SFM pillars (economic, social and environmental)

Forestry sector

- Communities and councils are involved in logging through community and council forests.

- The contribution of the forestry sector to the main economic aggregates (GDP and job creation) is lower than agriculture and higher than mining

- The contribution of logging to deforestation is significant and the implementation of environmental management plans weak.

- Agricultural sector

- Communities are heavily involved in the agricultural sector through family farms which contribute to food security and are the primary source of income for many households

- The contribution of the agricultural sector to major economic aggregates (GDP and jobs) is the highest of the three sectors

- The agricultural sector is the main driver of deforestation in Cameroon

Mining sector

- Communities are involved in mining through artisanal mining. Contrary to the law, almost all the artisanal titles allocated are exploited by the Chinese. The small part of the ad valorem tax intended for the communities reaches them in a derisory way.

- The contribution of the mining sector to the main economic aggregates (GDP and job creation) is the lowest of the three sectors.

- Mining causes uncontrolled damage to the environment and severely compromises forest regeneration.

All three sectors

Inter-sectoral coordination and provision of arbitration mechanisms

- The arbitration is carried out by the Prime Minister’s office and especially the Presidency of the Republic.

- The coordination body foreseen by the national rural sector strategy, which includes mining, forestry and agriculture, among others, has not been established.

- Conflicts between mining, agricultural and forestry operators over land use are arbitrated primarily in favour of mining operators and then agro-industries.

All three sectors

Provision for a monitoring and evaluation mechanism

- MINADER, MINFOF and MINMIDT each have services dedicated to policy monitoring and evaluation. In practice, however, these services are mainly concerned with centralising information on the activities of projects and programmes hosted by each ministry.

- There are no mechanisms within these ministries with data collection tools and a reporting system to assess the achievement of the objectives set by the sectoral policy.