The link between Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, with the enhancement of forest carbon stock (REDD+) and Community Forest Management (CFM) as a necessary local action on the forest, is continuously being challenged. CFM has been a suitable option in achieving sustainable forest practices in the tropics. The factors that contribute to its success will likely contribute to the success of REDD+ programs in Cameroon. Nevertheless, the opportunity and challenges in integrating the two concepts to achieve the objectives require careful analysis, considering the challenges facing the country’s tenure system. This article makes use of an in-depth content analysis of several documents concerning the subject matter and tries to examine the extent to which forest tenure and rights are a constraint to CFM in Cameroon and the REDD+ Initiative and assess how these concepts can work together to achieve sustainable forest management and a reduction in deforestation and forest degradation. The assessment shows several bottlenecks and discrepancies concerning tenure rights in the community forest and carbon rights when it concerns incentive-based benefit-sharing mechanisms under the REDD+ process. It reveals that the state may likely maintain centralization of forest tenure if the issues are not clarified. The article concludes with a proposal of an urgent need for domestic legal reforms to secure forest protection achieve the objectives of international forest policy initiatives like REDD+.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.