Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+) is gaining traction in Cameroon. However, given the deep-rooted trans-sectoral drivers of forest loss, enforcing REDD+ policies will require major policy change and reform both within and beyond the forestry sector. In this paper, we view the REDD+ policy arena in Cameroon within a political economy framework and conduct policy network analysis to explore the factors that will enable or hinder efforts to implement the broad policy change required to realize REDD+. As the REDD+ context is shaped by the history of Cameroon's forestry sector, we draw lessons for REDD+ from the forestry law reform undertaken in 1994. We focus our analysis on three factors considered necessary for REDD+ success: (i) autonomy of the nation state from interests behind deforestation and forest degradation, (ii) national ownership over reform processes, and (iii) inclusiveness of policy processes. We find that the REDD+ policy process in Cameroon is repeating the weaknesses of the earlier forestry law reform, as seen in the minimal ownership of REDD+ by national actor groups and low inclusiveness among domestic actors at both national and local levels, as well as the absence of a national coalition for REDD+. Furthermore, politics and private agendas are compromising state agencies' autonomy in making decisions about forest resources. Our findings suggest that responses to these weaknesses, as well as to inconsistencies between sectoral policies and to competition over forest resources, will determine whether REDD+ can induce change within and beyond Cameroon's forestry sector.

National REDD+ policy networks: from cooperation to conflict

“…Apart from Vietnam, where the dominance of cooperation reflects more the context of an authoritarian political regime than genuine agreement, dominance of cooperation has not yet resulted in rapid and substantial progress. In Cameroon, interest in REDD+ and related reforms in and beyond the forestry sector seems to be very low, despite the country's early participation in multilateral REDD+ initiatives (Kengoum 2011, Dkamela et al 2014. Thus, in this case, lack of challenge and conflict seems to indicate that the national government is not fully engaged.…”

“…However, fragmentation of power provides opportunities to reform policies in support of REDD+ objectives only if it signals an inclusive and open policy process, as opposed to a fully fragmented arena that lacks leadership and interest in larger changes in the forestry sector, as seems to be the case in Cameroon (Dkamela et al 2014).…”

“…Otherwise, only a few key government actors are involved, i.e., the environment and forestry ministries, and some international conservation NGOs have realigned existing projects to fit REDD+ (Dkamela 2010, Kengoum 2011, Somorin et al 2012. Past attempts to reform the forestry sector had significant shortcomings, partially because of lack of national ownership and strong resistance from those benefiting from the status quo of forest resource use and management (Dkamela et al 2014). Next, we present the theoretical framework of the analysis, which results in six distinct power structures of national REDD+ policy domains.…”

REDD+ policy networks: exploring actors and power structures in an emerging policy domain

“…As an example, the degree of concentration of power in particular actors can either reflect the autonomy of the nation state from the interests driving deforestation and forest degradation, the extent of national versus international ownership over reform processes, or the level of inclusiveness of policy processes. The case studies from Cameroon (Dkamela et al 2014), Vietnam (Pham et al 2014), Nepal (Bushley 2014), Brazil (Gebara et al 2014), and the comparative paper all investigate issues related to distribution of power. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss4/art29/ In Cameroon, the international actors are central in controlling and facilitating information flows across organisations, whereas state actors are less involved and domestic civil society organizations are peripheral.…”

“…As an example, high levels of centrality of an actor, i.e., in-degree, which indicates the total number of ties of an actor, or betweeness, which measures how often an actor appears on shortest paths between other actors in the network, or high brokerage scores, referring to actors that act as mediators between two other actors in a network, characterize actors that http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss4/art29/ are able to exert influence over others in the network, control resource flows between other actors, and might be better situated to, e.g., access information or other resources (Gould and Fernandez 1989, Degenne and Forsé 1999, Scott 2000, Burt 2004). These measures were applied in most of the papers in this special feature (Babon et al 2014, Bushley 2014, Dkamela et al 2014, Gebara et al 2014, Moeliono et al 2014, Rantala and Di Gregorio 2014. Actor level measures are also used to investigate associations and causal relationships between relational and other variables.…”