The Center for the Environment and Development (CED) works for the sustainable management of forestry resources. Its program for sustainable development of forest communities is supported by a program for environmental and economic justice. Bubinga is CED's monthly periodical.

Ecologically spoken the Cameroonian forest is one of the richest in Africa in terms of its biodiversity. They are exploited, however, by lumbar companies that seek to satisfy European and Asian markets. This exploitation has repercussions for the environment, stirs up traditions and disrupts the forest communities. The cost of living increases and alcoholism, prostitution and illnesses abound in the villages in the vicinity of the exploitation sites. The exploitation itself causes numerous conflicts between the population alongside the tract and the lumbar companies. Cameroon's forestry law gives the local populations the possibility to create community forests and requires lumber companies to return part of the profits coming from the exploitation to the communities to finance community activities in the villages. The Cameroonian government has decided to develop short-term forest revenue to assure the interest payments of its foreign debts. The Structural Adjustment Program imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has had an exponential effect on poaching and illegal logging.

OBJECTIVES

In light of the above, CED's sustainable development program incorporates the following objectives:

• to translate in concrete terms the idea of sustainable development, in the first place with the rural populations in forest zone
• to contribute to a development of local populations, which should respect their environment and their culture
• to work for a better integration of the local populations in the management of the forest's resources
• to contribute to change in policies and practice concerning the management of forests and their biodiversity
• to bring down the present rate of deforestation and degradation of the grounds caused by itinerant farming practices on stubble-burnt fields;
• to promote the use of natural pesticides and fertilizers, biological means to protect the crops and to limit pollution and the risks involved in the usage of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
• to re-introduce agro-pastoral practices that are presently obsolete but may provide an answer to the socio-economic and biophysical setbacks from the modern agriculture and the itinerant farming practices on stubble-burnt fields;
• to experiment with these obsolete methods, to perfect them and to promote their usage.
• to improve agricultural productivity and to promote enclosed husbandry

PROGRAMS

CED works towards these goals through a series of programs:

The Community Forests Program

• Informing the local populations about the law and the forestry policies of Cameroon.
• Reinforcing the involvement of the local populations in the management of the forest's resources.
• Strengthening the populations in the acquisition and the management of community forests, private forests, community hunting areas
• Enhancing the value and use of non-wooden forest   products.
• Development of Economic Alternatives  

The Baka Self-Help Program

• Destroying the bonds of the Baka pygmies' dependency from the Bantu by establishing food self-sufficiency, income generating activities and the sensitization of the Baka about the legal political ways to resist the threats of the Bantu.
• Reasserting and enhancing the Baka's traditional knowledge and use of the forest's resources (medicinal and seasoning plants, wild fruits etc.)
• Developing sustainable self-help dynamics in the Baka communities.

Program for the preservation of biodiversity

• Reasserting and enhancing traditional solutions to daily problems by organizing a systematic collection (agriculture, traditional medicines, hunting, preservation of agricultural products, fabrication of common objects, settling of disagreements, etc.)
• Impressing on the populations the value of biodiversity
• Supporting activities for the preservation of endangered species
• Reforestation Program Kids for Forests

Advocacy on national and international forestry policies and practices

The tribulations in the development and environment that affect the populations at the local level, originate from the actions by players on international and national level. Therefore CED undertakes the following actions:

• Following up on certification procedures of tropical wood in the Central African region
• Studying conflicts related to the management of forest resources
• Researching management of forest resources and the protection of the environment
• Monitoring of illegal logging activities
 
• Monitoring the Chad cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project
• Publication of the Bubinga, a monthly periodical for information, training and sensitization on environmental issues.  

The Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project

The Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project is the largest foreign investment project in sub-Saharan Africa. It involves the drilling of 300 oil wells in the Doba region in the South of Chad and the construction of a 1070 km pipeline to transport the oil from Chad through Cameroon to an offshore loading facility at the Atlantic coast. The off-shore terminal facility is connected to the port of Kribi by an 11 km underwater pipeline. The expected oilproduction is 225,000 barrels perday. The project started operating in October 2003 and was inaugurated on 12 June 2004.

The controversy about the Worldbank's role in the Pipeline Project has been compounded by numerous reports of lost livelihoods, inadequate compensation measures, destruction of water sources and improper labor conditions for the Project's workers. On 25 September 2002, the Center of Environment (CED) filed a claim with the World Bank in name of Cameroonian peasants and workers victimized by the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project.

The Bank's Inspection Panel evaluated the claims admissibility and sent a team to carry out a preliminary inquiry in November 2002. A thorough investigation started off in January 2003 with an interview of the World Bank staff charged with the supervision of the project. Then another visit was made to Cameroon in the beginning of February 2003. The Inspection Panel has submitted a report to the World Bank Board of Directors. As of May 2005 CED sits at the negotiation table with the World Bank, the Consortium, the Cameroonian Government and a few NGO's still involved in the monitoring of the project to advocate for the population outstanding claims.

CED general secretary, M. Samuel Alain Nguiffo, is advisor on the board of RELUFA.