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.
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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