Today in Garoua

So today I walked into the office and there were four letters for me:
mailed from
Dad: Dec 22
my Aunt and Uncle: Nov 15
Brian: Oct 21
and Tracy: Dec 18
So apparently there was some kind of holiday holdup, because i had been receiving mail fairly consistantly three weeks after it was sent. Funny because I did get letters from some people that were sent after that, but those four must have been floating around lost in mail space for a while. Now they have arrived! Haha.

Yesterday and today I visited the offices of the World Wildlife Fund, the Ministry of Forests and Fauna of Cameroon, and Sodecoton's Project ESA here in Garoua, to speak with representatives about their projects and programs, about my work in village, and how we might be able to work together or at least be "au courant" with each other's work. I think it went very well as I think now I have a better understanding of how they partner with individuals and groups to plant trees and solve environmental problems in villages in the north of Cameroon.

The WWF deals primarily with reforestation here in the North, to fight against desertification. Trees affect wildlife, and climate change, which affects wildlife, so they believe that such endeavors are worthwhile. As such, groups, or villages and write requests/applications for trees and the WWF will give them to them to plant in village. For all of you at home who ever sponsor or "buy a tree" for Christmas or Alternative Gifts, this is the sort of program. And how interesting for me to be on the receiving end of it and see the trees get put in the ground. How it works is the village writes a request for trees, numbers and which species. Someone on the ground (in the case of my village, me) oversees the production of trees through local pepinieristes (nusery men), of which there are three in my village. After making sure that the trees are grown and planted by the village, the pepineristes will write a bill, someone from WWF will come to survey it, count the trees, and pay the pepinierists. The trees must be 40% fruit trees 60% forest species. As such, at the moment trees are free, which I have mixed feelings about due to sustainability and will probably write more on later.

Project ESA is the environmental branch of Sodecoton. Sodecoton is a French company in the north of Cameroon which basically has a monopoly on cotton production. They give farmers fertilizer and pesticides on credit and the farmers must produce cotton for them. They buy the cotton from the farmers on a fixed price. If you were to ask me my personal opinion on it, I would say it is a very detrimental system, that farmers get stuck in a cycle out of which they can't escape. The first year they take things on credit, produce their cotton and get a pretty good return, so decide to do it again. The second year, because cotton takes so much out of the land, they get less of a return and now all of a sudden are not able to pay back all the credit. And so they get caught and are forced to continue contracting with Sodecoton all the while on land that becomes more and more degraded. Whether or not Sodecoton should be held culpable, they are endeavoring to improve the environmental situation and thus have Project ESA, a branch which is dedicated to teaching farmers they partner with about planting trees: for live fences, against erosion, for nitrogen fixation. They also have a program where farmers can request trees to plant in their fields and they will use local pepinieristes to produce the plants and then buy them from them. In this case, the village is asked to pay 25% of the cost of each tree (which is roughly 100 fcfa), forestry species only. Probably better in the longrun for assuring that the villagers and farmers will care for the trees. Project ESA also does work in building biefs for villages. Biefs are basically low technology dams, built with stones and sand and cement across and area of a river. They slow the river down so that it doesn't erode the banks as much, and the slower water is able to have more time to seep into the ground and in some cases the surrounding fields, always a good thing. They require the village to pay for 25% of the cement, and to provide the rocks and sand. The project pays for the rest of the cement and for the technicians who construct the bief. I'm not sure about any plans, past or present for such a project in my village, and I'm looking more for information on constructing rainwater cachement systems and forages/wells. I was pointed to another organization for that which I'll have to go visit next time I'm in Garoua.

The Ministry of Forest and Fauna meeting went well also. I met with the provincial director and will have to follow up with regional agents who work specifically in my town and the surrounding towns. I wanted to meet with them, so that they would know me and my work and to ask questions regarding what is necessary for establishing a woodlot. I had heard stories of villages in the past who established community forests or woodlots and then when they cut trees down from them from time to time, and agent from MINFOF would appear and fine them, saying that the trees were the property of the state. The director denied this, saying the state would only say that about trees that already existed in fields, not ones the villagers planted. However then he went on to explain that before ever cutting a tree from a woodlot, the villagers must write in a paper and submit a document informing the MINFOF that they will be cutting a tree. They must do this every single time, and this is law. And therefore if they do not do this, the agent of MINFOF is obligated to come to the town and fine the villagers. How discouraging. How incredibly discouraging. Because here you have a population who wants to plant trees. They want to help themselves. They want to change their environment. Yet, how do they have the resources, or much less the knowledge that if they want to plant their own woodlot, they will have to submit a document every time they are going to cut trees from it for their community? With all of the corruption in Cameroon, I'm sure there are cases where the agents arrive in the village and announce that it is illegal to cut down their trees, and thus exige small bribes to allow them to cut their own trees. This is the sort of thing that takes the wind out of my sails, and I understand completely how discouraged villagers must be and how they might develop a defeatest attitude as a result, about any projects. As such, my role can be finding out about these laws and informing them as much as possible, following all necessary logistics, and above all getting to know the MINFOF agent of my region and keeping him in the know about every step along the way. If he can see them plant the woodlot, and can see them take care of it, and then knows when they're going to cut trees, it will be less likely for any problems to arise. I'm hoping it's more of a difficulty when the village is completely unaware and unconnected and goes about their work and then is caught by surprise when an agent shows up demanding money because they didn't inform the state that they were cutting their trees. It is frustrating and makes me want to cry. But you have a system set up, and in this case a legal one, so you learn to work within that system and find ways that will work.

So I feel like I have a little more information and better grounds to meet with the Committee of the Community Woodlot that was formed at our community meeting, and a bit of a place from which to start. Now, unfortunately, as much as I would like to continue writing, because there is so much more I want to say, I have to leave the office, to catch a car back to my village for a Mafa lesson.