Community mapping in forest zones of Cameroon: a scoping of cases, questions and methods used in community mapping and its relationship with tenure recognition

There is lack of easily available information in ma ny countries including Cameroon undergoing reform on the status of recognition of t enure rights, ownership, access and use of forest resources under different regimes; custom ary versus statutory, including land environment and forest laws. Information is very in complete and incoherent in terms of sample cases and extent of contestations, either in the form of overlapping or conflicting claims or lack of respect for customary ownership a nd control of forest resources, especially in areas recorded as official domains of the State. One approach to start improving understanding of th ese in Cameroon has been through a systematic review of community territorial mapping. Such community mapping in Cameroon has used a range of methodological approaches, orga nizational philosophies, tools and techniques. Such mapping activities have been carri ed#out by non governmental organizations mainly, less by government but all in volving communities within different contexts of land and forest use conflicts. In this Cameroon scoping study we review a selected number of contestations most of which possessed a mapping component, involving loca l communities and traversing questions from conflicts with agro industries, cons ervation zones, forest reserves and timber concessions occurring across the entire forest zone s.

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