SHOULD NORTH CAMEROON’S ACACIA PLANTATIONS BE ABANDONED OR EXTENDED? IT ALL DEPENDS ON DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARABIC GUM MARKET CHAIN

Abstract

From 1990 to 2006, thousands of small Acacia senegal plantations were established by farmers in northern Cameroon, under several projects aiming to reduce poverty and environmental degradation. Since 2007, however, maintenance has been poor in most of these plantations and few trees have been tapped. The planted area has declined and the formal market for hard gum from these plantations has plunged. In 2008, this study compared the characteristics of the illegal and legal markets. Our results show that most of the gum is picked from natural Acacia seyal stands (which produce friable gum) and traded informally to the Nigerian market. The gum is mainly collected by women and children. Despite the low sale price of the gum, the informal market does have advantages for impoverished families, since it provides an advance for the next gum picking cam-paign, cash payments and a great many sales points. Those who plant Acacia senegal (which produced high-quality hard gum) make up a very different population. They are mostly men, elderly and well-off, who act as project partners. The formal market they supply is rigid, sales points are few and a long way from gum harvesting areas, and neither sales nor payments are guar-anteed. This sector is heavily taxed, officially or not, so that it cannot compete with illegal exports and gum sales are slumping. The price paid to producers (0.2 to 0.5 $US/kg) is much lower than on the international market (1.5 to 4.5 $US/kg). The official market cannot operate effectively unless it adopt the trading practices used in the un-official market. To encourage sustainable management of acacia stands, the State and the projects need to make land tenure secure and reduce taxes and other obstacles to trade while also encouraging producers to form organised groups that can take up a position on more rewarding markets of the fair trade or organic type.