Building institutional frameworks for community forest management and participatory rights documentation in the Congo Basin.
Community forests in Cameroon face overlapping statutory, customary, and project-level land claims. Without documented rights and participatory governance structures, these forests remain vulnerable to external encroachment and elite capture.
Our client faced a governance vacuum: eight contiguous community forests lacked formal management plans, boundary demarcation, and mechanisms for equitable benefit sharing. Indigenous Bantu and Baka communities held customary use rights that were never formally mapped or recognized under national legislation.
Drawing on Ostrom's institutional analysis framework[1] and Agrawal & Gibson's community-level critique[2], we designed a participatory governance system that links local institutions with national REDD+ frameworks.
• No written management plans (50% of community forests nationally)
• Weak boundary enforcement — 23% boundary violations recorded
• Elite capture risk in benefit-sharing committees
• Limited integration with national REDD+ MRV systems
Every community forest governance engagement follows a rigorous, participatory methodology grounded in commons theory.
Documented 47 formal and informal institutions governing forest access across 8 community forests, using Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework.
Mapped 156 stakeholders across five actor categories (state, community, private sector, NGO, donor) using power-interest matrix analysis.
Compiled statutory and customary rights inventories, cross-referencing national forestry law (1994/1995) with community-level oral agreements.
Co-produced 1:50,000 community forest boundary maps with 3,400 households using GPS, drone imagery, and sketch mapping workshops.
Evaluated organizational capacity across 12 domains using a customized scorecard aligned with RRI's tenure assessment framework.
Delivered 5-year community forest management plans with annual milestones, budget allocations, and monitoring indicators.
8 Simple Management Plans (PAFs) drafted and community-validated, up from 0 at baseline.
23% reduction in illegal boundary crossings after participatory demarcation and signage installation.
Revised governance charters reduced elite capture risk from "high" to "moderate" per RRI assessment.
Institutional mapping and stakeholder analysis completed across 8 community forests.
Rights documentation and participatory mapping workshops with 3,400 households.
Capacity assessment and gap analysis; community validation sessions held.
Management plans drafted and submitted to regional forestry delegations.
Implementation monitoring: 23% reduction in boundary violations recorded.