Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Louis Defo 307

Despite recent positive evolutions such as the establishment of a

subdirectorate for NTFPs in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the

Cameroonian state has not yet put in place a real intervention policy destined

to significantly orient or to promote the development of NTFPs. It is not closely

or concretely interested in the harvesting of rattan, it does not grant any

subsidy to the small-scale sector and it has not made any significant and direct

investment in the sector—which moreover conforms to the policy of

liberalisation and privatisation currently in force in the production sector in

Cameroon.

The state has nevertheless undertaken some limited actions touching on

the rattan industry. The almost yearly organisation of best craftsman contests,

the financing of the Cameroonian Enfance Betamba Institution, in which rattan

craftsmen (among others) are trained, and the support for rattan basketwork

in some penitentiary establishments are the state’s only perceptible direct

interventions in the rattan environment besides the regulatory and legislative

framework mentioned earlier.

KEY ISSUES

The dynamics of the rattan industry in the Yaoundé area

The rattan industry has witnessed an interesting evolution over the past several

years resulting from certain changes in the cultural, social and economic

environments.

At the level of raw material extraction

The most significant evolution at the level of raw material extraction is the

drastic increase in harvested volume and the sustained pressure on the resource,

which has resulted in the scarcity of rattans in about 43% of the study sites

(Defo 1998). This increased pressure is given concrete expression among other

things in the harvesting of immature stems, the restriction to access in ‘private’^6

forests, the institution of payments for harvesting rights in these forests,

disputes about the harvesting sites in the ‘common’ forests and open access

areas (competition for access to the resource), frequent changes of harvesting

zones and the increase in the distance between the harvesting sites and the

living quarters (for example in Zimakoé, the average distance has increased

from about 6 km to 9 km between 1992 and 1997 (Defo 1998, 1999a)). The

pressure was mainly due to the persistent population growth and urban

development, technical changes, the fall in the prices of cocoa and coffee,

the economic crisis, which resulted in underemployment, unemployment,

pauperisation of the masses and an appreciable increase in the number of

harvesters. The extension of clearing for foodstuff farming to the detriment

of rattan sites and the shortening of the fallow period in some villages

contributed to the reduction in the availability of the resource and the dynamics

of the rattan stands. Furthermore, a significant expansion of the supply area

was noticed with the sprouting up in the ranks of harvesting sites around new

villages such as Mapan, Avebé, Meguéme, Mbega among others. This extension

17Rattan.P65 307 22/12/2004, 11:05