THE EFFICIENCY OF FOREST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN CAMEROON 30 YEARS AFTER THE ADOPTION OF A NEW LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Practices in sustainable forest management are ruled by national forest policies. Legal standards of forest management applied in Central African region display increasing risks of long-term depletion of timber resources. This review aims to assess the effectiveness of sustainable logging practices by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the forest management rules applied in Cameroon. The management of the populations of timber tree species is based on population dynamics traits and on measures imposed by national forestry policies. Before any exploitation in natural forest concessions, a management plan must be approved to define the various activities and the potential impacts on the forest. Despite many relevant principles, nearly three decades of forest management in Cameroon have exhibited gaps that need to be addressed in the legal standards of forest management. Proposals for improvement relate to procedures for determining the recovery rate and how considerations on density and seed tree populations should be included into the legal management policies. These suggestions depend on the knowledge of demographic dynamics and the reproductive ecology of the timber taxa as well as a more rapid integration of scientific results into the legal forest management standards.