy

Results • Beekeeping an older, married, low-educated, local

Gbaya male activity – long tradition

• 68% households in Djerem involved in beekeeping

• 48% annual average h.h. income (281,000 FCFA ,433

US$)

• 87% beekeepers apiculture income 10,000 - 100,000

FCFA (111 to 223 US$)

• Alongside subsistence farming & livestock, 45% ≥ 1

income source, 10% 6 sources

• persistent activity (58% >10 years, 23% >20 years)

• 86% harvest sold, 10% consumed, 4% as gifts

• Physical & risky activity: 10 km walk, using fire, heavy

lifting

• Low value adding 28% also extract wax, 7% propolis

• 99% make traditional hives of local materials

• 20% member of association, individual sales

Beekeeper’s uses of the forest & outcomes

THINKING beyond the canopy

Results

• Vast

• Provider of forest products

• Source of dependence

• Beekeepers are users (not

conservators)

• Source of fertility (gallery forests for

maize)

• Forest’s beauty, magic and

spiritualism

• Ripe for appropriation (urbanisation

and agriculture)

• Apiculture and its trade not

responsible for degradation of forest

resources

Perceptions of the forest

THINKING beyond the canopy

Results

• Governance arrangements of whole

chain- fragmented

• Low intensity, multiple use, overlapping

customary rights

• Open access for most forest resources

• Community appropriation of valuable

resources e.g. bamboo

• No initial statutory regulation of access to

markets

• Statutory void concerning rights and rules

to commercialise apiculture products

• Voluntary arrangements to control market

- organic and ethical trade certifcaiton,

collective action & government projects

Forest governance

THINKING beyond the canopy

Results

1. Human induced changes such as increasing population pressure & infrastructure projects (+ & -)

• → deforestation & forest degradation

• → competing claims for forest resources

(fuelwood, kofia, raffia, bamboo) & uses (water, beekeeping, grazing, fertile river valleys)

2. Increasing climate changes & variability → impacting forage flowering, bush fires &

pests

3. Persistent poverty with low levels of capital and (ability to) professionalise, dependence upon natural capital → few

alternatives and low enabling environment and agents

Livelihood vulnerabilities and pressures

Multiple pressures impacting reliability,

quantity and quality of apiculture products →

apiculture income & livelihood security

THINKING beyond the canopy

Results Individual and collective adaptive & mitigative solutions to

secure livelihoods

Component

Potential adaptive response options

Responses by beekeepers and chain actors

Forest plant & animal community & biodiversity

Silviculture Regeneration, planting bamboo and raffia, planting melliferous agroforestry tree species

Habitat or species preservation (protected areas, conservation and restoration)

Adapted hive styles, hunting of pests (African palm civet).

Forest ecosystem services

Water management measures, soil and vegetation protection, sustainable farming systems, climate smart and good agricultural practices

Informal watershed and habitat protection of forest areas for beekeeping, bamboo and raffia grove protection, regulation of access to bamboo & raffia groves, tree planting, tenure claims on forest areas by beekeepers.

Human well-being Measures to decrease dependence on forest ecosystem goods and services or increase resilience of forest ecosystems, valuing economic ecosystem goods and services, recognition for food security and poverty alleviation.

Professionalization of beekeeping and marketing, collective action and formalisation of groups, increased hives, increased commodification hive products, increased commercialisation, adding-value to hive products, increased product range, expansion to new markets and consumers, selling price increase, expansion of business model to other area in Cameroon.

Institutions institutional responses to climate change and poverty mitigation , implementation of international policies, multilevel government, private sector & CSO networks, knowledge transfer and integration, revised pro-poor regulations, PES.

New chain-integrated social enterprises, voluntary Soil Association organic and fair trade certification, The Body Shop community trade certification , geographic origin certification(?), CFs(?), develop EU export rules & HMRS, new chain platforms & government supported projects, introduction standards and regulations, tenure claims on forest by beekeepers .

THINKING beyond the canopy

Recommendations for policy & practice 1. Build on customary rules for local management

2. Consistency of regulations

3. Make top-down planning more participatory

4. Acknowledge NTFP values in policy & support

5. Assess resource & develop harvesting guidelines

6. Stimulate chain platforms ‘interprofessions

7. Local community land tenure and resource rights rationalised

8. Fuse customary and statutory frameworks

9. Enact implementing texts for the Forest law

10. Dissemination of forest law & its revisions to users

11. Scope of forestry law better defined

12. Rationalise fiscal regime

13. Improve capacity of state to enforce regulations

14. State outreach to actors at beginning of chain

15. Focus support of most vulnerable and key chain actors

THINKING beyond the canopy

Conclusions

• No one institutional design or governance

arrangement that lead to sustainable livelihood

wins-wins.

• Pragmatism needed about the role of forest

products - such as apiculture - in poverty

alleviation and reconciling global environmental

values with local livelihood needs.

• Revisions to the Cameroonian regulatory

framework offer hope that formal regulations

take account of other arrangements and

produce a more complementary mix reflecting

the reality of trade from the forest to urban areas

nationally, regionally in Central Africa and

globally - with positive implications for forest

beekeepers

Maintaining a vibrant apiculture sector is

important in diversifying livelihoods, providing

subsistence and cash revenues and mitigating

vulnerability

THINKING beyond the canopy

Merci !

Aminatou Hamoa

Quality Assurance officer & Trainer – Guiding Hope organic apiculture enterprise, Cameroon

Contact: Verina Ingram [email protected]

Thanks to all interviewees especially the beekeepers, MINEPIA, MINFOF,

Guiding Hope, Denis Sonwa, Stephanie Tangkeu, Han van Dijk and Purabi Bose