**1. Introduction**

Cameroon's Technical Centre for Communal Forestry (CTFC, 2010) defines a council forest as a forest that constitutes part of Cameroon's permanent forest, which is governed by an agreement between the municipality and the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF). Cheteu [1] notes that Cameroon's council forests are usually endowed with a management plan executed by the council or municipality under the supervision of MINFOF.

The rate of deforestation in Cameroon forests including council forest remains one of the highest in the Congo Basin. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), between 2000 and 2010, the annual rate of deforestation of Cameroon's tropical rainforest of the Congo Basin was approximately 1.04%. Furthermore, it is reported that about 75% of the forest in Cameroon (including council forest) has been degraded as a result of forest exploitation. As a result, development and conservation experts as well as indigenous rights advocates have embraced the management of council forest to address deforestation and forest degradation as well as improve the livelihoods of communities that depend on these forests. Management of these forests allows local populations to benefit from forests and its resources, as opposed to outside entrepreneurs or economic and political elites. By acquiring rights over natural resources, and related increase in organizational strength, the residents of the municipality as well as the local population can also improve participation in democratic processes. Communal control over these forests therefore decreases the opportunities of nonlocals to engage in destructive forest use, resulting in a positive conservation impact [2]. For instance, within the Guinean forest block, Liberia's council forests are significant for their rich biodiversity as they contain approximately 225 timber species, 2900 flowering plant species, 140 mammal species, 600 bird species, 75 reptile and amphibian species, and over 1000 species of insect [3]. While in Guatemala, the highland council forest landscapes are strategically important because of their location in the higher watershed areas that contribute to the maintenance of water sources; an aspect that is acquiring greater interest and relevance in light of declining water supplies in the area [4].

A majority of studies carried out to date on council forests in Cameroon have sought to describe the state of these forests and the participation of forest-dependent communities in their management [5–9]. At the same time, however, fundamental questions, such as: what are the opportunities associated with council forests in Cameroon especially in terms of their potentials for climate change mitigation and socioeconomic development of rural communities; what threats to these forests faced, and what are the possible options or scenarios that could be used to promote their sustainability, have been seriously overlooked. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to examine this much-neglected area of the debate using findings obtained from field work in Cameroon and a comprehensive review of relevant literature. Hopefully, policy makers at the national and subnational level in Cameroon will be able to incorporate the findings of this investigation into their strategic plans designed to advance sustainable management of these forests.
