This paper was commissioned to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the Norway Partnership Programme (NPP) “Forests for Sustainable Livelihoods (FNOP/INT/004/NOR).” The paper dwells on trade-related instruments influencing trade in non-wood forest products (NWFP), which is a sub-component of component 3 “Trade in Non-Wood Forest Products – Options for Poverty Alleviation” of the overall study on forests for sustainable livelihoods. The NPP complements and accelerates the implementation of ongoing activities of FAO’s Programme “Promotion and Development of Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFP)”. The programme aims at improving the sustainable use of NWFP in order to contribute to the wise management of the world's forests, to conserve their biodiversity, and to improve income-generation and food security.
The NPP component 3 “Trade in NWFP – Options for Poverty Alleviation” aims at analyzing i) the impact of trade in NWFP on local livelihoods and on the sustainable use of NWFP and ii) the applicability of relevant trade-related instruments as adequate policy tools to promote and develop NWFP on a sustainable basis and including the adequate share of benefits among stakeholders concerned. Therefore, the overall objective of component 3 of the study is to analyze the impact of trade in NWFP on poverty alleviation and on the sustainability of the resources. However, discussions in this paper are limited to trade-related instruments with the specific objective to analyze how such instruments influence trade in NWFP and their impacts on poverty alleviation and sustainable forest management in Cameroon. Some of these trade-related instruments include:
• National public policies (e.g. national forest programmes, harvesting restrictions/bans);
• International and intergovernmental processes (e.g. multilateral environmental agreements such as CITES, CBD);
• Market-based instruments (e.g. certification, supply-chain management).
Two NWFP including Prunus africana and the African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) were selected from Cameroon as case studies to analyze how trade-related instruments influence their commercialization and contributions to rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation. The criteria for selecting these products include:
• High socio-economic importance,
• High domestic/international trade,
• Threatening of sustainable production by poorly controlled harvesting/capture associated with international trade.
• Existing level of national and international intervention and
• Available published and grey literature
Prunus africana (African cherry or Pygeum) and the African Grey parrots are some of the most highly commercialized NWFP in Cameroon with fairly well documented production and trade. However, such commercialization and the regulations that govern them have been identified to cause major impacts (positive and negative) on the sustainability of production as well as on the benefits that accrue to stakeholders. One reason suggests that there has been no effective mechanism put in place to ensure sustainable production and equitable trade due to the lack of adequate data to clearly show the possibility of a win-win situation in the light of equity and sustainability for both the traders, local producing communities and resource conservation. This has rendered dialogue to arrive at fair trade terms difficult. A win-win situation in a production and trade system is believed to be one in which the sustainable supply of raw materials, as well as, better prices commensurate to the efforts and end value of the products are assured. Therefore, this paper analyzes how trade-related instruments have influenced the commercialization and livelihoods contributions of the two-selected NWFP in Cameroon, and also suggests how positive impacts can be enhanced or negative impacts minimized.
The activities tackled by this paper included:
• Identification of Prunus africana and the African Grey parrot as key highly commercialized NWFP in Cameroon.
• Description of the selected NWFP, including ecological and socio-economic characteristics and the impact of trade on the livelihood of stakeholders concerned.
• Identification and description of relevant trade-related instruments applied in the Cameroon with regard to the selected NWFP
• Assessment of the relevance of the impact of trade-related instruments on sustainable forest management and on rural livelihoods compared to other influencing factors (e.g. market dynamics, agricultural concerns, access to land and land rights, extra-sectoral influences);
• Identification of emerging patterns, including as those related to the positive and negative effects of the application of various types of trade related instruments;
• Proposition of policy recommendations and priority areas for more focused research;
• Provision of comments to the global analysis on trade-related instruments influencing trade in NWFP.
