Governance arrangements, vulnerability and forest users in the Cameroon savannah. Ingram tenure livelihoods vulnerability cameroon savanna Central African Forests conference sept 2013

1. Governance arrangements,
vulnerability and forest users in
the Cameroon savannah
Central African Forests and Institutions (CAFI) conference
Paris, September 20-21 2013
Session: Climate change and forests
Verina Ingram
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy

2. Aim
Examine how beekeepers use and perceive
the forest, their vulnerabilities and pressures,
and
the
individual
and
collective
(governance) solutions used to secure their
livelihoods.
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3. Lit. review
Background
Field work
• Rapid assessment Key informant interviews
• Production zone selection – stakeholder interviews
• Botanic assessment - forage species
• Observation - apiculture activities
• Structured interviews 375 actors, 40 processors, 10 villages & 6 market surveys
VCA
PAR data
collection
• Participatory action research: problem analysis, market, participatorily strategic plans
• Capacity building events: support for group organisation
• Market price tracking (1-3 years)
Analysis
• Data analysis SPSS and Excel, SWOT
• Preliminary findings verified in meetings & peer cross-checked
• Scientific
• Articles & book chapter, value chain maps, reports (VCA, harvest impacts, botanic
Outputs
assessments, baseline studies)
• Public
2012 • Policy brief, product sheet, technical datasheet, guidelines for sustainable NTFP
enterprises
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Methodology
2004 • Literature review – chains, actors, production zones, governance arrangements

4. Methods used
• Built on existing studies of,
and with, value chain actors
• Situational analysis &
snowballing to determine
chain, activities and actors
• Mix of qualitative and
quantitative methods
• Participatory action research
enabled understanding of
context e.g. governance, use,
history of chain
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5. Results
Beekeeper’s uses of the forest & outcomes
• Beekeeping an older, married, low-educated, local
Gbaya male activity – long tradition
• 68% households in Djerem involved in beekeeping
• 48% annual average h.h. income (281,000 FCFA ,433
US$)
• 87% beekeepers apiculture income 10,000 - 100,000
FCFA (111 to 223 US$)
• Alongside subsistence farming & livestock, 45% ≥ 1
income source, 10% 6 sources
• persistent activity (58% >10 years, 23% >20 years)
• 86% harvest sold, 10% consumed, 4% as gifts
• Physical & risky activity: 10 km walk, using fire, heavy
lifting
• Low value adding 28% also extract wax, 7% propolis
• 99% make traditional hives of local materials
• 20% member of association, individual sales
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6. Results
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Perceptions of the forest
Vast
Provider of forest products
Source of dependence
Beekeepers are users (not
conservators)
Source of fertility (gallery forests for
maize)
Forest’s beauty, magic and
spiritualism
Ripe for appropriation (urbanisation
and agriculture)
Apiculture and its trade not
responsible for degradation of forest
resources
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7. Results
Forest governance
• Governance arrangements of whole
chain- fragmented
• Low intensity, multiple use, overlapping
customary rights
• Open access for most forest resources
• Community appropriation of valuable
resources e.g. bamboo
• No initial statutory regulation of access to
markets
• Statutory void concerning rights and rules
to commercialise apiculture products
• Voluntary arrangements to control market
- organic and ethical trade certifcaiton,
collective action & government projects
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8. Results
Livelihood vulnerabilities and pressures
1. Human induced changes such as
increasing population pressure &
infrastructure projects (+ & -)
• → deforestation & forest degradation
• → competing claims for forest resources
(fuelwood, kofia, raffia, bamboo) & uses
(water, beekeeping, grazing, fertile river
valleys)
2. Increasing climate changes & variability
→ impacting forage flowering, bush fires &
pests
3. Persistent poverty with low levels of
capital and (ability to) professionalise,
dependence upon natural capital → few
alternatives and low enabling environment
and agents
Multiple
pressures
impacting
reliability,
quantity and
quality of
apiculture
products →
apiculture income &
livelihood security
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9. Results
Component
Forest plant &
animal community &
biodiversity
Forest ecosystem
services
Human well-being
Institutions
Individual and collective adaptive & mitigative solutions to
secure livelihoods
Potential adaptive response
options
Silviculture
Responses by beekeepers and chain
actors
Regeneration, planting bamboo and raffia, planting
melliferous agroforestry tree species
Habitat or species preservation (protected
Adapted hive styles, hunting of pests (African palm
areas, conservation and restoration)
civet).
Water management measures, soil and
Informal watershed and habitat protection of forest
vegetation protection, sustainable farming
areas for beekeeping, bamboo and raffia grove
systems, climate smart and good agricultural protection, regulation of access to bamboo & raffia
practices
groves, tree planting, tenure claims on forest areas by
beekeepers.
Measures to decrease dependence on forest Professionalization of beekeeping and marketing,
ecosystem goods and services or increase
collective action and formalisation of groups,
resilience of forest ecosystems, valuing
increased hives, increased commodification hive
economic ecosystem goods and services,
products, increased commercialisation, adding-value
recognition for food security and poverty
to hive products, increased product range, expansion
alleviation.
to new markets and consumers, selling price increase,
expansion of business model to other area in
Cameroon.
institutional responses to climate change
New chain-integrated social enterprises, voluntary
and poverty mitigation , implementation of Soil Association organic and fair trade certification,
international policies, multilevel
The Body Shop community trade certification ,
government, private sector & CSO networks, geographic origin certification(?), CFs(?), develop EU
knowledge transfer and integration, revised export rules & HMRS, new chain platforms &
pro-poor regulations, PES.
government supported projects, introduction
standards and regulations, tenure claims on forest by
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beekeepers .

10. Recommendations for policy & practice
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Build on customary rules for local management
Consistency of regulations
Make top-down planning more participatory
Acknowledge NTFP values in policy & support
Assess resource & develop harvesting guidelines
Stimulate chain platforms ‘interprofessions
Local community land tenure and resource rights rationalised
Fuse customary and statutory frameworks
Enact implementing texts for the Forest law
Dissemination of forest law & its revisions to users
Scope of forestry law better defined
Rationalise fiscal regime
Improve capacity of state to enforce regulations
State outreach to actors at beginning of chain
Focus support of most vulnerable and key chain actors
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11. Maintaining a vibrant apiculture sector is
important in diversifying livelihoods, providing
subsistence and cash revenues and mitigating
vulnerability
Conclusions
• No one institutional design or governance
arrangement that lead to sustainable livelihood
wins-wins.
• Pragmatism needed about the role of forest
products - such as apiculture - in poverty
alleviation and reconciling global environmental
values with local livelihood needs.
• Revisions to the Cameroonian regulatory
framework offer hope that formal regulations
take account of other arrangements and
produce a more complementary mix reflecting
the reality of trade from the forest to urban areas
nationally, regionally in Central Africa and
globally - with positive implications for forest
beekeepers
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12. Merci !
Thanks to all interviewees especially the beekeepers, MINEPIA, MINFOF,
Guiding Hope, Denis Sonwa, Stephanie Tangkeu, Han van Dijk and Purabi Bose
Aminatou Hamoa
Quality Assurance officer & Trainer – Guiding Hope organic apiculture enterprise, Cameroon
Contact: Verina Ingram verina.ingram@wur.nl
THINKING beyond the canopy