EIA in Community Forestry

Harmonization for the Community Forest application and the Environmental Impact Assessment

Under Cameroonian law a community who wants to apply for a community forest should submit an application which conforms to the regulations laid out in the community forestry law (No. 94/01 of 20 January 1994) and its Decree of implementation (95/531PM of 23 august 1995). This procedure consists of 5 steps, as summarized earlier.

On February 23 2005, a law No. 2005/0577 was passed that lays out the procedure for performing an Environmental Impact Assessment in Cameroon. This law was followed by regulation No. 0069 of March 8 2005, which describes those activities in Cameroon that are subject to performing an EIA. According to this law, community forestry is an activity that must be evaluated in an EIA. As both procedures have partly overlapping activities, they can technically be combined. This would involve an extension of the procedure to register a community forest to include all aspects of Environmental Impact Assessment that are not already covered under the procedure of application for a Community Forest. Community Forestry could then be removed from the list of activities that are mentioned in regulation No. 0069 of March 8 2005 which describes those activities in Cameroon that are subject to performing an EIA.

The benefits of this approach are four-fold:

1. It reduces the workload for the local communities that apply for a community forest, thus increasing the chance of a successful application by these communities. This results in better prospects for poverty alleviation in these communities and protection of unique biodiversity in Cameroon.
2. It decreases the amount of work for the relevant ministries as they can now combine two review and approval procedures instead of having to perform two independent procedures for one and the same application. Duplication of work and costs are avoided.
3. It decreases the costs for local communities to apply for a community forest because they have to perform only one instead of two expensive administrative procedures and do not need to pay the fees, cumulating to 5.000.000 F CFA, that are due under regulation No. 2005/0577 of February 23 2005.
4. It saves time, as two independent procedures will inevitably result in delays in both procedures.

This combination has been proposed to the Cameroonian government but the procedure described below has no legal basis. However, it is hoped that this procedure may in the near future form an accepted way to include EIA in community forestry in Cameroon.

The procedure presented below is an extended version of the procedures as laid out in the Community Forestry law (No. 94/01 of 20 January 1994) and its Decree of implementation (95/531PM of 23 august 1995) to apply for a Community Forest and includes all aspects from regulation No. 2005/0577 of February 23 2005 defining proposals subject to performing an EIA.