**5.1.3 Increasing global resource consumption**

Another obstacle is the growing global demand for energy, materials, and industrial processes – notably mining and petroleum production. In Cameroon, a policy decision to exploit oil and natural gas in an ecologically sensitive coastal forest area in the Southwest Region in the early 1980s set precedence for deforestation and degradation of forests areas that harbor oil and mineral resources. Following this policy the government, in the late 1990s, made a decision to allow the landlocked nation of Chad to export its oil via the port of Kribi which led to significant forest loss. The project, which involved the laying of oil pipe lines from the oil field in Doba in Southern Chad to the port of Kribi in the South of Cameroon (over 1,070 km), is responsible for the loss of over 15 km² of rainforest (Center for Environment and Development [CED], 2004). Another potential loss of forest under Cameroon's oil exploitation policy could come from the oil rich Bakassi peninsula which is home to rare species of plants and animals. Although oil resources have produced high rents and made substantial contribution to the national economy of Cameroon in the past 30 years11, the continued falling output trends in the past 10 years has pushed the government to further open up forest areas for mining activities. For example, the discovery of a massive iron-ore deposit in the dense forest area near Mbalmayo in the East Region of the country has attracted the Australian mining company, Sundance Resources Ltd (Nyuylime, 2006). The company is forging ahead with mining operations in the area which has the potential of triggering extensive deforestation and degradation, mainly from infrastructure development such as roads and railways. Another mining prospect is the iron deposit located within the sensitive forest area at the western coast at Kribi. Though not currently under exploration, increasing demand for mineral resources from China has attracted Chinese companies in "obtaining exploration and exploitation rights to several bauxite reserves in the far northern portion of the country, at Minim-Martap and Ngouanda" (Reed & Miranda, 2007), and may also attract these Chinese companies to the Kribi iron reserve which lies within the forest zone in the South Region. Although the revision of Cameroon's mining law in 2001 led to an overhaul of the mining code, it still enables dozens of small mining operations to take place within forests areas, which leads to deforestation and forests degradation. The DRC's mineral and oil exploration policies (World Bank, 2008) are similar to those of Cameroon. However, Reed and Miranda (2007) noted that "mining in DRC has been limited largely to the fringes of the [Congo] river and

<sup>11</sup> Oil accounts for more than half of Cameroon's export earnings, around 24% of government revenue, and about 6% of GDP (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [EITI], 2006).

forest systems that make access difficult" (Reed & Miranda, 2007). This limited access could be attributed to the socio-economic and political instability the country went through during the last quarter of the last century. However, with growing political stability since the mid-2000s, and with the growing need of improving socio-economic conditions, it is likely that mining operations will occur in formerly less accessible forest areas. If provisions are not made in the REDD framework strategy for these countries to limit the extent and intensity of these activities within their forests areas; it could undermine the highly anticipated post-Kyoto emissions reduction contributions by these countries.
