Affiliation:
1. Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands
2. Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Abstract
Although international actors have intervened to improve the management of the Cameroonian woodfuel sector, the impacts of these interventions have been little explored. This study investigated the influence of international interventions on policy processes and their impacts on the
woodfuel actors and resources in Cameroon. Based on a systematically conducted review of English literature and five interviews, and using the international influence pathway framework as a conceptual lens, international norms and discourses, rules, and direct access were found to have influenced
woodfuel governance in Cameroon, while direct access to formal laws and policies and by programmes on the ground had more positive but also negative impacts. Due to the nature of the laws and policies which were influenced, the complex national woodfuel context, and the short-term and small-scale
characteristics of programmes, positive impacts on actors and resources created by international interventions were limited. These findings lead to recommendations to increase the scale and continuity of the programmes by ensuring more synergies with informal, local and international market-based
'rules', such as REDD+ and forest certification; to focus on increasing woodfuel supply and decreasing demand; and to focus more attention on involving and empowering local people in these policy processes.
Publisher
Commonwealth Forestry Association
Subject
General Medicine,Ecology,Geography, Planning and Development,Forestry