Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

240 Fuelwood in the Maroua area of the Far North Province of Cameroon

are plants and animals resistant to the effects of the changes brought about

by the widespread exploitation and which are not themselves desired for

exploitation. This was in evidence in the study area in that the villagers

complained about the gradual disappearance and scarcity of some animal and

plant species. One way to improve the situation would be to encourage the

establishment and exploitation of artificial forests while conserving the natural

ones, but the feasibility of that proposal would depend on the active

participation of the villagers.

The entire population of this area would suffer without the commercial

value of fuelwood. It serves as an important source of income to village

households, and it is often the only domestic source of fuel. It represents an

important source of non-substitutable domestic energy to urban households

as well. The urban poor and those who use fuelwood as the only source of

domestic energy are vulnerable to changes in the supply and price of fuelwood,

as changing to other fuel sources is expensive because it necessitates the

purchase of associate appliances. Urban dwellers will suffer if problems

associated with the increasing scarcity of this fuel source are not addressed

(for example, increasing price, product scarcity, damaged ecosystems).

With regard to the degraded ecosystem, it is difficult to know if the forest

would have been more or less degraded if it were not exploited for fuelwood,

because it is possible that the alternative resource or income generating

strategies would have been still more damaging to the forest resource. However,

given the extent of forest disturbance and the growing demand for an

increasingly scarce resource, the health of the ecosystem would be more secure

in the absence of the harvest of fuelwood.

The development of the fuelwood sector is of interest to both village and

urban populations, as both benefit from the cash income and unique product

fuelwood provides. The formalization and development of the sector may

actually lead to greater conservation of the forests, as people utilize various

programs and legislation to secure rights to the forests and their resources,

and then to exploit the forest resource more rationally. One way of developing

this sector would be to monitor the harvesting, sale and use of fuelwood. Such

a policy should also develop strategies to give this energy source a value

competitive with other energy sources.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Fuelwood is not only an economic but also a social good indispensable to both

rural and urban populations. It contributes to family income generation in the

study area, and by extension in other parts of Cameroon. Despite, or because

of, the importance of this product in the Maroua region, its harvest has resulted

in serious environmental problems that were difficult to address at the village

level. Live trees are still felled for fuelwood, despite the demonstrated negative

consequences on the environment.

The chain of production and trade was short and simple, with few

intermediaries. Nevertheless it involved the majority of the population of the

study area because fuelwood sales were one of the few means of generating

income available to them, aided by the constant demand for the product and,

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