Identifying the major working groups
Kilum-Ijim Forest has insufficient valuable timber to be of logging interest but is, on the contrary, of great conservation value. Although the interests of the conservation community and local people differ, there is significant overlap and a common interest in maintaining the forest in its present extent and natural state. This has permitted the development of community forestry as a partnership between the conservation community and the local population (Rural Development Forestry Network, networkpaper 25th July 2001). To promote the Public Participatory GIS for this community forest, we should remind the importance of partnership and identify the major players.
Main working group
The Kilum-Ijim Forest Project is being carried out by BirdLife International in collaboration with the Cameroon Ministry of the Environment and Forestry and the communities adjacent to the Kilum Ijim forest. A Community Forestry Unit exists within Ministry of the Environment and Forestry (MINEF), which is charged with developing community forestry throughout the country. A manual which interprets the 1994 Forestry Law sets out the practical steps required to establish and manage community forests. However, the procedures to establish community forests are lengthy and complex and there remain inconsistencies and difficulties in interpretation. The Forestry Law and the Manual need to evolve in response to the field experiences of those pioneering their implementation – such as the Kilum-Ijim Forest Project. In 1983 and 1985, the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), now BirdLife International, carried out surveys in the area that led to the establishment of the Kilum and Ijim Mountain Forest Projects in 1987 and 1992 respectively, in order to stop further forest loss. (Since 1995, the two projects have been joined together as the Kilum-Ijim Forest Project.) Respecting the government’s original intention of gazetting the forest as a state reserve and learning from past attempts to demarcate the forest, the projects worked in collaboration with the communities adjacent to the forest to negotiate boundaries beyond which no further clearing for farming could take place. This work was carried out by commissions consisting of representatives of the community, traditional authorities and administrative authorities and was completed in 1991 in Kilum and 1994 in Ijim. This demarcation has been largely respected and has halted the rapid destruction of the forest.
At last, the importance of community involvement in the management of the forest was recognised
very early on. The communities around the forest have a strong interest in the forest, depending upon it for a wide range of products, the most important being fuelwood, medicines, honey and building materials.
<Planning meeting in Kilum Ijim>
Donors
The Kilum-Ijim Forest Project is currently funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF/UNDP) and the British Department for International Development (DFID) through the Civil Society Challenge Fund. In the past, it has also received funding from the Joint Funding Scheme (DFID), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the Cameroon Biodiversity Conservation and Management Programme, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries through the Programme International Nature Management (PIN) and WWF Netherlands.
Reference: Rural Development Forestry Network, networkpaper 25th July 2001
