Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Louis Defo 309

is related to the above-mentioned factors and in some cases it was facilitated

by the improvement of accessibility (conditions of transportation) in the area.

Lastly, it is equally worth noting that in some villages the speeding up of

harvesting and the evolution towards scarcity of the resource contributed to

the emergence of the tendency for local processing of rattan for commercial

purposes to the detriment of sales in the unprocessed state. This is part of the

strategy of farmers aimed at maintaining their rattan income, or better increase

its value and make their harvesting efforts profitable. Such are the major

characteristics of changes that have occurred at the level of the basic segment

of the sector during these past years. Figure 6 summarises these evolutions.

At the level of transportation

The most important recent change at the level of transportation is the cost

increase from about 10% to 25%, according to villagers, and the increase in

harassment of the harvesters-sellers from public sector employees. In fact,

with the setting up of the legislative and regulatory framework governing the

forestry sector in 1994/95, forest products control posts have multiplied. Since

then, using the said provisions (which they however have little or no mastery

about) as pretext, the public sector workers have increased illegal financial

levies on the rattan harvesters-sellers along the major highways. These

practices contribute to increase the pressure on the resource because many

harvesters endeavour to harvest the maximum quantity of rattan possible in

order to try and meet these losses by anticipation (Defo 1999c).

At the level of rattan sales-points

The just mentioned strategy of maximising the volume harvested contributed—

alongside the factors mentioned earlier—these past years to the appreciable

increase in the quantities of rattan available at the Yaoundé sales point. The

volume of rattan trade has witnessed considerable increase, and scarcity periods

of rattan have become less frequent and less severe in Yaoundé now as compared

to the situation a few years ago. At the moment, the general trend during a

good part of the year is to oversupply the market because the increased rate of

demand has not also been as considerable and sustained as that of the rise in

supply. This situation often inhibits efforts by the harvesters-sellers at raising

the price of unprocessed rattan. In spite of the handicap, there has been an

overall price increase to the tune of 15% between 1996 and 2000 (author’s

unpublished data). This small price increase was among other things favoured

by very sporadic appearances of retailers at the Yaoundé sales point. Two of

them stayed for a few weeks in the market between 1995 and 1999 and since

October 2000, another one is trying to position himself in the sales circuit.

At the level of rattan processing

The most significant evolution at the level of rattan processing has been the

increase in the number of PUs in both rural areas and the city, efforts in the

modernisation and improvement of equipment, infrastructures and organisation

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