Environmental assessment in Cameroon: state of the art

Abstract

This paper is a summary of the evolution of the legal and institutional framework and the practice of environmental assessment (EA) in Cameroon. A Ministry of Environment and Forestry was created in April 1992 with a mandate to elaborate, implement and follow up the national policy of environment; a master law August 1996 related to environmental management prescribes environmental impact assessment for all projects that can cause environmental degradation. However, this legal and institutional framework is yet to be effective. To achieve this, the existing framework should be completed by application instruments. Also the existing structures of authority should be provided with adequate human, financial and equipment resources. Based on two practical examples, the limitations of the present situation are highlighted, and some suggestions for improvement are made.

Supporting Governance of Economic Development: The PAANEEAC Experience in Central Africa

“…Major donors such as the Word Bank, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands have required EIA to be undertaken for the development projects they financed. Yet, EIA systems in Central Africa remain weak (Bitondo, Post, & Van Boven, 2013). They lack resources, capacities, transparency, and participation.…”

“…The information on PAANEEAC and its results comes from a review of the program by the associations themselves (Bitondo et al, 2013), NCEA’s final program report (NCEA, 2014a) as well as by an evaluation carried out by one of the authors who had not been involved in the program (NCEA, 2014b). For this evaluation, the following activities were undertaken between February 2013 and October 2013:

Dozens of PAANEEAC-related documents were reviewed, including the original program proposal, annual plans, and annual reports made between 2008 and 2013 by each of the NAs and by SEEAC and project plans and reports of activities, reports of the annual conferences at Central African level, financial reports, donor reports, and EIA mapping reports by the NCEA.

75 interviews were conducted in all five PAANEEAC countries, with NA board members, civil servants in the environment ministries and in line ministries, environmental consultancies, academics, representatives of the business community, politicians, members of the press and of environmental NGOs, other donor organizations present in these countries, and with respondents active at the subregional level: the Central African union CEEAC and SEEAC.

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“…In addition, the NAs, with NCEA as their main technical advisor, have produced some outcomes of potentially international significance. This includes a study on the financial basis of EIA systems around the world and in Central Africa (NCEA, 2013), and a joint analysis of the evolution of EIA in their countries (Bitondo et al, 2013). …”

Multi-Level Governance Conditions for Implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreements: The Case of CDM Forestry Readiness in Cameroon

“…Furthermore, experiences with impact assessments of dams and oil pipelines in Cameroon using World Bank assessment frameworks had been accepted by government as legitimate (Bitondo, 2000;Dames and Moore, 1997), hence setting a precedent. Nevertheless, clear and practical legislation would be desirable to provide a standard framework for carbon forestry project assessment.…”

Cameroon’s Environmental Impact Assessment Decree and Public Participation in Concession-Based Forestry: An Exploratory Assessment of Eight Forest-Dependent Communities

“…This includes advertising the EIA for the development project, recording possible opposition to the project, and providing a forum for affected populations to discuss the findings of the EIA. While the Decree has been cited as a positive step towards incorporating public participation in concession-based forestry , it has been noted in other sectors-most notably large-scale energy infrastructure projects-that public involvement was lacking in practice despite the presence of a legal framework (Nguene et al, 2012;Bitondo, 2000). An additional issue relates to the fact that the Decree does not require that consultation occurs during the early phases of project development (Foti & Silva, 2010), nor does it explicitly state that the opinions of the population at large will actually be accounted for in project plans.…”