HOW TO INTEGRATE A GLOBAL ISSUE OF FOREST CONSERVATION WITH LOCAL INTERESTS : INTRODUCTION TO THE SATREPS PROJECT IN SOUTHEASTERN CAMEROON

Abstract

Conservation of tropical rainforests, with their rich biological diversity and high potentials for carbon sequestration, has become a major global issue. While Cameroon has witnessed an increase in the number of protected areas in the southeastern part of the country during the past 15 years, this has resulted in the restriction of access of local people to the forest. Since the new forest law in 1994, most parts of the forest in Cameroon have been divided either into protected areas, or forest management units subject to current or future logging operations. There is a growing conflict between the global issue of conservation and the interest of the local people in their livelihood. The Scientific and Technological Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS), a Japanese overseas cooperation project, addresses this issue through establishing a sustainable use of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) among the local people, which is compatible with the conservation of tropical forest. In this paper, the outline of the SATREPS project is described, and some of the interim outputs from the Projects are presented.