IJFAF | Participatory mapping as a tool to promote participation of local communities in forest resources management in Nguti Sub-Division, Cameroon

Indexing and Abstracting

Participatory mapping as a tool to promote participation of local communities in forest resources management in Nguti Sub-Division, Cameroon

Temgoua Lucie Félicité , Eyan Johnson Obed

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DOI: 10.22161/ijfaf.2.1.2

Journal : International Journal Of Forest, Animal And Fisheries Research(IJFAF)

Abstract:

This study was carried out with the aim to contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources through the production of participative maps within forest communities in the Nguti subdivision. Specifically this was to illustrate the existing occupation and traditional tenure of forest lands and identify where conflicts of use or rights already exist or could arise both for national government planning and private investors. Data was collected through focus group discussions, household interview and field data collection with the local population through the use of GPS tablets. Results show that 90.7% of the population have no idea on this participative mapping process; however, 35.19% of the population are very interested in this mapping process as it could serve as a tool to enhance land security while 28% of respondents think it could serve as a tool for boundary clarification. Also 18% consider participative mapping an interesting tool to get good knowledge of an area and plan land use. However, forest is principally used here for farming, hunting and gathering with an average household farm size of 0.35ha per year with just 30% of the non-Timber forest products in this area being exploited. The study also revealed that, conflicts of use and right exist due to government affectations, unclear boundaries and the creation of chiefdoms. Participative mapping has proven to be the better tool for decision making as other tools such as satellite images have caused overlaps in state affectations.

Keywords:

Cameroon, Communities, Forest resources, Participatory Mapping.

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