A workshop on Cameroon's mines

by Mohamadou Dialo, workshop participant

As the leader of a local organization called « Development Without Borders”, I was invited to participate in a workshop organized by RELUFA and the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church, last May. My organization is based in Ngaoundéré, the capital of the Adamawa Region in northern Cameroon. This is an agro-pastoral area with one of the lowest educational levels in the country. We are trying to help defend the interest of local communities where a mining project is underway for the exploitation of bauxite. This mineral extraction project seems very important for the Cameroonian government.

Bauxite mines in northern Cameroon

The bauxite deposits in Minim, Martap and Ngaoundal have been discovered in the early years of independence and are estimated at more than one billion tons of bauxite, holding at least 40% aluminum, according to techniciens. In March 2005 the State of Cameroon gave the exploration permit to an American company called Hydromine Inc. Meanwhile, companies based in Australia, India and the United Arab Emirates have joined Hydromine and contributed to the financial investments, which allegedly adds up to 5 to 6 billion US dollars, or even more. These investments serve the construction of a hydro-electric dam, the refinery and several other works that will allow the exploitation of the ore. The energy generated by the dam will be used to locally turn the bauxite into aluminum. To implement this project, Hydromine Inc. and its allies have created a consortium and the developers are regularly present on the sites in Ngaoundal, Minim and Martap. Only a week ago, on May 29 2009, they inaugurated their offices in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. If all goes as planned, the Cameroonian government will grant them the exploitation permit in March 2010.

Next to this huge display, the local residents have become increasingly distraught. Whereas they live from their agriculture activities, besides fishing and beekeeping, the people have learned that the fields they cultivate and their livestock's grazing areas will be considerably reduced. Frequent agro-pastoral conflicts between farmers and herders are already problematic because of overgrazing. The civil war of the 90’s between the indigenous Foulbés et Baya people goes back to disagreements between herders and farmers.

Sour memories

The tiny minority of the local population which has received at least some level of schooling does not have the qualifications needed to get worthwhile jobs in the project. Besides, the area affected by the bauxite project have had earlier experiences with other large project. The construction of the Mbakaou dam, for example, has deeply disrupted agro-pastoral areas in a region where seasonal migration remains for traditional herders the only resort during the dry season, which can last uptil six months.

More recently the people remember the passage of the Chad Cameroon Oil Pipeline. Before the launch of this project many promises had been made to local populations. But today people have become completely disillusioned. They don’t even want to hear talking about the Pipeline. Entire families have lost all they had to the project : houses, pastures, worship places, burial places, etc. Promised compensation measures that were guaranteed by the World Bank’s support are still awaited. Personally I lost two grazing grounds I had inherited from my father, because exactly those grounds were chosen to build the project’s base in Ngaoundal. At the time, when I went to see the project’s leadership, they gave me several appointments for a reconnaissance trip. The time passed, the number of appointments multiplied and were postponed all the time. One day, I arrived on the site and I noticed that working crews and large machines were clearing all the installations I had there. I tried to talk about it with the former Mayor of the town, who knew about my grounds and the purpose it served, but he was unable to do anything. I then asked the Prefect of Djérem of that time how to start a law suit, but he adviced me against any such efforts.

Preventing a "deja-vu" experience

I was shattered by this bad experience. In my own circles, other family and friends have also have fallen victim to similar abuse. This is why, as soon as the bauxite project was announced, I decided to do something in defense of the people’s interest, for them to not have to go through the same situation as with the Pipeline. The idea is simple: with minimal means we go between the villages and sit down with the communities thanks to positive collaboration with local traditional, religious and administrative authorities. We inform the population about the anticipated works (dam, factory, sites, etc…) and then ask them how they have been prepared to host a project of this scale. Then we collect their concerns and grievances to be able to submit those to the public authorities.

Since 2006 we have been trying to do all we can to convince the State of Cameroon and the companies of the need to seek the view of the communities, and in particular to take that into account in all decisions taken regarding the project.

It has become clear that it is not easy to let one self be heard, but thanks to our collaboration with the media our advocacy work has more and more become known. We hope that the other parties will understand that.

Workshop on mines in cameroon

This is how we became involved with the Network Fighting Hunger in Cameroon (RELUFA) and the National Peace and Justice Ministry of the Catholic Church. Together they organized on 28 and 29 May this year a workshop for local communities from all over Cameroon to exchange about their experiences with mining projects in their area. The workshop was held in Yaoundé to and we took part together with many other Civil Society groups that work on the issue of mining in our country. We had people from Lomié (cobalt and nickel) in the East, Garoua (uranium) in the North, Poli (uranium) in the North, Lolodorf (uranium) in the South, Batouri (gold) and Yokadouma (gold) in the East, and Ngaoundéré and Minim Martap (bauxite) in Adamawa. Participants from Mbalam (iron) in the South had been unable to come.

The workshop intended to inform participants about the various stage of mining projects, the possible impact on local communities and the environment, and the relations between the various actors involved in a mineral extraction project. With as its main goal for us to share with one another about our respective experiences and the timing was right. For me personally it was the opportunity to better understand my own role as well as that of local actors in a general sense concerning mining projects in our area. I also had the opportunity to meet with other actors from the North, East and Southern regions of Cameroon. On a daily basis they all are trying hard to work with the local population to improve their living standards by reducing the negative impact of the mineral exploitation on the population and on the local environment

At the same time I was surprised and encouraged to hear about all these experiences. Surprised because within my organization we were not aware that similar activities were taking place elsewhere in the country. Encouraged because for a long time we thought we were “orphans” in our struggle. Today, I have the feeling that we have become part of a true family, this family of actors who work on an issue that is so vital, delicate and complex, but at the same time unknown to our country.

Before the end of the workshop we developed an action plan we will be working on. It certainly will allow us to better lead our future actions.

On the whole, the Yaoundé workshop on mines in Cameroon was opportune and pertinent. What struck me is the lack of information on mining projects in Cameroon. It is only at this workshop that many of us for the first time discovered the Mining Code, and we all got a copy of it. The difficulty to get hold of this information remains one of the main obstacles in our work with communities at the grassroots.

In any case, the population is very receptive and they are the ones that move us to action. Of course, cooperation with administrative, religious, and traditional authorities and even with the mining operators is indispensable to be able to arrive at the best results.

Among many other lessons, these are a few of the things we learned during last May’s workshop on mining. We really hope that from now on this kind of initiatives will be held at a regular basis to allow us to be more effective in our advocacy work.

Fair Fruit- A Harvest of Hope

by Christi Boyd, Companionship Facilitator

In April RELUFA facilitated a new shipment of delectable dried fruit to our US Trade Partner, Partners for Just Trade. At the request of consumers our dryers have adapted the dehydration process to better preserve the fruits tenderness and flavor. With our new look in FDA approved standup pouches with resealable ziplock, the 100% natural dried mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, and a mix of the first three tropical fruits are now available for online purchase.

Local demand

While we had been thinking that the international Fair Trade market was our best bet because of the lower prices offered by the local competition, we discovered the contrary is true for our product during sales at a Mother's Day Fair at the America School. After three hours time all our bags of mixed fruit were sold out and a couple of hours later the papaya, too. We were only left with a few pinapple for the next day, when people kept on returning to ask for our mix. After five hours of selling the first day, we only had a few more paclages left In five hours time we were sold out and had no more bags left over to sell the next day.

Thanks to our attractive, high quality packaging it looks like we surprisingly may have found our way into international circles here, as well as Cameroonian business women who have a clientele wishing to nibble while waiting to be served. The Hilton chef considers the possibility for samples of our fruit to be included in the hotel's V.I.P. welcome baskets, and two of the main national supermarket chains have agreed to try and sell our fruit in their stores.

Fair Fruit Producers

Our dried fruit derives from the rich, volcanic soil of Western Cameroon. The fertile grounds of this region have become a blessing and a curse for local farmers. They are under constant threat of land grab by a multinational fruit company that engulfs their community.

Fair Fruit producers are planters who lost this way their livelihoods. After the agro-business had seized their fields, some of them subsist on a small remainder of land, unable to resolve their debts. Others have re-invested in new plots but face inflated leases. Evicted twice, one farmer decided altogether to move away far from the business’ vicinity to not risk removal again.

Driven by poverty, the farmers seek natural alternatives to the expensive chemical inputs used in conventionally produced fruits. Pineapple seedlings, for example, are first soaked in a hot red pepper bath to kill insects that would later gnaw at the plant’s roots.

Our Fair Fruit dryers are mostly young people who at times slave away as day laborers in the company’s plantations. The farmers and dryers agree together on their fair share in the production of this healthy snack.

Food Sovereignty-update

by Christi Boyd, Companionship Facilitator

RELUFA's 2009 goal for its Food Sovereignty program is to build five granaries in communities that for three years now have proven to be running their grainbank efficiently and significantly have increased their stocks; to expand the program by including 15 new villages that have requested to join; and to help all 50 grain bank cooperatives organize as a federation so together they can become stronger and adopt a joint strategy to fight against hunger in their region. To that extent RELUFA coordinator, Valery Nodem, will travel North the end of this month to visit the grainbanks that were established last year, and to participate in the first meeting held to help organize the grainbank cooperatives into four zonal unions.

The Ftang women-run grainbank

Ftang is a small village in a very remote mountainous and rocky area, where 14 women groups have fpormed a larger union to improve the food security in their homes. The Ftang women's group is led by Jeunesse Dazi, a young widow who lost her husband eleven years ago. Besides her own seven daughters, she is also taking care of the five children born from one of her husband's other two wives, who has meanwhile passed away. After the death of her husband Jeunesse chose to return from the city to her village to help organize the women. She is a great example of strength and endurance, and an inspiration for others.

The Ftang women's group are the first in this union to participate in RELUFA's Food Sovereignty program and start their women-run grain bank with an initial stock of 60 bags. This year a second group in the union received their first supply to create a grain bank. We hope that over time and with support from Presbyterians in the US we will be able to expand the program to eventually include more if not all 14 women's groups of the union for them to each run their own grain bank.

During the lean season of July-September 2008, the grainbank opened its doors to sell or loan the stock of 60 bags to its community members. The management committee gave 31 bags to group members as an in-kind loan, and the other 29 bags were sold for a total of 435,000 CFA or roughly $900 (i.e .15,000 or $31 /bag). During the next harvest of November 2008 the grain bank cooperative further increased its stocks by buying up from its members 41 bags for 10,000 CFA. They further used 15,000 CFA to pay the rent of a shipping container the local Catholic Mission has made available to them to be used as storage space. The last 10,000CFA has gone in the common pot for miscellaneous costs. As the loans are paid back with a measure of grains as interest, the women go into the 2009 lean season with a total of 81 i.e. an increase in their stocks of 21 on their original 60 bags, i.e. about 33% .

The women are running the grain bank in a very smart way: the grain bank offers members, who opt to sell from their harvest, more for a bag of grain than the speculators would, while during the lean season they can either borrow in kind or purchase it back for a group price that is higher than the purchase price at the harvest but lower than the market price. The group earns that way 5,000 CFA on a bag of grains, i.e. a 50% gain. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. No businessman will be able to lure individual families into selling their harvest to him, because they get paid more for it by the grain bank, while during the lean season everyone has access to food whichever way they want: in kind or for cash.

The Ftang women really know how to go about their business!