The Mount Cameroon REDD+ initiative is managed by GFA ENVEST under the Program for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Southwest Region of Cameroon (PSMNR-SW), which has supported conservation and livelihoods in the region since 2006. Launched in 2008 as a means of securing sustainable funding after the end of official development assistance (ODA) for PSMNR-SW, the initiative focuses on 41 villages surrounding Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP), which was officially created in 2009. The REDD+ initiative aims to reduce forest loss and increase forest carbon stock by offering support for people whose livelihoods are dependent on protecting forests in and around the park. This chapter reports findings from four villages (MTC1, MCT2, MCT3 and MTC4) targeted for REDD+ interventions. The Mount Cameroon zone has rich biodiversity and fertile soil that attracts farmers (including migrants from other regions of Cameroon and Nigeria [Akombi 2011]) and agro-industrial companies such as Cameroon Development Corporation and Palm Oil Plantations Limited, placing high conversion pressure on forests. Among the challenges faced by the initiative are conflicting perceptions of land rights and forest ownership between the state and local communities.

10.1 Basic facts: Where, who, why and when

10.1.1 Geography

The Mount Cameroon REDD+ initiative covers a total of 212,686 ha in the southwest region of Cameroon. It encompasses the Mount Cameroon National Park, the remnant Bomboko Forest Reserve (that was not included in MCNP), and a leakage belt of 164 ha outside the national park boundaries (Pawlowski 2009). The grasslands in the upper elevations of MCNP are not included. The broader coastal area where the initiative is located is rich in biodiversity, and is under threat from agricultural expansion despite the presence of several protected areas. All 41 villages included in the initiative are reliant on farming activities. They are located in Mbonge subdivision (including MTC1 and MTC4) and Buea subdivision (including MTC2 and MTC3) (Figure 10.1), close to Limbe.

The area around Mount Cameroon is characterized by high population density, rich volcanic soils and abundant precipitation, ranging from 2000 to 10,000 mm/year (GIZ 2013). Forest types include lowland forest, submontane forest, montane forest and agroforestry mosaic. The fertile soils are one of the factors that have attracted migrants from other regions of Cameroon and from as far as Nigeria. The yield of cocoa can reach 700 kg/ha/season, which is far higher than the national average (300 kg/ha). The Bomboko Forest Reserve has been invaded for cocoa farming and its restoration to natural forest is considered to be very difficult until the land tenure issue is clarified for farmers (Akombi 2011).

In the Mount Cameroon zone, agriculture is the most important economic activity for both the indigenous people and local and international immigrants. Migrants represent more than 90% of the population in some areas, e.g. in the north of the park (GFA ENVEST 2008), and they control the biggest portion of farmed land, especially within MCNP and the remnant Bomboko Reserve (Awono et al. 2014). Many agro-industries (Cameroon Development Corporation, PAMOL Plantation Limited, etc.) have entered the area to produce oil palm, rubber and banana. Many households in the intervention villages have worked for these agro-industries and some have adopted the same crops and production techniques. Better-off households have established large plantations of crops such as cocoa and oil palm. In addition to these commodities, they have recently expanded their production of crops such as tomato and pepper to supply Buea and Douala. As argued by Nkamleu et al. (2003), agriculture is an important sector for sustaining growth and reducing poverty in Cameroon, as in other developing countries. In the early 1980s, agriculture represented close to 30% of GDP, generating more than a third of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and about 15% of tax revenues for the government budget (Njadji 2005).

The southwest region has had the highest deforestation rate in Cameroon (0.11% compared to 0.03% at national level). That rate was even higher in the initiative area; between 1987 and 2010, 46.2% of the natural forest was converted into agricultural land-use systems (de Wasseige et al. 2010). Reconciling conservation with sustainable livelihoods for local residents surrounding Mount Cameroon is perhaps the central challenge for the REDD+ initiative. The main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the four intervention villages studied by CIFOR are the expansion of cocoa and oil palm plantations, shifting cultivation practices for food crops, and unsustainable exploitation of NTFPs such as Prunus africana (Awono et al. 2014). In addition to small-scale farmers, agents of deforestation include: bush fires, elites involved in land grabbing, agro-industrial companies and illegal loggers. The conversion of forested land by elites, who own up to 3000 ha per household, is accelerated by the use of paid labor (Pawlowski 2009). In general, there is a strong correlation between farm size and the political or economic position of the owner, reflecting social inequality and poor governance.

10.1.2 Stakeholders and funding

PSMNR-SW is a joint initiative of the Cameroon and German Governments, funded by the German Government and the German Development Bank (KfW). The Southwest Delegation of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is the government’s implementing and coordinating agency, which has also contributed to the initiative through its support and technical staff. GFA ENVEST is the main technical implementation partner. The German International Corporation Agency (GIZ) provides oversight on behalf of the German Government. The long-term funding plan is based on both sales of carbon credits and a trust fund. The activities of PSMNR-SW have been financed through 2016 with ODA from Germany. Revenue from carbon credits could help sustain the management of MCNP. Carbon revenues would obviously increase the level of funding for the management of the national park, ensuring its long-term viability. Conversely, in the absence of income from carbon credits, the Government of Cameroon would have to support management of the national park. This would create budget uncertainties for the national park, due to the reliance on development aid money that is conditional on donor commitment over time.

The technical team of PSMNR-SW is promoting alternative options such as ecotourism, NTFP exploitation and intensive agriculture to support community members’ livelihoods. GFA ENVEST has also focused on ecotourism as a co-benefit of the conservation interventions. Community based organizations are direct grassroot beneficiaries of the initiative. According to the PDD, the villages are being supported by the initiative, but they are also expected to provide 10% of the budget in kind and in cash. They have a participatory role and are involved in decision making about support for livelihoods.

10.1.3 Motivation

Prior to PSMNR-SW, there were other efforts to promote sustainable development in the Mount Cameroon region, including the Mount Cameroon Project, WWF programs and the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organization, which was funded by the German Development Service. PSMNR-SW emphasized village development and started by signing village development plans with selected villages in the southwest region (65 in total). The idea of the Mount Cameroon REDD+ initiative surfaced in 2008 (Figure 10.2) as a means of sustainable financing to replace the ODA funds. The REDD+ initiative aims to improve conservation and local livelihoods through long-term support and conditional incentives. GFA ENVEST is facilitating these activities (Table 10.1). Although carbon funds are not yet available, PSMNR-SW is providing conditional payment to land users to stimulate the involvement of local villages in the management of forest ecosystems, in contrast to many previous efforts.

10.1.4 Timeline

Figure 10.2 sketches the timeline of the REDD+ initiative in Mount Cameroon, beginning with antecedent conservation activities and including CIFOR’s research activities.

10.2 Strategy for the initiative

The main purpose of the initiative is to reduce deforestation and protect MCNP. The initiative proposes to reduce GHG emissions from mosaic deforestation, and store carbon by re-establishing natural forests that have been replaced by small-scale cocoa plantations. Launched in 2008, REDD+ is seen as a long-term financing mechanism to support the sustainable management of the diverse ecosystems in the Mount Cameroon region.

By protecting MCNP, the initiative expects to generate high biodiversity co-benefits, as well as generating livelihood co-benefits by working with people around the park. One critical step to generating any of these benefits is to clarify land tenure. Another part of the strategy is to leverage alternative economic opportunities created by the park, such as ecotourism and NTFP collection, and to develop adequate means to enforce the legal restrictions on the use of park resources. To accomplish all of this, the initiative will rely not only on REDD+, but also seek additional sources of funding for conservation and collaborative management of natural resources.

The main strategy is to involve the villages in the management of the resources, leading to co-responsibility, and to reward villages based on their performance in conservation. Interventions such as farmer field schools, water supplies, multipurpose nurseries for NTFPs, support for beekeeping and support for livestock keeping have been provided to the involved villages. Benefit sharing related to REDD+ income is not yet fully established, but the mechanisms will build on experience from previous interventions of PSMNR-SW, as stated in a conservation development agreement signed with the communities. Additionally, clarification of land tenure is also seen as crucial to reduce pressure on Mount Cameroon forest ecosystems. The initiative aims to strengthen the technical and operational units of MCNP, whose mandate is to mitigate land-use conflicts and create appropriate conditions for development of committees of local people who can coordinate with different ministries. The proponent also aims to build MRV capacity of participating government agencies through training workshops.

10.3 Smallholders in the initiative

We surveyed four villages in the initiative area, MTC1–4, between June and August 2010. In total, we interviewed 160 households, 40 in each village, from a total of 370 households (43%) and a total population of 4300 (Table 10.2). In addition to the household survey, we also held two meetings in each village, one general and one specifically with women, in order to complete village and women’s surveys.

All four villages have received many immigrants in recent years, as reflected in the large proportion of people aged 16 years or older (Table 10.3). In MTC1 and MTC4, the migrants came to invest in cocoa and to a lesser extent, in oil palm. These two villages are part of the Bomboko Forest Reserve and are situated far from administrative centers. The reserve has been invaded due to its fertile soils, and the population includes many different ethnic groups. In some cases (MTC1) the state teak plantations have been entirely destroyed and replaced by cocoa. MTC2 and MTC3 are closer to the city of Buea and thus have also received large numbers of immigrants (e.g. 20% increase in population in MTC2 in the last two years). Most migrants acquire land from the village chiefs, but these transactions are only recorded in MTC1, with an average price of USD 1500 per hectare. Some migrants are able to acquire land with the complicity of the newcomers, without consulting the village chiefs.

As presented in Table 10.3, the level of education for adults in the Mount Cameroon area is quite high, at about eight years of schooling on average. This reflects the availability of school infrastructure around Mount Cameroon, which is probably linked to the large concentration of people in the area as a result of high cocoa production.

All of the households interviewed in the four intervention villages used fuelwood as their most common energy source, confirming the previous findings of Daurella and Foster (2009). Access to water in some villages was facilitated by PSMNR-SW as compensation for the restrictions on resource use imposed by the conservation efforts, including the creation of MCNP. All households in MTC2 and MTC4 have piped water, in contrast to only 40% in MTC3 and none in MTC1. In contrast, sanitation facilities are uniformly poor throughout the region; flush toilets are virtually nonexistent, although many households have private toilets or latrines. Poor sanitation may be related to the high average days of illness, ranging from 8 to 22 days/year in the communities. Access to electricity is variable among communities, ranging from 70% (MTC2) to 32.5% and 15% in the more remote communities of MTC1 and MTC4, respectively. Access to a phone (mainly mobiles) was reported by over half the households in all villages. The value of transportation assets owned by households varied greatly within and among communities, with MTC1 showing a substantially higher investment than the other communities (Table 10.3).

Livelihood portfolios show the diversity of income sources across all villages, and the disparities among villages in terms of both sources of income and total income. In all of the villages, more than half of adults reported agriculture as their primary or secondary occupation, while fewer than 3% cited forest-based occupations (Table 10.4). Agriculture (including crops and livestock) provided the largest share of average household income in all of the villages except for MTC2 (Figure 10.4). In MTC2, wage labor, household business and other income were the most important sources of income, probably reflecting employment in cocoa plantations (Figure 10.4). Cocoa production was a major source of income in the region, but its importance varied greatly between villages, with MTC1 in particular showing high income from cocoa production. The value of livestock income was similar across the villages (MTC4 with USD 73/year, MTC1 with USD 118/year) though far less important in terms of total income. Surprisingly, the village with the highest average amount of land controlled by a household (MTC3, 15 ha) showed just average income from agriculture. This implies that the quality of the land, in addition to the area, is a key factor for income generation, as reflected in the lower agricultural income in the two villages on the less fertile side of the mountain.

High dependence on agriculture is reflected in high rates of forest clearing. MTC2 and MTC3 had the highest percentage of households that reported clearing of forest in the two years prior to the survey, with an average of 0.9 and 0.6 ha cleared, respectively (Table 10.4). At the same time, 94% of households in MTC1 and 87% in MTC4 reported that their clearing opportunities had decreased, perhaps explaining lower clearing rates in these two villages. Forest cover in MCT2 was 29%, and MTC1, with high cocoa production, had only 4% forest cover. The higher forest cover (75%) in MTC4 is probably explained by the steep mountain terrain and crop damage by elephants, which together act as a strong deterrent to agricultural production and expansion in the area.

In general, forest and environmental incomes are low in the four villages (Figure 10.3). Household members, especially in MTC4 and MTC2, travel far (average distance of 100 to 120 minutes walking) into the forest to harvest NTFPs. In three out of four villages (MTC1, MTC2 and MTC3), most households reported a decrease in forest products consumption over the 12 months prior to the survey (Table 10.4). In all four villages, fewer than 60% of the households, and as few as 30% of households in MTC3, reported that their income was sufficient to support their family’s well-being.

10.4 Challenges facing the intervention

The Mount Cameroon REDD+ initiative is burdened with a number of challenges, ranging from the inability of the initiative to get a reliable source of long-term funding, to illegal deforestation, lack of tenure clarification and subsequent conflicts. The early efforts to get carbon funding have not been successful partly because the carbon content of the montane forests is limited. Carbon credit can only be gained by re-establishing natural forest inside the Bomboko Forest Reserve, which has already been converted to a mosaic of small-scale cocoa fields. However, carbon funds are considered to be critical. Without securing additional REDD+ funding before the end of the German funding in 2016 as planned (especially if another phase is not approved), it will be extremely difficult to rely on government funding.

Illegal deforestation is taking place in the project area through extensive agriculture and illegal logging. The driving force of this forest conversion is the economic benefits from such activities around (and sometimes inside) the park. In addition, the village chiefs illegally sell protected lands. The technical capacity of the local population engaged in forest protection is very low. The proponent has put in place a platform with the different actors represented, providing local people with the opportunity to take part in discussions and co-management so as to minimize the problems and reflect the interests of all parties. Continuous efforts in maintaining the platform are expected. There is widespread concern about alternative agricultural practices in the long term, especially about how communities can feed a growing population with less land. They are anxious to know if funding from REDD+ projects will provide them with adequate compensation. The interviewed farmers indicated that their exclusion from cocoa, oil palm, plantain, yam and cocoyam farms leads them to believe that there is a clear plan for compensation and definition of alternative income from REDD+. This is yet to be clarified.

The local communities perceive tenure clarification as a key governance challenge as state ownership of forests may lead to disregard of customary claims, creating uncertainties in terms of the fulfillment of REDD+ initiative objectives. There is tenure insecurity over at least a portion of intervention village lands. The demarcation of boundaries for MCNP (established in 2009) generated conflict over land tenure, because part of the villagers’ farmland was included in the park (Awono et al. 2014). Given the number of claims raised by some groups of community members, there are legitimate concerns about the park’s ability to implement restrictions related to farming, illegal logging and hunting. Significantly, land conflicts are emerging in some of the villages (e.g. MTC1) between indigenous peoples and immigrants who own farms in the protected area. Local people believe that their traditional rights over the land are paramount and allow them to evict any encroacher from an area by force.

It is recognized that biodiversity conservation of local forests is one of the targeted goals of the initiative, but local people believe that human activities should also be protected from wildlife invasion. Damage to crops by elephants can represent a critical challenge in some villages. Human–wildlife conflicts are substantial, and some community members from MTC4 argued that the animals are better protected than humans because villagers are not allowed to kill elephants even when the elephants are destroying crops.

10.5 Lessons from the initiative

The Mount Cameroon initiative offers an example of REDD+ in the context of protected areas surrounded by local people, although the initiative has actually been presented as a continuation of the previous conservation initiative, PSMNR-SW, rather than REDD+. Interventions aimed at reducing forest loss and increasing forest carbon stock through conditional livelihoods improvement could achieve the goals of both REDD+ and PSMNR-SW. Although the initiative has not yet attracted carbon funds, its conservation and livelihood efforts are being supported by KfW up to 2016. There are many challenges that may render the efforts unsustainable and lead to low impact in terms of reduced emissions or improved biodiversity or ecosystems conservation. The populations of the targeted villages support the initiative because they agree with the approaches used by the proponent. However, they are still waiting for government acknowledgement of their increased rights over the remnant forest reserve and the leakage belt around MCNP. In addition, there is a fundamental conflict between the core conservation mission of MCNP and the local people and migrants who have invested in small-scale cocoa plantations and other crops inside the park. Removing those people from the park will have negative consequences for local livelihoods if the alternatives offered are not sufficient. Rather than evicting farmers without any compensation, a more effective strategy would be to compensate them for their investments inside the park and give the villages official tenure rights to the remnant forest reserve that has been completely converted by farmers. This could encourage local households to cooperate with the Mount Cameroon initiative on restoration of degraded forests within MCNP. As this initiative unfolds, it will provide a test case for whether REDD+ can help provide sufficient incentives to local people to gain their support for protected areas.

10.6 Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the technical support we received from the PSMNR-SW platform, including support for the fieldwork. We would also like to thank the CIFOR-GCS module 2 enumerators team: Batulu Njah Labu, Njie Louis Ndoumbe, Ewane Marcus and Nkeng Philip Fonju. We are grateful to the entire coordination team of the Mount Cameroon National Park for providing us with accommodation and information. We applaud the assistance of the village administrations of MTC1, MTC2, MTC3 and MTC4, and key community members for their useful insights.