1. EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION IN REDD+
DECISION-MAKING IN CAMEROON:
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Cécile Ndjebet & Augustine Njamnshi
GFI-Cameroon
Washington DC, May 2012

2. LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PARTICIPATION
• In general terms, Cameroon laws and regulations on
Environment, Forestry, Mining and land use planning
encourage participation of stakeholders in decision-making
– Consultations
– Public hearings for EIA
– Composition of Boards
– Village Community forests management Committees
– Village Paysan Forest Committees
– Village Hunting Committees

3. Challenges of Participation in Practice
• Challenges in national level processes
– Legal requirements for participation in policy-making focus
on individual consultation meetings
– Emphasis on informing rather than getting stakeholder
feedback
– Lack of clear procedures for carrying out consultations
– No investment from MINFOF or MINEP to carry out
effective consultations (e.g., capacity-building for staff,
information systems)
– Low capacity of communities to participate
– Poor documentation of processes

4. • Challenges in local processes
– Access to information to local people on land and
forest titles attribution processes
– Capacity for communities to effectively participate to
the various processes : language barriers,
representativeness
– Poor documentation of processes
Some examples:
– R-PP process : selective invitations; tensions between
stakeholders
– Land reform process: since the announcement from
the President of the Republic in January 2011,
nothing is filtering from the ministry in charge to-
date

5. Case study on participatory mapping for
community rights demarcation: UFA 09026

6. RISKS FOR REDD+
• Lack of participation poses significant risks to:
• Tenure and resource rights abuses
• Elite capture of REDD process and benefits
• Conflicts
• Leakages
• Failure of the whole REDD+ process

7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REDD+
• Collaborate with civil society to conduct trainings
and share information with communities
• Strengthen existing procedures for consultation of
local communities
• Consider lessons learned from past experience with
stakeholder platforms
• Develop procedures to monitor the quality of
participation processes for REDD+
• Create a grievance mechanism in early stages of
REDD+ discussions