50 ‘Chop, but no broke pot’: the case of Prunus Africana on Mount Cameroon
processing firm with a contact in the raw material production area was
mentioned to us, unless it falls within illegal practices. Even as far as
international surveys are concerned (undertaken by ICRAF), the pharmaceutical
industries in the West are tight-lipped about their sources of raw materials
acquisition.CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT LESSONS OF CASE STUDY
As earlier mentioned, the communities involved in P. africana activities are
earning much needed income from their participation in the trade. This income
could be increased if communities reviewed their partnerships with exporters
or processing industries and the legislative and regulatory framework provided
them with more tenure security over the resource.
The international trade in P. africana bark has long been recognised and
the species was included in Appendix II of CITES during the ninth meeting held
in 1994 in Harare, Zimbabwe. So far, however, information for the determination
of sustainable yields, needed for the adequate implementation of legislation,
is limited. Hence the study underway on the physiology of bark recovery of
this tree under various harvesting regimes is crucially relevant. With the
significant increase in the world’s ageing male population and the increasing
interest in natural products, demand in P. africana is likely to increase in
coming years. The rate at which this species is exploited—and therefore
declining in the wild—raises doubts on whether the wild populations will be
able to satisfy demand in the future. Therefore, emphasis should be laid now
on conservation through cultivation. That would likely satisfy future demand
for P. africana products. Strategies that are being developed in Cameroon and
other countries for the sustainable management of remnant wild populations
with the participation of interested communities need to be continued. The
benefits to local communities from involvement in P. africana activities are a
significant incentive for their commitment to the conservation of this species.
Decision makers should put in place a transparent mechanism that will enable
farmers and community based organisations to use forest regeneration taxes
(paid by Prunus exploiters) directly in order to finance a planting programme.
But as far as considering industrial exploiters and exporters of Prunus products,
the desire to always increase their benefit margin by exploiting as much as
possible often leads to overexploitation—and even illegal activities. However,
although such excessive exploitation was common in the past, with the
participation of the communities today, these problems are being solved with
the setting of exploitation quotas for individual harvesters and the
reorganisation of harvesters into monitoring and control groups. Occasionally
these groups seize the products of those who dare to undertake illegal practices.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors of this report, and through them the Limbe Botanic Garden, warmly
express their gratitude to the Centre for International Forestry Research for
giving them another opportunity to contribute to this important process using
P. africana as a case study. This ‘case comparison’ study project has been03prunus.p65 50 22/12/2004, 11:04