Monday 9 May 2016

Agro and mining sectors:

NGOs advocate transparency in land attribution
Participants at the presentation ceremony
A study on the legal framework relating to the attribution of land concessions for industrial investments in Cameroon was on Friday 6 April 2016, presented and validated in Yaounde
The process of attribution of land concessions for agro-industrial and mining investments in Cameroon is plagued with several shortcomings, observes a study which notes that if care is not taken whole communities will loose all of their ancestral lands to industries.
                Done by two NGOs – Network for the Fight Against Hunger, RELUFA, and the Centre d’Accompagnement de Nouvelles Alternatives de Developpement Local, CANADEL, the study sought to point out weaknesses in the legal framework relating to the attribution of land concessions in Cameroon.
                It notes for example that not only is the process of attribution not transparent, it also excludes the local communities, whose concerns should be taken into consideration when decisions are made on land concessions.

                RELUFA and CANADEL undertook the study within the framework of joint project that seeks to ensure more transparency and participation in the management of natural resources in Cameroon, dubbed TRAP-GRN. Put in place on 1st January 2015, it will run until 2017.
                The TRAP-GRN project is sponsored by the European Union to the tune of 326.282.06 euros (about FCFA 214.027.001) and covers four regions namely East, Centre, South and North. It has as specific objective to ameliorate the legal framework relating to transparency and the participation of different stakeholders in the management of natural resources in Cameroon.
                It also seeks among other things to ameliorate governance in the allocation and management of forest concessions for purposes of agro-investments and mining exploration, alleviate poverty among the populations living in agro and mining investment sites, and protect the rights of local populations around these industrial sites.
                Participants at the presentation and validation ceremony included notably the EU representative to Cameroon, heads of administrative and diplomatic services, local chiefs, civil society actors, representatives of local councils and representatives of mining and agro-industries.
                The study was undertaken within the context of a mad rush for vast land concessions by both national and foreign investors for purposes of agriculture and mining investments, said RELUFA Project Coordinator, Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo, who explained that pushed perhaps by her determination to boost industrialization with a view to attaining emergence status by 2035, the Cameroon government readily grants land concessions to investors without giving due consideration for local populations that also depend on these lands for their livelihood.



1 comment:

  1. The absence of proper land use planning at Village, Council or Divisional level is the major cause of the situation faced by the local communities living in our region of Cameroon. This vacuum will be a source of conflicts between communities in the near future, these illegal sales of village lands is an obstacle to local development and a threat to the integrity of protected areas. Like most villages in that region of Cameroon we have no land management plans - Betock, Talangaye, Ekita, Ayong, Sikam, Manyemen, and Ebanga villages - we have given our best lands for that palm oil projects. Soon the strangers will claim that they have no more land for you. The land sellers have their own vision for the development of our villages. Future opportunities like building plots will be none. The Kumba-Mamfe road which is of great economic importance to the villages will be tarred and competed by 2017, but we are still selling.

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