Summary report of the Cameroon Regional Forest Governance Forum: creating space for stakeholder participation in forest governance

Abstract

The Cameroon Regional Forest Governance Forum held 16th-18th March 2016 at Hotel La Falaise, Yaoundé was the first to be held under the auspices of the Congo Basin VPA Implementation - Championing Forest Peoples’ Rights and Participation Project (EU-CFPR) project. It is the tenth under a series of similar international conferences implemented under the Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT)’s previous project ‘Strengthening African Forest Governance’ (SAFG). The EU-CFPR project is supported by the European Union and DFID and is implemented in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Cameroon. The project is led by the Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT), University of Wolverhampton, working in partnership with Centre pour l’Information Environnementale et le Développement Durable (CIEDD), Maison de l’Enfant et de la Femme Pygmées (MEFP) in CAR, Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) and Forêts et Développement Rural (FODER) in Cameroon, FERN and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) in Europe. The Cameroon Regional Forest Governance Forum was also delivered with the generous support of a number of organisations and initiatives. These included the EU FAO FLEGT Programme, the DFID funded FLEGT-VPA support programme, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR Regional Office, Cameroon) and the Cameroon Ministry of Forests and Wildlife. The Cameroon Regional FGF was the first in which the FSC was officially involved. The aim of the Cameroon Regional FGF was to contribute to the wider aims of the EU-CFPR project through experience sharing and raising awareness, and the profile of FLEGT-VPA process. The specific objective of the Cameroon Regional FGF was to provide a free, deliberative and open space for the exchange of information, experiences, lessons, ideas and up to date research around Forest Governance, FLEGT-VPAs and other initiatives seeking to improve forest governance and combat illegal logging. This objective was met in full as will be highlighted in this report.