Fiscal Decentralization System and Sustainable Forest Management in Cameroon: A Myth or Reality towards Sustainable Local Development

Abstract

Cameroon is a major powerhouse of the Congo Basin forest-rich region of the tropical rainforest-rich Central Africa. Cameroon’s forestry sector is of great national importance as it contributes to the gross domestic product (GDP), global climate change mitigation, alleviate poverty to adjacent local communities as it serves as a source of income and livelihood, most especially through annual forest taxes (herein refers to royalties) in production forest concessions units. These royalties act as incentive for local communities to protect and managed their forests sustainably. Surprisingly, unsustainable forest management and misappropriation of these funds remain the dominant practice in the sector. Thus, Instead of benefiting adjacent local communities and promoting local development, the forest revenue has led to undermining of local and national development, connivance between certain community members and loggers to evade forest taxes, and deterioration in the relations between local councils and village communities. As a result, local communities remain poor and marginalized over what rightfully belongs to them “Tragedy of the Common”. This paper therefore, looks specifically on how the forest taxation system from industrial logging can benefit local communities and enhance sustainable local development. The paper also examines the consequences of the suppression of the 10% Annual Forestry Revenue (RFA) to adjacent local communities and concludes with some robust recommendations to establish an equalization fund to redistribute taxes from the forests to forest-rich communities that mostly depend on this forest for their livelihood.