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Land governance ambiguity and protected area degradation in Cameroon: the case of the Ottotomo reserve

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Abstract

In the context of the preservation of the environment and the sustainable management of the resources, States have made commitments more and more difficult to hold. In Cameroon in particular, the permanent forest domain is undergoing the onslaught of riparian populations in search of well-being. They are illegally exploiting wood, clearing for farming, hunting and fishing taking advantage of authorities’ failure who are unable to monitor conservation projects. The forest reserve of Ottotomo assigned to the production of timber for one part and nature conservation for the other has been successively managed by several institutions. The transition breaks between these funding institutions favours looting. Field surveys and satellite image (Landsat) processing are used to assess the dynamics that this reserve has undergone since 2002 marking the end of field surveillance activities. The lack of clarification of the property of the State which has not obtained the approval of the population to decide the protection of this space prevents a synergy of actions for the conservation project. More than half part of the reserve’s forest cover has been lost in the last 30 years. The example of the Ottotomo reserve reflects the damage and threats suffered by protected areas in Cameroon, especially in areas submitted to urban influences. It is now necessary to reorient the management policies of Cameroon’s permanent forest estate by extracting them from the field of the commons which promotes their rapid looting. The benefits of monetizing ecosystem services would greatly help.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Source: https://fr.climate-data.org/afrique/cameroun/centre/ngoumou-893298/

Fig. 3

Source: field survey, 2018

Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Source: field survey, 2018

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Set of generally unwritten rules and procedures through which a rural community regulates land relations between its members, as well as with communities neighbouring or associated (Wily 2011).

  2. The city of Yaoundé (political capital of Cameroon) is located less than 25 km as the crow flies from the Ottotomo reserve.

  3. In the administrative division of Cameroon, a group is a subdivision below the council. These are 1st or 2nd-degree villages which are divided into 3rd-degree villages also called neighbourhoods.

  4. Representative body of the people from the administration for everything related to the environment in general and forests in particular.

  5. These are laws n ° 74/12 of July 16, 1974, and n ° 75/4 of July 02, 1975.

  6. Article 1 of Ordinance No. 74–1 of July 6, 1974, establishing land tenure in Cameroon.

  7. This emptiness means absence of development. But in reality these lands were land reserves of the neighbouring populations.

  8. See Decree No. 2002/156 of June 18, 2002 approving the statutes of the national agency for support to forest development.

  9. Itinerant slash-and-burn agriculture is the dominant cropping system on the South Cameroon plateau.

  10. Centre for Environment and Development (http://www.cedcameroun.org/).

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Fréderic Saha

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Saha, F. Land governance ambiguity and protected area degradation in Cameroon: the case of the Ottotomo reserve. Trop Ecol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-024-00332-1

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