Community forest use and dependence for livelihoods in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

This study assessed the extent, patterns and socio-demographic determinants of community forest use and dependence for livelihood in three community forests areas in Fako Division, Cameroon. The data, collected principally through a questionnaire administered to 295 selected community members, was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science 20. The study found that most (61.3%) of the respondents directly use the community forest, principally for fuelwood collection (89.4%), NTFPs harvesting (41.3%), subsistence farming (40%) and timber exploitation (25.7%). Community forest use was significantly predicted by user's location (p=0.039), gender (p=0.011), primary occupation (p=0.00), level of education (p=0.00), income level (p=0.023), origin (p=0.010) and membership in Community Forest Management Group (p=0.025). Furthermore, it was observed that most (53.1%) of the forest users depended on the forest for 61-100% of their household food, energy and material needs while the sales of forest resources accounted for 61-100% of the monthly income of 57.9% others. The study concluded that community forest resources make up a considerable portion of the livelihood portfolio of many forest-fringe households in the area and recommended among other things improvements in the current land tenure policy to enable local stakeholders to fully embrace participatory forestry and the training of forest users on value adding activities to enhance returns from the commercialization of forest products.