(Business in Cameroon) - A few days to the celebration of the International Day of Forests (March 21), Greenpeace Africa and its partners (GDA and SAILD) are calling for agreements concerning the exploitation of 445,144 hectares of forests in Cameroon. Specifically, they are calling for the cancelation of the concessions of the Nkam forest (11,396 ha) in the Littoral and  Donga-Mantung (45,794 ha) in the Northwest. They also request the cancelation of the current call for tenders for forest concessions in the East and Center (387,954 ha). 

"The concession of those forests pose many threats to the biodiversity and community that live in and depend on them," explains Ranece Jovial Ndjeudja, Forest Campaign Manager for Greenpeace Africa. For instance, he illustrates, in early March 2022, a dozen of residents of Bonamangolo, Bindjen 1, Ndokati, Heroun, Boumkwa, Bekong, Timte, Bolam, Bewang, and Ndoktamba were arrested and detained for protesting the allocation of the UFA 07-003b concession that was granted in December 2021. 

According to the government, those concessions are granted to boost logging activities in the country and contribute to the development of the regions hosting the forests conceded, in the case of the recent tender launched. Some of the concessions are also aimed at making up for the losses recorded by forest operators in the South-West and North-West, due to the security situation in those regions in recent years. 

However, for Greenpeace's sustainable development advocacy coordinator Aristide Chacgom, it is "reckless" to continue exploiting the forest in the name of development when those activities benefit only a minority. Instead of improving the living conditions of neighboring communities whose survival depends on the forests, it is the contrary, he indicates.  

S.A.