History and politics

Little written records exist about the country now called Cameroon until the arrival of the Europeans. Yet, as Willibroad Dze-Ngwa remarked “there was no country known as Cameroon before the arrival of the early Europeans. The territory was constituted of several well-organized autonomous chiefdoms, kingdoms and lamibes whose livelihood depended on their customs and traditions” (2009, 4). The name Cameroon only appeared with the arrival of Europeans in Africa.

Indeed, in 1472 when the Portuguese reached the coast near the Wouri River estuary they gave the country the appellation Rio dos Camarões (river of shrimps) (Singer 2008, 20).³⁷

Dze-Ngwa 2009, 4

Later, Cameroon was variously referred to by the Portuguese’s Rios dos Camarões; the Spanish’s Camerones; the British’s Cameroons; the Germans’ Kamerun; and finally, the French’s

Cameroun ( ).

While the Germans, British and French were trading and battling for the territory, it was the Germans who on 14 July 1884 signed a treaty in Douala with King Bell which made Cameroon a German protectorate. The act was officially recognized at the 1884-1885 Kongokonferenz or Berlin Conference (Singer 2008, 21) which set the stage for the ‘scramble for Africa’. The period that followed 1884 and thereafter saw in turn the German, the British and the French rule over the territory until the country reached independence in the 1960s.³⁸

37 Dze-Ngwa reminds us that what the Europeans then called Cameroon only referred to the Wouri River estuary or the coastal region (2009, 4). Further, Le Vine (1971, 2) remarks about the Wouri River that “the Portuguese named the river Rio dos Camaroes, or River of Prawns, after catching and eating-and mistaking for prawns-a variety of crayfish found occasionally in the estuary. The name stuck and subsequently was generally applied to the entire coastal area between Mount Cameroon and Rio Muni (formerly Spanish Guinea)”.

38 It is important to note that following Germany defeat in World War I, the French and the British took control of the country. While the French inherited the eastern part of the territory, the British Cameroons was made up of the Northern and the Southern Cameroons which altogether were later known as Anglophone Cameroon.

However, when scholars currently talk of Anglophone Cameroon, they just refer to Southern Cameroons which voted for reunification with Francophone Cameroon whereas Northern Cameroon joined the Nigerian Federation.

Since independence, Cameroon has been ruled by two presidents Amadou Ahidjo (1960-1982), whose presidency has been called by some as ‘imperial’, under the one-party state and Paul Biya who has been running the country following Ahidjo’s resignation on 4 November 1982.³⁹

see Konings and Nyamnjoh 1997

In 1990, following many protestations throughout the country, multiparty was reintroduced in the country -reintroduced because it had existed before- (

). However, owing to various factors, among which the division of the opposition and the ruling elite’s reluctance to cede power, the elections that followed in 1992, 1997, and 2004 saw Biya retaining power amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging (see Fonchingong 1998; Takougang 2003; Touo 2009). Overall, the portrait that was painted by Cameroonian observers at the end of the 1990s depicted a democratic transition of the early 1990s gone awry; a picture of a state and its elites in crisis, weakened by domestic as well as international assaults for change, but clinging onto power by all means (see Gros 1995). In the words of Mehler, the democratic transition in Cameroon did not happen (Mehler 1997).⁴⁰

This description of the 1990s of Biya and his partisans clinging onto power and using all available means to do so still remains applicable today. In fact, eighteen years after the reintroduction of multipartism, in 2008, riots erupted, immediately repressed by security forces, over rising food prices as well as Biya modification of the two-term constitutional limit paving

Finally, strictly speaking, after having been a German colony until World War I, Cameroon was never a French or British colony, for the country was administered by both powers under mandate of the League of Nations (Singer 2008, 24) and then United Nations (UN) trusteeship after 1945 (Dze-Ngwa 2009, 4). That meant in theory that French and British Cameroons were to be governed differently than the two powers’ colonies. Nevertheless, the reality saw the territory governed by the British and the French as their colonies (Singer 2008, 24). Nonetheless, the distinction is still worth mentioning.

39 The exact reasons of the 4 November 1982 resignation are unknown, but it has been speculated that Ahidjo was sick and did not want his ‘entourage’ to take charge. Later on, Ahidjo tried to return to power and the following years a battle between Biya and Ahidjo went on until April 1984 when a failed coup d’Etat, attributed to Ahidjo and his followers, secured Biya’s hold on power (for more see Singer 2008, 31).

40 The French title of the article being “Cameroon: une transition qui n’a pas eu lieu”.

the way for him to run again in the upcoming October 2011 presidential election (see Onohiolo 2009a).

In recent years, the country has suffered from a reputation of being among the most corrupt places in the world according to Transparency International (see Cerutti, Ingram, and Sonwa 2009, 46). That is why, under domestic and international pressures, President Biya initiated the Opération Epervier purportedly designed to root out high level corruption in the country. Initially heralded, the operation has been lately criticized as an attempt to silence Biya’s political opponents, especially on the eve of the 2011 presidential election (see Dalle Ngok 2010a, 2010b; Dougueli 2010a, 2010b; Jeune Afrique 2010; Soudan 2010).

Finally, the anti-corruption operation has been happening at the same time that the Biya government, following the adoption of the 2004 decentralization laws, has been implementing a national program -separate from the sectoral forest management decentralization- of political, administrative, and fiscal decentralization. That program is designed to transfer more powers, resources and responsibilities to subnational governments, i.e. local councils and regions in the following areas: local economic development; environment and natural resources management;

planning (planification), land use and urbanism (aménagement du territoire, urbanisme) as well as housing; health and social development; and finally education, sports and cultural development (see Cheka 2007; ROC 2004a).⁴¹

41 Note that since January 2010 while Cameroon ten provinces have been renamed Regions, the elected regional officials supposedly in charge of the executive as well deliberative bodies of the newly ‘created’ regional governments have yet to be elected. So far, only centrally appointed Regional Governors who are supposedly in charge of administrative supervision of the elected regional governments have been put in place.

Although many a local commentator at the time criticized the laws for not going far enough, it has been acknowledged by some observers that the scope of the powers and responsibilities transferred to subnational governments, especially

local councils has been widened (see for instance Azebaze 2004; Nach 2004; Ndoumbé Diwouta 2004; Soh 2004).

4.1.2 Economy

Cameroon economic history since the 1960s can be divided into three phases (see Mandeng Ambassa 2009). The first period which went from 1960 to 1988 was characterized by heavy involvement of the state through parastatals and the use of planning to direct economic activities (see also Konings 2004, 308). The second period from 1988 to 2006 was marked by Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) following the 1986 economic crisis. Finally, the current period starts with the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) debt reduction initiative and reported attempts at jumpstarting the economy (Mandeng Ambassa 2009, 6).⁴²

In reality, the most important year in Cameroon’s recent economic history –and even overall recent history- remains 1986, for in the ensuing period the country embarked on a series of political, economic, and social changes (see Konings 1996). In effect, what Cameroonians call in French la crise saw, as in other African countries, the start of SAPs designed to alter the statist emphasis and purportedly return the country to growth through the expansion of private markets (Konings 2004, 310). That objective was to face the reluctance of the Biya government to implement the provisions of the SAPs to the point where the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

“had signed and canceled three successive stand-by agreements because of the government’s failure to achieve the negotiated targets” (Konings 2004, 313). In recent years, GDP growth has

42 The HIPC Initiative, launched in 1996 by the IMF and World Bank, aims to ensure that countries with unsustainable debt burden receive relief after achieving two major steps the decision and the completion points. The funds saved are designed to be used for social spending.

been negative and the trade balance between imports and exports negative as well (Singer 2008, 12).

Finally, Cameroon economy today, as in the past, is concentrated around agricultural products. While agriculture and livestock represents 44 percent of the national economy, industry and services in turn account for 16 and 40 percent (Cerutti, Ingram, and Sonwa, 45).

Nevertheless, oil remains the primary source of state exports (49.9 percent) with agricultural products, cocoa, cotton, and timber representing 6.5 percent (Cerutti, Ingram, and Sonwa 2009, 45).

4.2 THE FORESTRY SECTOR

Although the contribution of the forestry sector to African economies is still modest compared to its potential -in 2000 for instance it accounted for 0.16 percent of the total African workforce, 1.5 percent of GDP, and 2.2 of merchandise exports (Whiteman and Lebedys 2006, 31)- the sector remains nonetheless important for these countries, including Cameroon. The following section describes the main reforms that have happened in the forestry sector since the passage of the 1994 Forest Law, the legal basis of decentralized forest management in the country. Of particular importance in this section is the distinction between the various mechanisms of the law such as the RFA, community and council forests.