**5.1.8 External debt servicing and misguided macro-economic policies**

Debt service and low per capita income is another obstacle to sustainable forest management in Cameroon and DRC. External pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to recover debts owed them by the governments of these countries has left both nations' forests vulnerable. For example, the forest policy adopted by the government of Cameroon in 1994 was strongly influenced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, mainly through the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) that favors longer durations of concessions to logging companies, and encourages large forest areas for concessions (Ekoko, 1997). Most structural adjustment policies prescribed by the World Bank and the IMF are meant to liberalize the economies of countries adopting them and open up their markets to global economy. Instead, it has presented mixed fortunes for developing countries. Since its inception only a few countries like China, Brazil and Indonesia have been able to get meaningful benefits from the program. The rest of the developing countries have instead witnessed economic downturns (Brown & Quiblier, 1994). In Cameroon, reduction in public spending has instead led to unemployment forcing people to rely on subsistence farming at the detriment of the forest (Benhin & Barbier, 1999; Gbetnkom, 2008). In DRC the SAP created a situation where high unemployment (Jauch, 1999) left many families to rely on agricultural encroachment on forests lands for survival. The IMF call for economic liberalization in recent years has also not yielded much for the people as the economic indexes of both countries remains low. According to the 2011 Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal's Index of Economic Freedom report, Cameroon's per capita income is \$2,147. Its FDI inflow is \$337.5 million (Index of Economic Freedom, 2011). However, its external debt fell from an all-time-high of \$11.11 billion in 1998 to \$2.94 billion in 2009 (World Bank, 2009); thanks to the increased revenues from the forest sector (Fometé & Cerutti, 2008). The situation in DRC is no better. The country's current (2011) external debt is \$13.5 Billion. Its per capita income of \$332 is one of the lowest in Africa. Its FDI inflow is equally low at \$2.1 billion (Index of Economic Freedom, 2011). High debts, low FDI and weak economies have left the peoples of Cameroon and DRC with little option but to continue deforesting and degrading their land for a livelihood.

In all, a combination of economic pressures to accelerate harvesting, corruption, the weakness of government forest administration, inappropriate concession license allocation and timber taxation systems, and the negative impacts of macroeconomic trade, population pressure, and Structural Adjustment Program polices have led to decades of unsustainable forest management in Cameroon and DRC.

The aforementioned obstacles to sustainable forest management in Cameroon and DRC are summarized in the following conceptual framework model (figure 1 – influence diagram) of direct and indirect causes of forest loss and/or degradation. Although the influence diagram appears to show some agents as directly linked to deforestation, there is actually no clear cut separation of direct and indirect causes of deforestation. In reality, forest loss is the result of long chains of causation that are not linear, but have feedback loops at some points or stages in the causation chains (Angelsen & Culas, 1996).

Obstacles to a Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Forest

biodiversity conservation, and cultural integration).

I will like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the initial draft of this

15 Kabila is the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is referenced here citing a report by

chapter. Your comments have greatly shaped the outcome of this chapter.

Mc Kinsey & Co, a consulting company for the DRC REDD initiative.

**7. Acknowledgement** 

Management Under REDD in Central Africa: A Two-Country Analysis 45

particular, has a lot to contribute and benefit from REDD. The vastness of the forests in this region means a significant amount of carbon could be sequestered here if REDD were to succeed in the region. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone, it is estimated, has a REDD potential of over 400 million tons of CO2 per year through 2030 (Kabila,15 2011). In spite the tremendous opportunity REDD presents to reduce carbon emissions and foster sustainable forest management in the Congo Basin region, the obstacles discussed in this paper (and can be extrapolated to all the countries in the region) must first be overcome. Although the region faces techno-scientific problems, the biggest obstacles to meeting the goal of REDD are of socio-economic and political nature. To overcome these obstacles, a number of measures must be taken by the national REDD Coordination and Management Teams (CMTs) of various countries in the region. First, is the need for capacity building of the various CMTs. At moment, the CMTs are made up of officials from two or more government ministries and representatives from a few national and international non-governmental organizations, whose lack of coordination is, itself, an obstacle to the national coordination effort the teams are charged with. A CMT whose activities are well coordinated is more prepared to deal with socio-economic and political issues that are a potential hindrance to the success of the national REDD strategy. Second, all stakeholders must be included at every level, and at all stages of development and implementation of the REDD strategy. This will help move the process in the direction of a pro-poor approach in which, traditional farmers, hunter-gatherers, community forest managers, indigenous peoples (especially the pygmies), traditional leader, municipal councils, regional councils, etc. contribute in making decisions that directly relate to their needs. Third, countries in the region must adopt a coherent policy to address the issue of tenure and other related rights of the indigenous forest peoples to access forests and its resources. This will give REDD's investors (public and private) and its global partners a sense of security when it comes to possible tension with local groups. This will also empower the local peoples as secure tenure provide them "more leverage in relations with government and the private Sector" (Cotula & Myers, 2009). Fourth, to jointly address climate change and rural poverty under REDD would require sustainable forest management practices that confirm with the market tenets of ecosystem services. For this to be achievable, countries in the region will have to adopt measures that improve their economic and financial systems; specifically, measures that will enable them to uphold their "socio-environmental services and capital in [their] economic and political choices." Finally, REDD CMTs in the region must learn from the past successes and failures of other resources management initiatives in the agricultural and forest sectors, and the global carbon market. Specifically, attention must be given to issues related to capacity building and incentives (e.g. developing effective arrangements to channel benefits to the local level), legal framework and policy (e.g. connecting national laws and policy to relevant international principles and norms), education and information and culture (e.g. support for training workshops on resource knowledge, ecosystem management,

Fig. 1. Influence Diagram of Direct and Indirect Causes of Deforestation/Forest Degradation in Cameroon and the DRC
