Modern forest management maps and traditional local uses: A tentative combination in a South Cameroonese forest

摘要

The involvement of local communities in the forest management process is a new requirement in Cameroon. However, this process confronts two heterogeneous representations of the forest space: a geometric conception promoted by the national Administration on the one hand, and a topographic representation of the forest space supported by the local populations on the other hand. The research area of the Tropenbos Cameroon Programme gives an excellent picture of such an antagonism. In this context, a Geographic Information System (GIS) may constitute a means to reduce this difference between such points of view and is therefore used by concerned stakeholders to manage a south-Cameroonese forest (47,000?hectares). The article depicts how the GIS tool was first introduced to concerned stakeholders and how it was used to help a forest management negotiation in South-Cameroon. This negotiation brought together 80?people who were gathered into four different users’ groups: Bantu population, Pygmy population, local political elites and research/administration staff. Thanks to GIS maps, these groups delineated new boundaries for the forest and discussed its priority assignments. Finally, this negotiation process came up with one consensual map which was agreed to by the participants. This experimentation provides a basis for thinking about the potential contribution of GIS towards a sustainable management of the tropical forest. The role of the mapping tool is varied: it is not only a help to discuss forest’s boundaries but, more broadly, it allows natural resources’ conflicts to be voiced.