The nexus between biodiversity conservation and participatory development in Africa: a case of the Congo basin in Cameroon

Using participatory land-use planning as its lens and the Tri-National Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) conservation segment in Cameroon as its study area, this study explores how conservation strategies and practices put in place as participatory approach objectives can potentially, directly or indirectly, negatively impact socially and economically marginalised people’s decision-making process to participate in the broader conservation of biodiversity in the Congo Basin. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies with GIS mapping in carrying out the research. It focuses on three predominantly Bantu-Djem village communities and two Indigenous Baka people communities (with a total of 171 respondents). Both ethnic communities have been subjected to comparable forms of forest policy, governance and power dynamics in the forest region, including the same community forest regime, land rights, logging rights and access to forest resources. The findings reveal that the origin of participatory approaches to biodiversity conservation in Cameroon did not start in the 1970s but started before colonisation in the 1880s. At the time, participatory approaches to nature conservation were applied by indigenes as a bottom-up participatory approach but the participatory process was reversed to a top-down approach with colonisation that led to increasing marginalisation of the local population. Ultimately, this rendered participation as an instrument (largely an exercise) with only a few community voices that leveraged it to ensure institutional continuity. Empirical evidence gathered demonstrates that community participation in the participatory land use planning process, through community forests management, was largely nominal. The use of participation to achieve government aims emerged from the process, which was used to greater efficiency in the management of the forests and people. Nevertheless, the implementation of participatory land use planning as the preferred strategy for biodiversity conservation in the country, did not result in community empowerment or self-mobilisation in the participatory approach process.