Bamumbu Fon Promises Land for Community Forest

The Fon of Bamumbu, HRH Fon Lekunze Andreas, has promised to allocate land for the creation of a community forest in his fondom.

By Kenmene Lea Alida

Fon Lekunze made this promise at a workshop organized October 15, 2015, at the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) hall, Buea, to brainstorm on the possibility of creating a community forest in Bamumbu, Lebialem Division, and Southwest.

Bringing together the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) agroforestry team, MINFOF officials from the Southwest Delegation, the Fon of Bamumbu and others, the workshop was an opportunity for stakeholders to exchanged experiences on the                    community forest development before kick-starting the process in Bamumbu Fondom.

The Fon of Bamumbu broke the ice with an exposé of the history of Bamumbu people, their rich ecological patterns, and their socio-economic conditions.

Fon Lekunze said the people of Bamumbu are environmentally-minded, but for him to discuss the community forest, he would have to learn more about the community forest, and know about the benefits of the community forest to his community.

For his part, the MINFOF Southwest Regional Delegate, Eben Samuel Ebai, described the process of creating a community forest. He said it is a bottom-up approach where a community decides to put in place a community forest of up to 5000 hectares for the benefit of the people.

Eben Ebai said the 1994 forestry law empowers local inhabitants to own and manage community forests for conservation and exploitation of forest resources. Therefore, it is neither the government nor NGOs that take the initiative but the communities.

At the end of the workshop, the Fon of Bamumbu said he understood what the community forest is all about.

He was quite impressed that the Bamumbu people through him are key actors in the process of creating a community forest.

ERuDeF is leading and facilitating the process of creating the Bamumbu community forest, MINFOF is offering its technical expertise, and the community through the legal system, will provide institutional back-up. It will carry out the procedure of creating and managing the community forest, via the village forest management officer.

The setting up of community forests is one part of the relatively new forest governance dynamics aimed at livelihood development and poverty reduction. The decentralization of forest management increases the participation of local populations in forest conservation and management, and thus contributes in raising their living standards while sustainably exploiting the forest products.

Before the close of this working session, participants put their head together to decide on the way forward. It was agreed in unanimity that the Regional Delegate chairs the production of a technical note for the community forest. This will be followed by community sensitization and a letter of intention to MINFOF, after preliminary survey has been carried out in the area. Other activities will then follow.

The Regional Delegate said from all indications, it was worthwhile to engage in this venture. He reiterated that the main aim is to permit the population to derive benefits from the exploitation of their forest resources recommending that the bottom up approach be used to avoid confusion between MINFOF, ERuDeF and the local community.

He acknowledged the fact that ERuDeF is doing a lot in changing the lives of local people. He thanked ERuDeF for spearheading the creation of ‘Baby’ Tofala Hill wildlife Sanctuary and every one present for their collaboration.

Eben Ebai also advised that transparency and effective communication should be the watch-words in the creation of the community forest.