YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - The Cameroon government has issued a decree No 20203216 of 14thJuly 2020 to log Ebo Forest, destroying one of the rare natural forest ecosystems in the Gulf of Guinea, stretching over 2000km2 and known to be a massive biodiversity hotspot and stocking millions of tonnes of carbon.
The decree signed by the Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute gives a go ahead to the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife to exploit 85,000 hectares of the 150,000 hectares of the Ebo Forest, located in the Littoral region of Cameroon amidst multiple protests by the local population and international forest rights organizations.
At a press briefing in Yaounde July 22,2020, to explain the raison d’etre of the decision, the Minister of forestry and wildlife Jules Doret Ndongo said “the logging concessions to be exploited in the Ebo Forest are neither occupied nor exploited by the people of the region concerned.’’
According to the Minister the government was quite aware of the worries of the riparian communities around the forest area and ‘the protection their interest has been taken into consideration’.
He assured that the government will respect its forest conservation policy while carrying out timber extraction needed to boost the economy [swell state coffers] .
The government also said it rejected a request in June 2020 for tax reduction made by the loggers’ association GFBC. The logging sector complained their activities have been grounded by the effects of corona-virus.
Also reacting to the tax reduction request by the loggers association, Greenpeace Forest Campaign Manager for Africa in Cameroon, Ranèce Jovial Ndjeudja in a letter said,
“The real problem underlying the logging industry is not its current failures to pay taxes, but its ongoing contribution to human rights violations and destroying the planet. Giving tax breaks to logging companies might mean public funding for our next pandemic”.
“We must protect nature so nature protects us. The current distress of the logging sector is a good opportunity to rebuild our economy into sustainable sectors that neither exacerbates the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis nor threatens our health”, Ndjeudja concludes.
The riparian Ebo forest communities of Yabassi, Yingui, Ngambe and Ndikiniméki debunk the government’s claim of their non expliotation of the affected areas and the protection of their interest. The forest communities say they use the resources of this rich biodiversity for food, health care and cultural activities.
Environmentalists say the Ebo forest is biodiversity with over 35 million tonnes of carbon and home to over 12 tree species yet unknown to science.
The forest also host chimpanzees, forest elephants, grey parrots and other species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species.
‘Apart from its rich and vast forest expands Ebo forest is also home of the world's only chimpanzees that both fish for termites and crack nuts; a small population of gorillas that may be a new subspecies; and one of only two remaining populations of Preuss's Red Colobus, a Critically Endangered Monkey. Ebo Forest also makes up one half of a Key Biodiversity Area, making it a site of global importance to the planet's overall health ,’’ says Ekwoge Abwe Enang, Assistant Monitoring Coordinator at WCS- Ebo Forest Research Project.
It is home to at least 160 species of birds, most of which are unique to Ebo he says.
The Cameroon government had since 2006 announced its intention to transform the Ebo forest into a national park, a promised that was saluted by the local population and the international community.
Now with decree the local residents fear the exploitation of the concessions in the Ebo Forest will deal a fatal blow to the national park project and Forest as a whole.
Environmentalists also fear the decree comes to aggravate the situation of forest disappearance and consequently climate change threats in the country.
Already over eight agro-industrial plantations that operating in Cameroon (HEVECAM, SUDCAM, SOCAPALM, PHP, BIOPALM, SEMRY, RUBBERCAM, SOSUCAM) have disturbing record of forest destruction, land grabbing, abuses of human rights and environmental crimes that have rendered the climate crisis worrisome.
PAMACC News - Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor (UPGro), has been a seven-year international research programme (2013-2020), funded by the Department for International Development, Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.
Nearly 200 of the world’s best researchers from more than 50 organisations across Africa and Europe have been focused on improving the evidence base around groundwater availability and management in Sub Saharan Africa.
The goal has been to ensure that the hidden wealth of Africa’s aquifers benefit all citizens and the poorest in particular UPGro projects are interdisciplinary, linking the social and natural sciences to address this challenge.
Water resources are critical to economic growth and social development. Groundwater provides most of the domestic water supply in parts of rural Africa and supports poverty reduction through access to clean drinking water and irrigation. In 2015, only 23 of the 52 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) met the UN Millennium Development Goals target for drinking-water provision and Target 6.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve universal access to safe, affordable water by 2030. Groundwater has the potential to provide an improved source of drinking water for those in SSA who are currently without access.
Yet water is not only an important resource for the poor living in rural SSA, but is also central to most industries and a vital commodity for tourism. Industry is an important source of income for several African countries and a lack of water supply could constrain opportunities for development, including better services and improvements to poorer people’s livelihoods. Groundwater sources are often resistant to drought, acting as a natural buffer against rainfall variability. However, groundwater is already intensively used in certain parts of Africa and in some cases it is being extracted faster than it can be replenished. As the population grows, water security in SSA will become increasingly important and demands on groundwater resources are likely to surge. To ensure sustainability, greater understanding of groundwater resources and how to manage their use effectively will be required.
A recent study on groundwater in Africa has shown that there is possibly 20 times more water available as groundwater compared with that available in lakes and rivers. Droughts are currently a major cause of humanitarian disaster in SSA, often leading to mass population movements and considerable health, social and economic stress on many developing nations. These humanitarian disasters are likely to grow in scale as populations increase and climate and land-use change accelerate. With these increasing pressures on water resources, the potential pressure on groundwater as the solution to the water security challenge in SSA is high.
PAMACC News - Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor (UPGro), has been a seven-year international research programme (2013-2020), funded by the Department for International Development, Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.
Nearly 200 of the world’s best researchers from more than 50 organisations across Africa and Europe have been focused on improving the evidence base around groundwater availability and management in Sub Saharan Africa.
The goal has been to ensure that the hidden wealth of Africa’s aquifers benefit all citizens and the poorest in particular UPGro projects are interdisciplinary, linking the social and natural sciences to address this challenge.
Water resources are critical to economic growth and social development. Groundwater provides most of the domestic water supply in parts of rural Africa and supports poverty reduction through access to clean drinking water and irrigation. In 2015, only 23 of the 52 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) met the UN Millennium Development Goals target for drinking-water provision and Target 6.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve universal access to safe, affordable water by 2030. Groundwater has the potential to provide an improved source of drinking water for those in SSA who are currently without access.
Yet water is not only an important resource for the poor living in rural SSA, but is also central to most industries and a vital commodity for tourism. Industry is an important source of income for several African countries and a lack of water supply could constrain opportunities for development, including better services and improvements to poorer people’s livelihoods. Groundwater sources are often resistant to drought, acting as a natural buffer against rainfall variability. However, groundwater is already intensively used in certain parts of Africa and in some cases it is being extracted faster than it can be replenished. As the population grows, water security in SSA will become increasingly important and demands on groundwater resources are likely to surge. To ensure sustainability, greater understanding of groundwater resources and how to manage their use effectively will be required.
A recent study on groundwater in Africa has shown that there is possibly 20 times more water available as groundwater compared with that available in lakes and rivers. Droughts are currently a major cause of humanitarian disaster in SSA, often leading to mass population movements and considerable health, social and economic stress on many developing nations. These humanitarian disasters are likely to grow in scale as populations increase and climate and land-use change accelerate. With these increasing pressures on water resources, the potential pressure on groundwater as the solution to the water security challenge in SSA is high.
In the Mau Forest, the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) has demolished over 300 Ogiek homes, and fences, farms and livestock have been destroyed. Children and other vulnerable community members have been left homeless during the pandemic.
In Embobut Forest in the Cherangany Hills, the KFS has burned 28 homes belonging to extremely poor Sengwer, including their blankets, utensils and other essential belongings.
In both cases, the government is arguing that the evictions are necessary in order to conserve the Embobut Forest and the Mau Forest, large closed canopy forests in Kenya and important watersheds. The government has repeatedly claimed that preserving this ecosystem takes priority over land claims of the Ogiek, Sengwer and others. Yet, a growing body of evidence shows that honouring land rights is the foundation for conserving forests sustainably, including those of national and watershed importance. This is the path which so many modern governments now take and global conservation organizations agree.
In its May 2017 judgment, the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights declared that the Ogiek were not responsible for the depletion of the Mau Forest, and its conservation could not be used to justify their eviction, nor could it be used to deny them their rights to practice their traditional livelihoods.
The Court also ruled the Mau Complex was indeed the ancestral land of the Ogiek, to which they therefore hold rights. It asked the Ogiek and the Government of Kenya to put forward proposals for working with this reality. The Ogiek submitted a step-by-step plan of action to the Court; the plan respects and protects Ogiek as owner-conservators, issuing them with community land titles subject to rigorous conservation conditions. It also states clearly that most of their ancestral land within these domains will be designated as protected Community Forests and habitation limited to natural glades and moorlands. The Ogiek outline how they will work with KFS to zone and manage the forest well. But three years on, the Government has failed to make detailed submissions, causing the African Court reparations hearing to be postponed until September 2020.
Likewise, the Sengwer’s traditional knowledge system – now captured in written bylaws – long served to conserve their forest home. This forest culture still, like the Ogiek, holds intact forest sacrosanct even as lifestyles have been undermined by decades of government policy, which have left the forests vulnerable to illegal logging, poaching and encroachment by outsiders.
The Sengwer are also pursuing justice in the courts, although they have appealed repeatedly to enter a practical ‘win-win’ partnership with KFS as accountable on-site guardians, as have the Mau Ogiek and Elgon Ogiek. Donors have stood by time and again to help but cannot fund projects where human rights including land rights are denied.
Many Kenyans who are not forest peoples, but pastoralists and settled farmers, are also suffering the brunt of an administration which underestimates the tolerance of modern rural communities to poorly-conceived strategies and which are sometimes implemented with brutality by armed forest guards.
Communities continue to dispute claims by government to forests they traditionally own. A number of new public forests have been announced by KFS. These include 70 new forest gazettements in 2017 alone, across 11 counties.
“We wonder which County will be next” said Mr. Mali Ole Kaunga, Member of Il Ngwesi community in Laikipia County. “So many communities are wrongly losing their natural forests and the chance to prove they too can protect and conserve.”
Communities also deplore the lawlessness around evictions. “It is unlawful and also immoral for Government to evict people without proper notice and in cold seasons—even ‘in the name of conservation’,” said Mr John Mwaiseghe, Member of Mdawida community, Taita Taveta County. “We believed government would honour its additional pledge in May 2020 to not evict people during COVID-19”.
Mr Wilson Kipsang Kipkazi, member of the Enderois community in Baringo adds: “It is also unlawful to deny the Constitutional declaration that the ancestral lands and forests lawfully used by communities are community land. Legal routes for recognition of ancestral lands or transfer from Public to Community Lands are being curtailed by amendments even preventing us accessing legislators on forest matters without consent of the Service. The Community Land Law of 2016 binds communities to protect their forests and other resources, but which we cannot easily do for as long as government goes slow on surveying and titling our lands. The Forest Law of 2016 provided for Community Forests—but now draft policy implies these will be only for new plantations which communities are advised to develop. First, we need assurance that our existing natural forests and woodlands will not be taken from us”.
“Kenyans may question if communities can really protect natural forests. We know we can,” said Mr Peter Kitelo, Member of the Elgon Ogiek community, Bungoma County and Chair of the Community Land Action Now (CLAN) network. “Foresters and officials only need to look at the evidence of so many brother and sister communities on all continents.”
Communities were already acknowledged as owner-conservators in over 448 million hectares of forests by 2017. Many Community Forests are even now designated as Forest Parks and Reserves of national importance, and scientific studies testify to their success.
“The Mau Taskforce, for example, was shown NASA satellite imagery last year, illustrating how the major areas not burned in the raging fires in the Brazilian Amazon in mid-2019 were the millions of hectares, including protected parks, owned by forest peoples,” said Mr. Yator Kiptum, Member of Sengwer community of Cherangany Hills, Trans Nzoia County.
Community owned forests have also been the flagship of expanding natural forest protection in Africa, including in Namibia, The Gambia, and Tanzania, and are now evolving in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Specifically, the Community Land Action Network (CLAN) asks that the government of Kenya:
- Stop evicting traditional forest peoples, listen to the sacrifices they are uniquely willing and able to make to save their forests for themselves and all Kenyans, and agree a practical and fair path forward with each community;
- Honour the protection due to still-untitled community lands throughout the country by ceasing to ‘grab’ and turn our woodlands and forests into Public Forests; invest instead in helping us declare and manage these as Protected Community Forests on our own community lands;
- Respond in the spirit of devolution and fairness to requests to return County Forests and Wildlife Reserves to the customary communities from whom they were taken;
- Recognize that the old strategies of granting access, use rights and benefits is meaningless for as long as our forests are not recognized as our own; and,
- Uphold the rule of law.
