Reconstituting the role of indigenous structures in protected forest management in Cameroon

Mbunya Francis Nkemnyi, Tom De Herdt, George B. Chuyong and Tom Vanwing

Forest Policy and Economics, 2016, vol. 67, issue C, 45-51

Abstract: This article illustrates how institutional transitional processes influence the intended sustainability outcomes in protected forest management in Cameroon, using the case of the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. The study revealed that the major setback in attaining sustainable forest management does not necessarily lie in the conflicting interests of actors, but also in the social processes that guided the negotiation of these conflicting interests. Processes initiated by bureaucratic institutions did not adequately appreciate the efforts of the existing indigenous structures. The differences in the modelling of social change by the agents of change had negative impacts on governance outcomes and disrupted collaborative actions. This study argues that indigenous structures should not just be regarded as mediators in the processes of forest management. Their actions are influenced by powerful actors (elites). They are thus embedded in complex configurations that can retard sustainable forest management processes. There is a need to carefully explore and understand the various contexts in which these complex configurations influence forest management in order to foster sustainable collaborative management.

Keywords: Institutional bricolage; Local traditional; Forest management politics; Customarily laws; Wildlife conservation policy; Cameroon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934116300430
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:67:y:2016:i:c:p:45-51

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2016.03.012

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().