Specialists met in Yaounde recently and expressed the wish for well planned policy.
The influx of investors in the oil palm sector in Cameroon has rekindled hope considering the strong economic benefit this may bring to the country and a significant reduction in poverty, but this lofty idea can be jeopardized by the negative effect it could bring in if not well handled. Meeting in Yaounde recently, experts in the environmental sector and other actors expressed the desire for government and other stakeholders to build up a national palm oil strategy that can “steer the rapid expansion of the sector and ensure that expanded production contribute to Cameroon’s sustainable development goals.”
Organised under the coordination of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and Institute for Development Research (IRD), participants lauded the new wave of investment but suggested the adoption of the best standards of oil palm development that are friendly to the environment. This includes what they referred to as Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and High Conservation Value (HCV). In effect, the initiative of conservators does not go against the whole idea of developing oil palm plantations in Cameroon, but adopting “environmental and social best practices in the process to effectively mitigate negative impacts” such investments can provoke. “Forest loss and the draining of peat lands for oil palm plantations are also contributing to increased carbon dioxide emissions and subsequently climate change”, David Hoyle, Conservationist Director for WWF-Cameroon told reporters.
Cameroon is presently at a deficit in palm oil production estimated at 150,000 metric tons. To fill this vacuum, the Rural Sector Development Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development is proposing to increase palm oil production to 300,000 tons in 2015 and 450,000 tons in 2020. Against this backdrop, at least six companies are currently trying to secure over one million hectare of land for the production of palm oil in the southern forested zone. “We are very focused and looking towards sustainability. We are respecting WWF management plans”, Elvis Oben, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil Manager at the Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC) limited, one of the in-coming companies, said.
