Nasako Besingi (l), the director of the local NGO Struggle to Economize the Future, has been arrested an intimidated by police because of his protests against a controversial palm oil planation development in Cameroon’s Korup National Park. Courtesy: Frank Bieleu/Oakland Institute.

By Monde Kingsley Nfor
YAOUNDE, Dec 20 2012 (IPS)

Protests against a controversial palm oil plantation in the Korup National Park, Africa’s oldest and richest rainforest in terms of floral and faunal diversity, in Mundemba, southwest Cameroon will continue despite the arrests and intimidation of local environmental campaigners.

Nasako Besingi, the director of the local NGO Struggle to Economize the Future, told IPS “we won’t stop until environmental justice is done.”

The New York-based agricultural company, Herakles Farms, has been accused of grabbing a piece of this central African nation’s national forest as it goes ahead with a 73,000-hectare palm oil plantation despite a lack of government authorisation – there are claims that the 99-year lease agreement with the government is illegal – and two court injunctions, and in the face of significant community opposition.

The contested land is a “biodiversity hotspot”, a critical area that connects five protected areas in the park, and the project will disrupt the protection and growth of important wildlife, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) said in an environmental and social impact assessment in August.

A report issued in September by two Cameroonian NGOs, the Centre for Environment and Development and Réseau de Lutte contre la Faim, said “there are over 20 villages with ancestral lands inside the concession, and 31 villages within a distance of the periphery, and over 25,000 people will be affected by this. They depend on that land for small-scale food production, hunting, and non-timber forest products.”

About 46 percent of Cameroon’s 20 million people live in rural areas, but according to a USAID country profile on property rights here “only approximately three percent of rural land is registered, mostly in the names of owners of large commercial farms.” The country is ranked 131st of 169 countries on the 2010 United Nations Human Development Index, partially due to persistent poverty.

Besingi said that he and his colleagues have endured police suppression, arrests and intimidation. His latest arrest was on Nov. 14, when the country’s national military police stormed his office.

“We were told we were required for questioning at the police post, and were detained for a day without charge. But it was only following international and local pressure that we were released (on bail) under the condition that we must appear before the authorities whenever we are (asked),” he said.

Besingi explained that the palm oil plantation project was going ahead despite the lack of a formal government agreement, because Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), a subsidiary of Herakles Farms, had the support of those in power.

“SGSOC enjoys support from some elites, the chief of Fabe village (which is on the project site) and some government representatives, including the police. They have been bought over with money and material things. These groups of people, including the government, are misleading the people,” he said.

Excerpts of the interview with IPS follow:

Q: What is your interest in this campaign against SGSOC/Herakles Farms?

A: We cannot just sit and allow a few individuals to ruin the lives of thousands. So we have to make our voices and those of the voiceless heard.

Giving so much forestland to a company that has no real development plan for the people is injustice against a people who cannot have access to one-third of the forestland. Many locals feel there are already too many protected zones in the (forest). This massive plantation will further restrict their access to land.

Q: Bruce Wrobel, CEO of Herakles Farms, said in September that the organisation was already employing more than 500 people, and has committed to hiring among the local villages. He said that once the plantation was fully operational, it would require approximately 8,000 employees. Is this not an opportunity for the people?

A: There is little evidence that large-scale plantations will effectively bring economic development to this area. Past experiences in the country show such promises … to be false. Instead, large plantations have resulted in massive environmental degradation, the destruction of livelihoods, and the transformation of small-scale farmers and indigenous populations into low-paid plantation workers.

The company claims that it will create 8,000 jobs. However, the plantation will economically displace approximately 25,000 people who depend on that land for small-scale food production, hunting, and non-timber forest products. Thus, the net impact on employment will actually be negative.

Q: What is the problem with land management issues in Cameroon?  

A: There are two fundamental problems in my opinion. Firstly, communities do not have legally-recognised land rights that secure their access to the vital natural resources that they depend on; and secondly, Cameroon is still to develop a national land-use plan which would, in principal, evaluate the needs of local communities before granting foreign investors access to land.

Q: What would you want SGSOC/Herakles Farms to do before operating?

A: We demand that SGSOC respect Cameroonian law and the rights of communities.

Unfortunately, SGSOC has repeatedly violated Cameroonian law. They have signed an illegal contract with the government, and have shown no respect to local communities who, on the majority, oppose the project.

Following the 1976 law governing the allocation of concessions on state lands in Cameroon, subsequent to signing the lease agreement, SGSOC was supposed to be given a presidential approval to start cultivation activities. But this was not given, so the project has been in violation of the law since 2010. Moreover, prior to its operations, an environmental and social impact assessment was not conducted.

Q: What is the opportunity cost for the SGSOC/Herakles project? 

A: The opportunity cost for this project is the loss of forest revenue through the payment of environmental services, ecotourism and REDD+ activities.

All these activities can generate more revenue for the state than SGSOC can. For example, the Cameroonian Food Sovereignty Coalition estimates that if the government were to require bread makers to use 20 percent of locally-produced flour, 96,000 farming jobs would be created using just 15,000 hectares of land.

This would generate 13 times more employment and significantly larger government revenue than the SGSOC project and would leave land for peasant agriculture, conservation, and the use of non-timber forest products.

Q: What next with your campaign against SGSOC/Herakles farms?

A: We won’t stop until environmental justice is done. We want a new agreement that takes into consideration the sustainable management of that forest and that gives the locals better access to land and alternative livelihoods. We are currently working with more than 20 community groups and international and local NGOs and using every possible channel, like IPS, to reach the international community.

Numfor Jude installs solar panels in the small agrarian village of Sabongari, in Cameroon’s North West Region. Credit: Monde Kingsley Nfor/IPS

By Monde Kingsley Nfor
BAMENDA, Cameroon , Nov 8 2012 (IPS)

In the small farming village of Sabongari, in Cameroon’s North West Region, the need for kerosene to light bush lamps and petrol to run electric generators has been replaced by the need for something much cheaper and cleaner: sunshine.

In an open corner in the village of about 2,000 people, large sunlight-capturing solar panels stand tilted towards the sun. They form the mini-solar power plant that supplies the electricity grid here in this village that is some 700 kilometres from the country’s capital, Yaoundé. It is an unusual sight for rural Cameroon.

The grid supplies 30 homes, including the home of Ndzi Samuel, a local primary school teacher, three small shops and a local hotel with electricity 24 hours a day.

“My children can now read with good lights, and I am able to use a mobile telephone today with no problem although we also have very low network coverage,” Samuel told IPS.

Prior to the installation of the solar panels in 2011, this village relied on three electric generators owned by business people. It allowed the few people here with mobile phones to charge them, but the electric generators were unreliable and often short-circuited equipment.

“I lost three phones due to power surges from an electric generator. But with the solar panels I can easily charge my mobile phone and stay connected,” one villager told IPS.

While this west Central African nation may have the second-largest hydroelectric production potential in Sub-Saharan Africa – 103 Terrawatt hours per year at present – only 30 percent of that potential is being exploited, according to the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). And access to electricity in rural areas is low.

According to the World Bank, of the country’s estimated 20 million people, some 8.1 million live in rural areas and only 14 percent of those have access to electricity. It is a huge disparity compared to access in urban areas of 65 to 88 percent of the population.

The government has been encouraging the use of solar panels to generate electricity. In 2011 a law was passed declaring that those importing solar equipment would not have to pay Value Added Tax from the 2012 financial year.

“Solar power is a good opportunity for all in Africa. Africa’s position at the equator level makes this continent the sunniest in the world,” said Asanji Nelson, a renewable energy engineer at the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Resources (MINEE).

But reaching rural areas with this alternative power source is still a challenge because the costs of the solar panels still remain unaffordable to the rural poor who depend on subsistence farming for a livelihood. An overview of market prices shows that home panels ranges from 400 to 10,000 dollars.

“The final cost of a solar panel is still a major impediment to villagers as such; enterprises in Cameroon do not target the rural poor due to costs that cannot be borne by villagers,” Asanji told IPS.

According to figures from MINEE, there are more than 25 registered firms providing solar panels in Cameroon, but most of them target urban dwellers and businesses.

The Cameroon Solar Energy Company also provides sustainable energy to people, but mainly reaches an urban-based clientele who acquire solar panels as a backup in case of a general electricity blackout.

For the most part, they target other enterprises that use solar panels for business operations, the managing director Tebo Vincent told IPS.

Energie Cameroun is another solar firm based in Yaounde. They sell solar installations, and also install solar street lamps for rural communities.

“We are based in the city because we have better customers than we could possibly have in villages. But we also work in villages when customers hire us to install panels. However, our reliable customers are city dwellers,” Haman Sani, the commercial director of Energie Cameroun, told IPS.

“Rural communities need our products, but the cost involved in the whole chain is high; importation, taxes, transportation and installation are costs that determine the final value of our products. In order to cover those costs and to make a profit, we mostly deal with companies and missionaries who can readily afford it for community hospitals and schools,” Sani says

Renewable Energy Innovators(REI) was able to install the panels in Sabongari and 10 other rural villages thanks to international funding.

The mini-solar power plant in Sabongari powers the village’s electric grid. Courtesy: Monde Kingsley Nfor

Numfor Jude, the president and co-founder of REI, explained that Wireless Light & Powers, a Canadian organisation that works to improve the lives of people in rural communities, supports them by providing material and financial resources for REI to travel to rural villages and by importing the solar panels into the country.

“We go into distant communities introducing solar energy sources to villagers at virtually no cost,” Jude told IPS.

In Sabongari, the installation costs of the mini-solar power plant were minimal.

“The villagers are united by their common problem of lack of electricity. They showed interest in the project by contributing the money that covers the partial cost of installation. Each household contributed a sum of 25 dollars and businesses paid 100 dollars. A maintenance fee of one dollar each is expected from them monthly,” he said.

A local villager in Sabongari told IPS: “It is like being rescued from incessant darkness. We can charge our phones and make calls to other places at any time.”

Weriwu Godfred, the project director of a government solar street light scheme in Yaounde implemented five years ago, told IPS: “Solar equipment is still only for the rich and beyond the reach of the ordinary Cameroonian, despite the non-payment of VAT today.”

He worries about the fact that most communities have rural radios but audiences cannot power radio receivers. “It is even more sustainable to run rural and community radios with solar power that represents less risk to humans and appliances,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cameroonians are increasingly vocal about power shortages and blackouts, which have made energy an increasingly important political and economic issue.

Rising oil prices, increasing global energy consumption and concern for the environment have led to a renewed interest in renewable energy. Cameroon’s development objectives under the Vision 2035 programme envisage significant investments in the renewable energy sector.

Asanji said that: “Cameroon relies on approximately 30 aging diesel power stations as back-up facilities for its hydroelectric network, meaning our hydro source is not totally clean.”