This is contained in a report presented by the NGO CED in Yaounde on February 14, 2012.
A report on land concessions granted to foreign agro-industries says that in agreeing the terms of the contracts, the Cameroon government tends to give more rights and fewer responsibilities to the investors. The report is based on the SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon Plc (SGSOC) that signed a contract with government in 2009 to develop 73,086 hectares of oil palm plantations and construct oil mills in Ndian and Kupe Muanenguba Divisions in the South West Region.
But the project that has to produce 400,000 tonnes of crude palm oil and 40,000 tonnes of palm kernel oil per annum is opposed by local communities and Non-governmental Organisations, NGOs. They are fearful of the negative social and environmental impact that the setup of the plantations could have on local people. According to the terms of the contract, SGSOC has the exclusive right to farm within the concession, meaning it can relocate the inhabitants at will.
The CED report argues that because the duration of the lease is 99 years, means the future of the people living around the project site has been mortgaged. According to Brendan Schwariz, a programme assistant with CED, government has to be more careful when accepting agro-industrial investments in the country. He says government tends to shoulder many responsibilities but receives few benefits from such transactions. For instance, such firms are exempted from taxes in the first ten years of operation after which they only pay an annual corporate tax of 15 per cent or less; instead of 38.5 per cent.
All this represents great losses to the state and if government must attain its vision of becoming an emerging country by 2035, more revenue needs to be generated. To improve on the system of granting land leases for mechanised agricultural purposes, CED proposes renewable leases of 30 years for a maximum of 50,000 hectares. It also insists on more transparency in land leasing and the identification of potential land for leasing, accompanied by established maps.
