Devolution of Decision-making: Lessons from Community Forest Management at the Kilum–Ijim Forest Project, Cameroon

Throughout much of the tropics, colonialism has contributed to a legacy of centralised government authority over management of natural resources. In many regions this has been entrenched by African traditions of governance. A protected area network that excludes people, established at the beginning of the twentieth century, has since been added to by successive postcolonial governments (Anderson and Grove 1987). The record of this approach to conservation and natural resources management is generally regarded as one of failure (for example, Adams and McShane 1992; IIED 1994). In many parts of Africa forests are administrated by a government bureaucracy that is often out of touch with local people, local opinion and local needs, and communities adjacent to protected areas have ignored or actively rebelled against imposed regulations on the use of ‘their’ resources, and now have negative attitudes to conservation (Infield 1989; Parry and Campbell 1992; Heinen 1993; Mkanda and Munthali 1994; Fiallo and Jacobsen 1995; Nepal and Weber 1995). Without local support, excluding people from protected areas, or enforcement of regulations on access to or use of natural resources requires high levels of patrolling and policing, which is expensive and tends to heighten tension