Un-redd programme on forest management in Cameroon Thesis

Un-redd programme on forest management in Cameroon - Thesis Example It uses the convening power and expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The UN-REDD Programme has 29 partner countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America; of these 13 receive support to National Programme activities. The Central African Republic including Cameroon, besides other countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guatemala, Guyana, and several others not receiving direct support to national programmes engage with the Programme in a number of ways such as observers to the Programme’s Policy Board, and through participation in regional workshops and knowledge sharing enabled by the Programme’s interactive online workspace (UN-REDD 2009). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the UN-REDD Programme in developing countries, particularly in Cameroon in Central Africa. The UN-REDD, its goals, objectives and targets in Cameroon, the UN-REDD in relation to governance, corruption and sustainable development in Cameroon, as well as the challenges or shortcomings in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Cameroon will be examined. Reform in the Rainforests of Cameroon Cameroon, is a tropical country in Central Africa and part of the Congo Basin. â€Å"It contains the largest piece of rainforest on the African continent and the second largest area of contiguous moist tropical forest of the world† (Westholm, Henders, Ostwald & Mattson 2009: 44). Cameroon continues to have vast forest resources, and is at the forefront of forestry sector reform in Africa. It is expected that the country will play a constructive role in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). Cameroon has a population of 16.5 million inhabitants, of which about 30,000 indigenous people live on an area of 4,75,000 square kilometers. A part of the vast 198 million hectares Congo Basin rainforest is in Cameroon, covering 16.9 million hectares, forming 40 percent of the national territory. This forest is rich in fauna and flora providing â€Å"food, medicines, fuel wood and construction materials for about 8 million rural Cameroonians† (Aronsen, Lindhjem & Braten 2010: 7). The forestry sector forms the core of the Cameroonian economy, generating about 13,000 formal and 1,50,000 informal jobs, thus becoming the largest employer outside the public sector. Timber is the second largest source of export revenues after petroleum, accounting for 4.8 percent of non-petroleum GDP in 2004 (Aronsen et al 2010). â€Å"The deforestation rate is 1,53,700 hectares per year, or 0.72%, according to the National communication, although latest assessments ha ve yielded much lower rates† (Westholm et al 2009: 44). From the year 1994, Cameroon regulated access to its rainforests, balanced public and private interests in those forests, and combined a broad range of economic, cultural, and environmental approaches to the value of the forests, by introducing regulatory and market-based reforms. According to Topa, Megevand and Karsenty (2009), reports based on evidence from historical data and extensive interviews indicate that the reforms brought order among the most highly competing interests, and addressed vital environmental and social issues; however a significant part of the agenda remains incomplete. The reports provide information to the public on the boundaries, ownership, use rights, and management of Cameroon’s rainforests, together with detection and prosecution of illegal activities. There has been