INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL TIMBER ORGANIZATION ITTO PROJECT PROPOSAL

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL TIMBER ORGANIZATION ITTO PROJECT PROPOSAL TITLE: SERIAL NUMBER: SUBMITTED BY: ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: STRENGTHENING AND CONSOLIDATING THE NATIONAL PROCESS FOR CONTROLLING ILLEGAL LOGGING AND ASSOCIATED TRADE IN CAMEROON PHASE 2 PD 839/17 Rev.1 (M) GOVERNMENT OF CAMEROON (MINFOF) ENGLISH SUMMARY: This proposal has been developed based on lessons learnt and experience acquired from the previous ITTO Project, Strengthening the national process for controlling illegal logging and associated trade in Cameroon (TFL-PD 003/09 Rev (2) M). The project which was jointly implemented by TRAFFIC and the Ministry of Forest and Wildlife (MINFOF) in Cameroon resulted in the following: A set of training materials on forest legislation and control designed to strengthen enforcement actions against illegal logging in Cameroon; A database of stakeholders involved in forest law enforcement in Cameroon; A report on guidelines for the establishment of an inter-agency collaboration (inter-agency committee) for control and law enforcement in Cameroon; A report on identification of threats and gaps in timber trade legislation and traceability (Système Informatique de Gestion de l'information Forestière-SIGIF) in Cameroon as well as illegal timber trade routes; A draft report of the online timber trade information management system to increase transparency and communication with stakeholders including the wider public; A report highlighting gaps in law enforcement and weakness in collaboration among law enforcement agents in Cameroon. All of the reports were shared with government stakeholders for their internal considerations to address the gaps and weaknesses identified in the reports and for implementation as appropriate. The project resulted in the identification of gaps and issues in the forest law enforcement, monitoring and control system of Cameroon such as: timber harvest certificates issued from fictitious and/or unaudited inventories; annual operation permits issued without proper management plans; lack of correlation between the amount of timber sold by the operators in the context of supply contracts and the forests areas allocated; lack of clear linkages between the traceability system (SIGIF) and timber waybills; insufficient motivation of control officers; poor control of the harvesting of CITES-listed timber species, non-respect of the minimum exploitable diameter, unlawful transportation of timber, etc. The consequences of these law enforcement gaps and challenges are many and include: the reduction in income for the enhancement of the livelihood of forest communities; loss of revenue from taxes; lack of credibility in the legal documents issued for the export markets and increase threats to biodiversity. This project is aimed at consolidating the achievements of the previous project and especially to expand the capacity building processes and activities initiated to mitigate some of the issues identified and outlined above. The expected outputs of the second phase are:

2 (1) At the end of the project in 2018, at least 500 officials from timber control and law enforcement agencies (Justice Department; Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Customs, Police, Gendarmerie) have adequate capacity to implement timber legality assurance system in Cameroon and at least two training institutions include the training manual and tools developed by the project in their programs. (2) By the end of the project in 2018, timber control, law enforcement, traceability and forest management practices by the various stakeholders (MINFOF, MINFI, Justice, Police and Gendarmerie, etc.) are better coordinated by the inter-agency committee established and initially supported by the project. (3) By the end of the project in 2018, there is increase transparency in timber trade resulting from regular communication and sharing of information by civil society stakeholders on the online timber trade information management system. Key activities of the project will include: the finalization of training manual and tools on forest legislation and control drafted in Phase 1 and organization of a workshop with stakeholders to validate them; Organization of a series of workshops to build capacity on the use of the training manual and tools on timber control and law enforcement for officials from the justice department, MINFOF, national gendarmerie, police and Customs; wide dissemination of training manual and tools; organization of education and awareness raising workshops on the training manual and tools for heads of relevant training institutions; lobbying and advocacy for the mainstreaming of training manual and tools into the curricula of relevant training institutions such as the Forestry School at Mbalmayo, National Police Academy, National School of Administrators and Magistrates, etc.) as part of the sustainability strategy of the project; strengthening and supporting the functioning of the inter-agency committee through capacity building of members, finalizing and supporting the functioning of the database and online timber trade information management system through building capacity in its use as well as advocating for private sector and civil society patronage of the system; organization of sensitization meetings for local stakeholders and forest surrounding communities. The main beneficiaries of the project will be the government mainly from increase tax revenue as a result of better coordination and enforcement actions, private sector, especially the timber industry mainly from a reduction in corruption resulting from increase transparency and greater enforcement efforts by the government and the public at large as a result of reduction in forest degradation from illegal logging. EXECUTING AGENCY: DURATION: TRAFFIC 24 MONTHS BUDGET AND PROPOSED SOURCES OF FINANCING: SOURCE CONTRIBUTION IN US$ ITTO 459, TRAFFIC Intl. 13, TOTAL 473,168.28

3 PROJECT BRIEF 1. Existing situation and the problems to be addressed by the project Forests (including Timber and Non-Timber Forest Products) are key resources for Cameroon and its people, due to its rich and diverse biodiversity. However, these resources are threatened by several factors including illegal logging and associated trade driven mainly by export markets although local markets are also beginning to have an increase impact. The previous ITTO project identified and documented some of the illegal practices that threaten forests in Cameroon which include: the issuance of harvesting certificates based on fictitious and unaudited inventories; issuance of annual operations permits which do not respect management guidelines and approved management plans; poor correlation between the amount of timber sold and the forest areas allocated; poor correlation between the traceability system (SIGIF) and timber waybills; little or no motivation and security for control agents; uncontrolled harvesting of CITES-protected species, non-respect of the minimum exploitable diameter and unlawful transportation of timber. This followup project is therefore aimed at consolidating the achievements of the former project and especially expanding the capacity building processes and activities to ensure better control, law enforcement, transparency and traceability to deter and/or reduce illegal logging and associated trade. 2. Development and specific objectives and indicators of achievement Development objective: improve the sustainable management of forests and increase its contribution to Cameroon s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is expected that: i. By the end of 2020, the first shipments of legal timber exported from Cameroon to the EU will comply fully with the timber legality assurance system in place. ii. By 2020, the contribution of forest products to the GDP of Cameroon is increased by 15% from 2014 level. Specific objective: reduce illegal logging and associated timber trade in Cameroon through better implementation of legislation, tools and lessons learned in Phase 1 of the project. It is expected that by the end of the project: At least 500 officials from timber control and law enforcement agencies (Justice Department, Ministry of Forestry, Customs, Police, Gendarmerie) have adequate capacity to implement timber legality assurance system in Cameron and at least two training institutions include the training manual and tools developed by the project in their programs. Timber control, law enforcement, traceability and forest management practices by the various stakeholders (MINFOF, MINFI, Justice, Police and Gendarmerie, etc.) is better coordinated by the inter-agency committee established and initially supported but continued by the government after the end of the project. Increase transparency in timber trade resulting from the regular communication and sharing of information, by civil society stakeholders on the online timber trade information management system. Beneficiaries, expected outcomes and the main outputs This project will benefit: Government of Cameroon; Training institutions for law enforcement officials; The private sector especially timber industry of Cameroon; and Local communities. Outcomes: (1) Reduction in illegal logging and related trade as a result of improvements in control and law enforcement and increased collaboration between the relevant law enforcement agencies; (2) Respect of forest law and regulations by timber companies especially those related to forest exploitation, management, processing, transportation as well as the rights of forest communities due to more effective enforcement from government agencies; (3) Increase revenue from the forest sector to both government and indigenous and forest dependent communities (increase in share of revenue from taxes); (4) Increase in the credibility of timber from Cameroon due to improvement in control and law enforcement; (5) Increase in transparency and accountability through the increase sharing of information and data using the online timber information management system. Outputs: (1) Capacity of at least 500 actors in the forestry sector improved in forest law enforcement supported by the training manuals and tools developed in phase 1 and at least two training institutions include the manuals and tools in their programs; (2) The interagency coordination committee for Forest Law Enforcement in place and operational leading to increase collaboration and a reduction in illegality along the -i-

4 timber trade chain in Cameroon; (3) The online timber trade information management system initiated in phase one, is completed and operational leading to more transparency in the timber sector. 3. Project implementation and Stakeholders participation The coordination and overall responsibility for the project will be assumed by MINFOF (in collaboration with the ITTO technical focal point), while technical support will be provided by TRAFFIC as the Executing Agency. The Memorandum (MoU) signed between MINFOF, ITTO and TRAFFIC for the implementation of the previous ITTO project which provided a good framework for the partnership, governance and implementation the project, will be renewed and extended to cover the implementation of this project. Decision making in the implementation of the project will generally be based on consensus. The multistakeholder Project Steering Committee (PSC) that supervised the first project constituted of representatives of Government, civil society, local community, private sector, independent observer and the donor and chaired by MINFOF will be renewed and strengthened to provide strategic oversight to this phase also. The skills and expertise of TRAFFIC staff along with support from national experts will ensure the achievement of planned outputs and outcomes of the project. Communication and information sharing will form an important part of project implementation. Clearance will be sought from stakeholders, especially MINFOF, on issues that might be considered sensitive to enforcement actions and operations. 4. Sustainability of results after the project s completion Sustainability is envisaged via: Mainstreaming training manual into the curriculum of relevant government training institutions (Forestry School at Mbalmayo, National Police Academy, National School of Administrators and Magistrates, etc.). The project will train trainers in the use of the manuals and tools with focus on lecturers in the government institutions listed above as part strategy to facilitate mainstreaming and use; Institutionalization of the inter-agency coordination committee for law enforcement agencies under the auspices of an appropriate government authority such as the Prime Minister s office. Mainstreaming project results into relevant long-term government programmes such as VPA FLEGT, REDD etc. TRAFFIC will therefore continue to undertake the monitoring of the trade component of the project and share results with partners especially MINFOF with which it plans to sign a longer- term partnership agreement. Key assumptions and risks related to the project are: Government commitment to ensure legality in the timber trade sector, foster good governance and fight corruption will be maintained and/or increased. Project beneficiaries, especially government staff will be kept on post long enough to apply the knowledge and experience on timber trade control and law enforcement gained from the project. Law enforcement agencies are willing and shall be committed to working together in the control and law enforcement related to timber trade within the framework of an Inter-agency committee. All relevant stakeholders will actively participate in project implementation. Training manual will be mainstreamed into curricula of the training institutions targeted as well as training programmes of other relevant law enforcement agencies. These assumptions and risks will be monitored during project implementation and measures to mitigate them taken if and when necessary. 5. ITTO budget and contribution of the Executing Agency Contribution Amount (US$) ITTO 459, TRAFFIC International 13, GRAND TOTAL 473, ii-

5 CONTENTS PROJECT BRIEF i 1. Existing situation and the problems to be addressed by the project i 2. Development and specific objectives and indicators of achievement i 3. Project implementation and Stakeholders participation ii 4. Sustainability of results after the project s completion ii 5. ITTO budget and contribution of the Executing Agency ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS iv PART I: PROJECT CONTEXT Origin Relevance Conformity with ITTO s objectives and priority Relevance to the submitting countries policies Target area Geographic location Social, economic and environmental aspects Expected outcomes 4 PART 2: PROJECT RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES Rationale Institutional set-up and organizational issues Stakeholders analysis Problem analysis Logical framework matrix Objectives Development objective Specific objective and indicators of achievement 15 PART 3: DESCRIPTIONS OF PROJECT INTERVENTIONS Outputs and activities Outputs Activities Implementation approaches and methods Workplan Budget Master budget schedule Consolidated budget by components ITTO yearly budget Executing agency yearly budget Assumptions, risks, sustainability Assumption and risks Sustainability Organization structure and stakeholder involvement mechanisms Executing agency Project Partners Project steering committee Stakeholder involvement mechanism Monitoring and reporting Dissemination and mainstreaming of project learning Dissemination of project results Mainstreaming project learning 34 BIBLIOGRAPHY 35 ANNEX 1 : PROFILE OF THE EXECUTING AGENCY 36 ANNEX 2 : TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF KEY EXPERTS PROVIDED BY THE EXECUTING AGENCY 38 ANNEX 3 : CONSULTANTS AND SUBCONTRACTORS 40 -iii-

6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AFLEG CBD CIFOR CITES COMIFAC EIA EMIA ENAM FLE FLEGT GDP ITTO MINEP MINFOF MINFI MOU NTFP PRSP USD VPA African Forest Law Enforcement Governance Convention on Biological Diversity Center for International Forest Research Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Commission des Forêts d Afrique Centrale Environmental Impact Assessment Inter-Army Military School (Cameroon) Ecole Nationale d Administration (Cameroon) Forest Law Enforcement Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Gross Domestic Product International Timber Trade Organisation Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development of Cameroon Ministry of Forests and Wildlife of Cameroon Ministry of Finance of Cameroon Memorandum of Understanding Non-Timber Forest Products Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan United States Dollars Voluntary Partnership Agreement -iv-

7 PART I: PROJECT CONTEXT 1.1 Origin This project is a follow up to the ITTO (TFL-PD 003/09 Rev (2) M, project "Strengthening the national process for controlling illegal logging and associated trade in Cameroon executed from October 2011 to April This two year ITTO project resulted in the development of training materials for government staff responsible for enforcing logging and timber trade controls in Cameroon; development of a database of stakeholders involved in forest law enforcement in Cameroon; initiation of a mechanism for inter-agency collaboration (inter-agency committee); identification of threats and gaps in the timber trade legislation and traceability (SIGIF) in Cameroon supported by two maps indicating the official and the illegal timber trade routes; initiation of a set of recommendations for an online timber trade information management system dedicated to more transparency and communication with wider public; increased awareness on the gaps and threats to timber trade especially among law enforcement agents in Cameroon. The project also identified gaps and issues in forest law, monitoring and control system which could not be addressed completely within the project duration. These included; harvesting certificates issued from fictitious and/or unaudited inventories; permits for annual operations without proper management plans; lack of correlation between the amount of timber sold by the operators in the context of supply contracts and the forests areas allocated for logging; lack of clear linkages between the traceability system (SIGIF) and transportation waybills; insufficient motivation of control officers; uncontrolled harvesting of CITES-protected species, non-respect of the minimum exploitable diameter, unlawful transportation of timber. The consequences of these gaps and challenges are obvious and include; lack of credibility in the legal documents issued for timber exports in the international markets; loss of revenue from taxes; increase threats to biodiversity and the reduction in income for the enhancement of the livelihood of forest communities. The development of this follow-up project was motivated by the following; the need to deter and/or mitigate some of the gaps in timber trade control and law enforcement identified in the previous project and enumerated above; the need to complete some of the important activities initiated in phase 1, especially the uptake of training manual/tools and online information management system; the need to build a constituency with capacity in the use of the manuals and tools developed in phase 1 to improve timber control and law enforcement in Cameroon; the importance to consolidate the achievements of phase one and ensure results are widely disseminated and used; and the overwhelming interest and support for the continuation of project actions manifested by some stakeholders notably MINFOF and COMIFAC. 1.2 Relevance Conformity with ITTO s objectives and priority The project goals and expected outcomes fulfil ITTO s objectives and priorities under the 2006 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA 2006) in particular; strengthening the capacity of members to improve forest law enforcement and governance, and addressing illegal logging and related trade in tropical timber; and the general objective of the ITTO Thematic Programme on Timber Forest Law Enforcement and Trade (TFLET, 2009): improving national forest law enforcement and governance in tropical ITTO member countries in order to enhance and diversify international trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed forests, and help alleviate poverty in those countries. The project will support the efforts by the Cameroon government to set up a simple but reliable Timber Tracking System which is also one of the priority themes of ITTO. The project objectives are in line with the strategic plan of ITTO, especially the following strategic priorities 1, 2, 5 and 6 which are: i) Promote good forest governance and public policy frameworks for -1-

8 enhancing sustainable forest management and related trade and increased SFM financing and related investments; ii) Increase the contribution of tropical forests to national and local economies, particularly in international trade; iii) Improve the quality and availability of information on tropical forests, markets and trade in forest products; and iv) Strengthen and develop human resources attributable to the implementation of SFM and increase trade in forest goods and services obtained from forests in sustainable management. The project will also promote the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) FLEGT signed by Cameroon which aims to ensure transparency and good governance of the forestry sector through effective implementation of the legal framework of the country Relevance to the submitting countries policies The importance of forest and its resources to Cameroon cannot be overemphasized. Around 42% of Cameroon is covered by dense rainforest (CIFOR 2013). The forest-wildlife sector is the second largest source of employment after the public sector. These forests make a significant contribution to the green economy (please refer to section 1.3.2). However, these forests are heavily threatened by numerous factors including illegal logging. In order to stem the threats and illegal activities and ensure forests are sustained, the government has developed and put in place policies and legal frameworks to govern the sector. These include, the adoption of the forestry policy in 1993, the Forest Law enacted in 1994, the Environment Framework Act produced in 1996, the Yaoundé Declaration in 1999 with the birth of the Convergence Plan of COMIFAC, its inclusion in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in 2002, the revision of the PRSP to a Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) in 2009, the African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG) and Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) commitments and the recent signing of the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union in October 6, 2010 and which entered into force in December 01, 2011 (TRAFFIC, 2012). This project is consistent with the national policy on sustainable management of forest resources which has as overall goal "maintaining and developing economic, ecological and social functions of forests in Cameroon, as part of an integrated management which ensures sustained and sustainable, conservation and use of forest resources and ecosystems". The forest policy is articulated around four key themes which align closely with the project: Ensuring the protection of national forest heritage and participate in environmental protection and the preservation of biodiversity; Improve the integration of forest and wildlife resources in rural development, in order to help raise the standard of living and to involve them in the conservation of resources; Develop forest resources in order to increase the share of forest production in GDP, while preserving the productive potential; Revitalize the forestry sector by setting up an effective institutional system and involving all stakeholders in the management of the sector. 1.3 Target area Geographic location Cameroon is located in the central Africa region and covers an area of approximately 475,442 square kilometers. She lies between latitudes 1 and 13 N, and longitudes 8 and 17 E ( From a bio-geographical perspective, Cameroon has four major ecological regions. The largest of these is a dense rainforest, which covers 42% of the national territory, and is the area mostly concerned with forest concessions/timber logging. The Northern part of the country is rather dried and suffers most from the impacts of climate change leading to intensification of the desertification and drying up of surface and ground water. -2-

9 The government of Cameroon has reserved a total of 175,000 square kilometers as production forests. This project will therefore target particularly at the activities ongoing in this area of forest, which covers the entire Cameroon forest ecosystem (especially the South, East, South-East, Littoral & Centre regions). Figure 1. Cameroon as the geographical location of the study of legality in forestry sector -3-

10 Social, economic and environmental aspects In Cameroon, the forest-wildlife sector contributes up to 4% of the GDP. The sector provides 22,722 direct permanent jobs of which 21,902 jobs are in the timber industry and 802 jobs related to sport hunting. In addition, the informal sector provide employment for hundreds of thousands of individuals including about 44,000 in the artisanal logging, 460,000 for village hunting, full-time equivalents of 90,000 jobs for cutting and supply of fuelwood for urban wood energy. These analyses also show that the forest-wildlife sector contributes a total of billion CFA francs (USD million) to government revenues, of which billion CFA francs (USD48.72 million) was under the specific tax and billion CFA francs (USD63.79 million) for general taxation related to timber harvesting and processing, hunting activity and NTFPs industry (CIFOR, 2013)1. Unfortunately, the forest-wildlife sector in Cameroon is undermined by various threats including illegal activities, which are seen partly as a result of the failure of forest governance. During one of the workshops in the previous ITTO project, MINFOF indicated that: Illegal logging is one of the main contributing factors to deforestation, climate change as well as loss of biodiversity. Illegal logging has also resulted in conflict over resources, disempowerment of local and indigenous communities, corruption armed conflicts and in loss of revenue to both the State and local communities. Despite widespread concern about illegal logging and knowledge of the root causes of the phenomenon in Cameroon, there is still significant uncertainty about the quantitative and qualitative nature of the problem. For instance, it is unclear how much illegal logging is actually taking place. The actual environmental, social, and economic impacts of illegal logging are also unclear. Based on research by Chatham House (Lawson & MacFaul, 2010) illegal harvesting of timber represents 22-35% of all logging in Cameroon. 1.4 Expected outcomes The expected outcomes at the end of the project are as follows: 1. Reduction in illegal logging and related trade; as a result of improvements in control and law enforcement and increased collaboration between the relevant law enforcement agencies; 2. Respect of forest law and regulations by timber companies especially those related to forest exploitation, management, processing, transportation as well as the rights of forest communities due to more effective enforcement from government agencies; 3. Increase revenue from the forest sector to both government and indigenous and forest dependent communities (increase in share of revenue from taxes); 4. Increase in the credibility of timber from Cameroon due to improvement in control and law enforcement; 5. Increase in transparency and accountability through the increase sharing of information and data using the online timber information management system. 1 1 USD = XAF ( 05/05/2016) -4-

11 PART 2: PROJECT RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 Rationale Institutional set-up and organizational issues Government of Cameroon The ministries in Cameroon have departments that provides technical support in the implementation of its policies and programmes. The forestry sector in Cameroon is mainly managed and regulated by three ministries. (1) Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) has overall responsibility for the management and conservation of the forest in Cameroon. This involves; issuing of permits for forest exploitations, establishment and management of protected areas, monitoring and evaluation of forest operations, and law enforcement; (2) Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED) responsible for assessing and managing environmental impacts of forest activities through the undertaking of Environmental Impacts Assessments (EIAs) in the context of concession management; and (3) Ministry of Finance (MINFI) responsible for overseeing forestry sector contributions to national income, including all fiscal revenue collection and allocation of revenue to beneficiaries (including local communities); and contracted independent port monitors for timber trade. Other relevant ministries and institutions involved in the forestry sector include: Ministry of Defense (Police and Gendarmerie) supporting forestry staff in the control of forestry operations in check points, questioning and arrest of offenders; the Ministry of Justice in judging criminal cases in relation to the forestry sector in collaboration with MINFOF. These Ministries have headquarters based in Yaoundé (the capital) and at the regional, divisional and sub-divisional levels. Organisational Issues The main organisational issues are poor coordination amongst relevant government timber control and law enforcement agencies, lack of a common timber trade monitoring system, and low capacity (human, materials and financial). Coordination: Although there are three ministries actively engaged in timber control and forest law enforcement in Cameroon, there is no mechanism in place to ensure there is synergy in their actions and to facilitate information flow and experience exchange and learning. The establishment of the inter-agency committee initiated in the previous ITTO project and which will be finalized and operationalized in this current project is aimed at filling this gap. Monitoring: There is no common and coordinated monitoring system for logging and timber trade in Cameroon. The three Ministries involved have individual logging and timber trade monitoring systems and undertake controls and law enforcement operations separately. Joint operations are done on an ad-hoc basis to address specific issues. MINFOF is making efforts to develop a central timber trade monitoring system called SIGIF. However, this system is not yet functional partly because of its complexity. The inter-agency coordination committee is expected to provide a platform for the coordination of common activities usually undertaken separately by these ministries and other relevant stakeholders. The online data and information management systems will support the SIGIF. Capacity: Capacity issues are at several levels; firstly, is the low capacity both in quality and quantity partly because the ministries does not pay competitive salaries compared to international -5-

12 NGOs resulting in brain drain; secondly most young graduates have little or no field exposure and hence lack experience; the frequent transfer of staff with little attention to the relevance of capacity to position. No ministry has basic resources (material and equipment) to effectively accomplish their mission. Finance is the one of the most limiting factor to the activities of the three ministries. It is apparent that the project will go a long way to partially address some of these organizational issues during its implementation; namely on inter-agency coordination, transparency of information flow, and capacity building. Civil Society Organisations The main civil society organisation to be involved in the implementation of the project is TRAFFIC. TRAFFIC will be the executing agency and will be working in close collaboration with the Department of Forestry in MINFOF, who will be the facilitator and supervisor of this project. The implementation of this role in previous ITTO project was well appreciated. 2 (see role and responsibilities of the two institutions in section (Project management team)). TRAFFIC is also implementing another project funded by DFID to carry out capacity building and pilot for supply chain legality, with the primary stakeholders being China based companies. TRAFFIC is the leading wildlife trade monitoring network in the world. Its mission is to ensure that trade in wild animals and plants is not a threat to the conservation of nature. The headquarters of TRAFFIC is in Cambridge in the UK, and it has a regional office for Central Africa based in Cameroon. The TRAFFIC office in Central Africa was established in 2008 has been assisting the government in meeting its objectives for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and helping with reporting to CITES and CBD. TRAFFIC has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Forestry developed for implementation of the previous ITTO project. This MoU will be extended to cover the period of implementation of this project. This project will also benefit the other CSOs in the country, such IUCN and WWF who are members of the project steering committee; local communities organisations; private sector industry associations, timber control and law enforcement agencies, training institutions and indirectly governments in timber importing countries which are beneficiaries of the project Stakeholders analysis The project will work with the same stakeholders in table 1, identified for phase one during inception workshop held in Douala, Cameroon in November Table 1: Stakeholder analysis Stakeholder group Primary stakeholders Communities living adjacent to forest concessions Characteristics Traditional knowledge; no control and law enforcement capacity; depend on forest for livelihood; Problems, needs, interests Poverty; Resources for subsistence, income; capacity to monitor illegal timber trade; poor knowledge of forest law Potentials Close to site; knowledge of forest users and resources; user right Involvement in project Source of information, benefit from sensitization on forest law and timber legality. Can be ears and eyes against illegality. 2 Decision N 0675/D/MINFOF/SG/DF/BSJ of 30th July 2010 designating the focal point of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife for the ITTO TFL-PD 003/09 Rev.2 (M) project entitled Strengthening the national process for controlling illegal logging and associated trade in Cameroon. -6-

13 Timber control and law enforcement agencies Decision makers; Monitor trade; collect taxes, distribute taxes, issue fines and penalties; corruption perception Low capacity and resources; motivation; poor coordination; poor governance; conflict of interest; influence from harvesters and traders. Willingness to collaborate; ability to learn, commitment to work Main beneficiaries of capacity building activities; PSC members Private sector (timber companies) Mainly foreigners, often wealthy, powerful and influential, know the law, some exploit legal gaps; pay workers poorly, and/or pay bribes to circumvent laws May not respect good governance, corruption, high taxes, nonrespect of the laws, conflict with local communities; high profit, stable tax system Resources (financial & material), Political and economic influence Source of information, workshop participants, PSC member. Secondary stakeholders Stakeholder group Characteristics Problems, needs, interests Potentials Involvement in project Training institutions Education; Scientific; Information and data rich; future decision makers and law enforcers Low capacity & resources; low knowledge of forest laws, information, poor field experience Training; adaptability to new information. Main beneficiary of training manual/tools and other training activities of project National NGOs (Independent observer, Environment watch, Cameroon Ecology. etc.) Knowledge, information and data rich, experience, influence, resources. Collaboration with government on good governance and transparency; Advocacy, strategic communications Beneficiary of training manual/tools and other training activities of project International NGOs (TRAFFIC, WWF, IUCN etc) Knowledge, information and data rich, experience, influence, resources. Collaboration with government on good governance and transparency; accountability; strong legislation; committed law enforcement officials Fundraising, policy and advocacy, trainers, strategic communication PSC members, project implementation (TRAFFIC); -7-

14 Tertiary stakeholders Stakeholder group Characteristics Problems, needs, interests Potentials Involvement in project Information, expertise; support to the sustainability of action Governments in major timber importing countries (EU member States, USA, China) Influential, relatively strong control and legality systems, well organized, Demand legal timber from credible sources; Interest in good governance; increase benefit to states and local communities of timber trade, CITES compliance Resources and expertise to improve legal timber trade; ability to identify and block imports of illegal timber Problem analysis Forests are a key resource for Cameroon and its people. It is the source of timber and NTFPs, and provides multiple environmental services and numerous socio-economic benefits to local communities and the country in general. However, these resources and services are threatened by many factors including illegal logging and associated trade driven by domestic and export markets. Some factors and root causes of the illegal logging and associated trade activities were identified in the previous project and include: the issuance of harvesting certificates from fictitious and/or unaudited inventories; annual operations permits which do not respect management guidelines or management plans; lack of correlation between the amount of timber sold and the forest areas allocated; poor correlation between the traceability system (SIGIF) and transportation waybills; uncontrolled harvesting of CITES-protected species, non-respect of the minimum exploitable diameter, unlawful transportation of timber, etc. The consequences of these gaps and challenges are many and include; degradation of forest resources; loss of revenue from taxes to the State; degradation of biodiversity and the reduction in income for the enhancement of the livelihood of forest communities. Some of the root causes of the above gaps and issues which this project intends to address are presented in figures 2 & 3 and summarized below: Weak forest law enforcement It was identified during the implementation of the previous ITTO project that the capacity of key government agencies: MINFOF, Finance, Justice, and Armed Force services to ensure effective law enforcement was weak. These weaknesses were partly due to low knowledge of officers coupled with fast staff turnover, inadequate resources (material and financial); poor motivation; etc. Although the previous project built capacity officials of these key government agencies in forest law enforcement, this was limited to staff in the central level of administration located mainly in the capital city Yaounde. This project will consolidate these capacities but most importantly expand it to staff at the regional and divisional levels using as support material, the training manual and tools developed by the project. In order to sustain the capacity building action, the project aims to advocate for its institutionalization by giving priority to the following government training institutions: Forestry School at Mbalmayo, National Police Academy, National School of Administration and Magistrate High School (ENAM), the Military Inter Army High School (EMIA), Gendarmerie and Police High School as well as practicing magistrates. The focus will be to train the teachers and lecturers in this institutions and advocate for the mainstreaming of law enforcement in the school curriculum. -8-

15 Weak synergies between Forest Law Enforcement relevant agencies During the various studies carried out in the previous ITTO project it was identified that enforcement of forest laws and legal framework in Cameroon by the relevant ministries had little or no coordination. The different government agencies involved in this activity operated in isolation at all levels. Such an approach renders traceability impossible and augurs well for illegal and corrupt actors who wish to abuse the system. The previous project raised awareness on the need for collaboration to fight illegal timber trade and corruption among the different law enforcement agencies and developed a framework for the establishment of an inter-agency coordination. Unfortunately, the formation of the inter-agency coordination committee could not be achieved due to the time constrains and administrative bottle necks, especially as this required the involvement of several ministries. The current project is partly aimed at completing this process and supporting the operationalization of this national multi-stakeholders coordination committee which will help to deter illegal forest operation and enhance government income from timber trade. Poor communication, information sharing and transparency in the forestry sector Another weakness that was recorded in the previous project is related to communication and information sharing linked to timber trade and illegal activity in the sector, especially by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife in Cameroon. This can partly be explained by the reluctance to share data and information by staff; inadequate analytical skills, and a complex and dysfunctional timber information management system (SIGIF) under development for more than a decade. The project will support MINFOF to develop a simple information management system limited to illegal forest trade, as contribution to the efforts of revamping the more exhaustive and complicated SIGIF. -9-

16 Figure 2. Problem tree Degradation of forest resources Weak Forest Law Enforcement Low capacity of control and law enforcement officials to implement legislation Loss of revenue from taxes by the State Increase threats to biodiversity Illegal logging and associated timber trade in Cameroon Weak synergies between Forest Law Enforcement agencies Poor coordination of agencies involved in timber control and forest law enforcement Reduction in revenue accruing to local communities from forest taxes Poor communication and information sharing on logging and associated timber trade Information is managed separately by different law enforcement agencies Effects / Consequences Key Problems Causes Sources Insufficient training programs on the implementation of the Forest Law in key training institutions Lack of a platform for dialogue and collaboration between different Forest Law f t No common information and communication system on timber trade -10-

17 Figure 3. Solutions tree Credibility of timber exported from Cameroon At the end of the project in 2018, at least 500 officials from timber control and law enforcement agencies (Justice Department; Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Customs, Police, Gendarmerie) have adequate capacity to implement timber legality assurance system in Cameroon and at least two training institutions include the training manual and tools developed by the project in their Improve good governance of forests and increase its contribution to Cameroon s GDP Increase State revenue from forest taxes Reduce threats to biodiversity Reduce illegal logging and associated timber trade in Cameroon through better implementation of legislation, tools and lessons learned in Phase 1 of By the end of the project in 2018, timber control, law enforcement, traceability and forest management practices by the various stakeholders (MINFOF, MINFI, Justice, Police and Gendarmerie, etc.) are better coordinated by the inter-agency committee established and initially supported by the Increased revenue from forest taxes to communities By the end of the project in 2018, there is increase transparency in timber trade resulting from regular communication and sharing of information by civil society stakeholders on the online timber trade information t t Development Objective Effects Specific Objective Outputs Organize one workshop to validate the training manual/tools on forest legislation and control d l d i Ph 1 Organize 04 training workshops on the use of validated manual/tools Disseminate validated manual/tools Organize one sensitization workshop on manual and tools developed for heads of relevant training institutions Advocate and support the mainstreaming of training manual/tools in curricula of at least 02 institutions Organize meetings with stakeholders to establish interagency coordination committee Organize coordination and facilitation meetings of the interagency coordination committee Develop a common timber trade information management system Organize 01 workshop to train focal points on the timber trade information t t Organize 02 workshops to sensitize local stakeholders on illegal timber trade and forest l f t Develop and implement a communication strategy to increase access to the online timber trade information management system Activities -11-

18 2.1.4 Logical framework matrix Project components Indicators Means of verification Key assumptions Development objective: To improve good governance of forests and increase its contribution to Cameroon s GDP (1) By the end of the project, timber exported from Cameroon to the EU will comply fully with the timber legality assurance system in place. (2) By 2020, the contribution of revenue from forest products to the GDP of Cameroon increased by 15% from 2014 level. (1) Export statistics of MINFOF and MINFI (PSRF) (2) Annual tax revenue statistics of MINFI (From the Directorate General of Taxes) (3) Reports of Control Brigade of MINFOF (4) CITES national reports (1) Government commitment to ensure legality in the timber trade sector, foster good governance and fight corruption will be maintained and/or increased. Specific Objective : To reduce illegal logging and associated timber trade in Cameroon through better implementation of legislation, tools and lessons learned in Phase 1 of the project. (1) Capacity of at least 500 actors in the forestry sector improved in forest law enforcement and at least two training institutions include the manual and tools in their programs. (2) The interagency coordination committee for Forest Law Enforcement in place and operational. (3) The online timber trade information management system initiated in phase 1 is completed and operational. (1) Annual tax revenue statistics of MINFI (From the Directorate General of Taxes) (2) Reports of Control Brigade of MINFOF (3) Project reports; (4) Capacity building workshop reports (5) Court register (6) MINFOF summary of offenses report (7) MoU/curricula of training institutions (8) Internet -online information management system (1) Project beneficiaries, especially government staff will be kept on post long enough to apply the knowledge and experience on timber trade control and law enforcement gained from the project. (2) Law enforcement agencies are willing and shall be committed to working together in the control and enforcement of laws related to timber trade within the framework of an Inter-agency committee. (3) Stakeholders, will contribute data and information readily to a centralized timber trade information system. -12-

19 Output 1: At the end of the project, at least 500 officials from timber control and law enforcement agencies (Justice Department; Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Customs, Police, Gendarmerie) have adequate capacity to implement timber legality assurance system in Cameroon and at least two training institutions include the training manual and tools developed by the project in their programs. (1) Total number of actors that benefited from the workshops to build capacity organized on FLE by the project before its end. (2) Number of training institutions that have received training and included the training manual and tools in their curriculum by the end of the project. (1) Reports of training workshops plus list of participants (2) Annual tax revenue statistics of MINFI (From the Directorate General of Taxes) (3) Reports of Control Brigade of MINFOF (4) Curriculum/training programs of relevant institutions (5) Interview of students in institutions (2) (1) Stakeholders will implement knowledge acquired through the various training courses. Training manual will be mainstreamed into curricula of the training institutions targeted as well as training programmes of other relevant law enforcement agencies. (6) School report cards Output 2: By the end of the project, timber control, law enforcement, traceability and forest management practices by the various stakeholders (MINFOF, MINFI, Justice, Police and Gendarmerie, etc.) are better coordinated by the inter-agency committee established and initially supported by the project. (1) Legal documents and operational procedures of the inter-agency coordination committee finalized and registered by the end of the project; (2) Number of meetings and joint activities undertaken by members of the committee during the project period. (3) By the end of the project, the revenue from forest taxes collected by project beneficiaries has increased as compared to 2014 levels. (1) Inter-ministerial order creating the interagency coordination committee. (2) Minutes of meetings and reports of activities of the interagency coordination committee. (1) Law enforcement agencies are willing and shall be committed to working together in the control and law enforcement related to timber trade within the framework of an Inter-agency committee. -13-