Key policies and governance approach

Land degradation and desertification has long been a matter of concern for the Government of Cameroon [4]. As such, Cameroon has been attempting to address land degradation in the country even before implementation of the main guidelines of the 1992 Rio Summit, which enshrined the major conventions (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - UNCCD, Convention on Biological Diversity - CBD, etc.). For instance, in 1995, Cameroon set up a provincial committee for drought control in the north of the country. This organization started the actions to combat desertification and drought via the initial phase of Operation Green Sahel. This programme promoted mass reforestation to respond to the degradation of the environment. Subsequently, and in order to comply with its commitments to the UNCCD, Cameroon produced its National Action Plan to Combat Desertification (NAP/CD) in 2006. This plan relaunched Operation Green Sahel, integrating the new guidelines of the Convention [1], [4].

As early as 2015, Cameroon acted along with the UNCCD to promote the concept of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), which has been defined as “a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems”. As a result, Cameroon proposed its national Land Degradation Neutrality target setting programme, whose guidelines at the national level aim to achieve, in relation to 2015 (no net loss), the improvement of land production conditions of at least 10% more of the national territory. At the communal level, the neutrality targets aim to achieve a coverage of at least 90% of councils located in priority areas for combating land and forest landscape degradations. In addition, at the specific level, targets include achieving the restoration of 12 million ha declared by Cameroon under the AFR100 initiative, reducing dependence on firewood, and reducing forest degradation by at least 75% [4].

Beyond the application of the guidelines of the UNCCD, Cameroon has committed itself to the Bonn Challenge initiative through its African name known as “African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100)”. Additionally, the country has expressed interest in the Great Green Wall initiative and to this end, a national strategy and an action plan were developed to define the implementation framework of this initiative [4].

While all these initiatives and opportunities to be implemented have the same goal: restoring landscapes and degraded lands, it is necessary to harmonise all land and landscape restoration activities at the national level. For this reason, Cameroon has recently developed the Harmonised Action Plan (2020-2030) to combat land and forest landscape degradation in Cameroon. The vision of the Harmonised Action Plan is to contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets through forest land and landscape restoration initiatives (Bonn Challenge/AFR100), in line with Cameroon’s National Development Strategy (NDS 30). The overall objective is to federate all initiatives and efforts to combat land and landscape degradation in order to restore 12 million hectares of degraded forest lands and landscapes by 2030 [4].

Successes and remaining challenges

The rehabilitation of landscapes in Cameroon has given rise to several strategy papers, and many past and current landscape restoration projects have been implemented in various regions of the country. These projects make up a body of experiences [1], through which the country can build upon the cumulative lessons learned [4], that will help facilitate implementation of future landscape restoration activities in the country. Additionally, the personnel that have been involved in landscape restoration in Cameroon have participated in conferences and exchanges of experience, which represents another asset for developing and implementing land and landscape restoration initiatives in the country [1].

However, structural problems in Cameroon make for serious obstacles. For instance, landscape restoration requires actions that cut across the fields of action of various government ministries. For example, in Cameroon, the ministries of the Environment (MINEPDED), of Agriculture (MINADER), of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF), of Water and Energy (MINEE) and of Mines (MINMIDT) all work on the same aspects of the environment: soil, water, and ecosystems. However, these ministries often operate in silos, with each one tending to act in isolation, according to its own policy. This generates approaches locally that are contradictory and that can lead to land conflicts. Another structural problem is the weakness of national land and forest research. This weakness is linked in particular to the lack of stable financing, which is an obstacle to stimulating the innovations needed for landscape restoration on the ground. Further, despite the great efforts made by Cameroon to involve local populations in decision-making, real implementation of this approach faces difficulty on the ground. Yet, without the involvement of local stakeholders, landscape restoration in the country will not be sustainable. Means and tools are also still lacking when it comes to monitoring and evaluating restoration efforts, which is needed to improve knowledge of the best approaches [1].

Initiatives and Development Plans

Within the framework of the Bonn Challenge and AFR100, Cameroon aims to restore 12 million ha of degraded land. To contribute to this, two major projects co-signed by the MINEPDED and the MINFOF were programmed for implementation in 2021. The first, the Largescale Forest Landscape Restoration in Africa project, aims at the large-scale restoration of forest landscapes. In Cameroon, it is funded through the IKI initiative by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The second is a programme made up of several projects, each with different forms of implementation depending on the stakeholders involved (public and private stakeholders, Decentralized Territorial Community, NGOs) [1].

Cameroon is also implementing the Great Green Wall initiative [1], which aims to grow an 8,000-kilometre continent-wide barrier to combat land degradation, desertification and drought in the Sahel. As part of this initiative, UNHCR and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) launched a unique programme in 2018 aimed at reversing deforestation in the Minawao refugee camp and surrounding villages in north-eastern Cameroon. By 2021, 360,000 seedlings had been planted on more than 100 hectares. The camp was almost deforested, but this project has helped to repair the vegetation cover. The project is also part of a UNHCR strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with refugee camps and preserve local environments. The approach includes scaling-up tree planting and clean cooking programmes, investing in solar energy systems and reducing plastic waste [5].     

The National Plantation Forests Development Programme (NPFDP), validated in 2019 by the forest administration and development partners, could be the basis for the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes and forests in Cameroon. The National Forestry Development Agency (ANAFOR) is responsible for directly or indirectly supporting the implementation of the said programme. To do so, it carries out studies, looks for financing, provides seeds and seedlings and develops consulting expertise. Even though financial support is not yet available, this programme offers the opportunity to reconcile restoration actions using a landscape approach, with the involvement of local populations via decentralized local authorities. Under this programme, the main objective of ANAFOR is to facilitate the planning, establishment and development of private and community forest plantations, the development of value chains, and the creation of a sustainable forestry economy generating jobs and growth [1].