Community monitoring in action!
The Land & CARBON LAB’S SUMMIT 2023 is underway. Action for Sustainable Development had the privilege on June 29 to share its experience on the theme « Community monitoring in action! »
About ten years ago in Cameroon, the voice of the communities was not taken into account in the management of forests which, according to the law, belong to the state. They are often expropriated from their land for the establishment of new agro-industry or because of logging. This situation arises on the one hand because of the lack of knowledge and means for the monitoring of the forest cover and on the other hand the ignorance of their rights.
Several international, national organizations and CSO are trying to reverse this trend for better community involvement in forest stewardship. ASD has been working with communities for a decade to strengthen their stewardship in monitoring forest cover. We have also strengthened the capacities of around thirty people, namely local communities, agents from the conservation service of the Mengamé gorilla sanctuary, and also students on the use of the forest watcher (mobile and desktop application developed by GFW to facilitate access to geospatial data and forest monitoring).
In order to enrich our database, an assessment of the carbon stock was made in the Douala Edéa wildlife reserve in 2015.
It showed that between 1989 and 2014, the forest retreated by 38,255 ha, (19%) of the initial forest area, while the mangrove retreated 9,176 ha (14%) of the original mangrove area.
Community-led land stewardship as well as community-led conservation can support livelihoods and biodiversity and help address cross-cutting global challenges, such as climate change, conservation, poverty and food security. The financial means necessary to achieve this must be available.
