摘要
In the last three decades, with the increasing threat of environmental degradation and indigenous calls for involvement in the governance of natural resources, decentralization policies have been implemented globally in the hope that the participation of rural communities and governments will help improve the conservation of those resources. It is partly under this assumption that, in recent years, an increasing number of local council forests are being created in Cameroon’s forest regions. Using semi-structured interviews of national, regional and local actors and key informants, empirical observations in eastern Cameroon as well as documentary evidence, this paper analyzes municipal forest governance in the Dimako Council Forest, the oldest of its kind managed by local elected officials in Central Africa. According to the empirical results, the Dimako experience had veered off course as local authorities appeared to have bypassed the restrictions imposed by the management plan. Furthermore, the data show that timber harvesting proceeded without any planning as well as throughout the entire forest in search of high value species. Finally, the council reforestation efforts had all but fallen short of expectations. Essentially, a clear and enforceable framework is needed from national policy-makers to reverse the trend in Dimako. Keywords Local governance Timber harvesting Management plan Reforestation