| 9. Cocoa and the antelope: or why chocolate should not be made
with vegetable oil... (case of Cameroon) The European Commission Directive proposals in order to harmonize the chocolate market, and relative to cacao products and chocolate intended for human consumption, have provoked during several months many reactions as much on the consumersí part as on that of the producing countriesí, before being examined at by European Parliament on the 23 October 1997.In this document we will make some comments, from the point of view of the Cameroonian village level, in the light of the plantersí reactions during the great cocoa market variation of the last decade. Cocoa in the Cameroonian farmersíeconomy In the 1992 dry season cocoa campaign, the world rates never stopped falling from one month to the other. In Cameroon, the purchase prices to cultivators fell, authorized buyers give up using their trucks on the forest areaís poor streets. At the end of the campaign, the disheartened planters can only gaze at the dried cacao bean bags, piled up in their kitchens.... Already the rate fall during the 88-89 campaign had resulted in an income loss varying from 50% to 60%, the kilo price dropping from 400 CFA to 200 CFA.The cultivators first stopped using expensive phytosanitary products, and afterwards stopped hiring seasonal workers necessary for weeding and harvesting. Finally they limited the harvested areas. But above all, the most active cultivators turned away from cacao cultivation in order to find elsewhere the necessary income to everyday life : taxes, school fees, medical care, paraffin oil, and soap were paid by cacao. Going back to their past, they used the time derived from the uselessness of agricultural work (the gathering and preparation of cacao-pods are time consuming) to develop more engaging activities providing regular income: trapping, establishing forest camps, laying hundreds of snares and checking them regularly. In this economic context, the game sale proceeds to the buyum-sellum coming from cities exceeded the uncertain income from cacao. This income was even more reduced by the poor quality resulting from the lack of care to the plantations. Clearly enough a yearly income of 350 000 or 400 000 CFA F through game sale, cannot be compared to the million and a half that cocoa could bring to a household before the crisis. But it is better than an unskilled workerís salary (30 000 CFA F/month at that time) and certainly better than nothing. In 1994, another blow : the CFA Franc is devaluated. Salaries drop, the purchasing power diminishes, but at the market the price of the leg of bush-buck (forest antelope) increases... The cultivators who became bushmeat "producing" trappers have it confirmed that they made the right choice. Admittedly, devaluation plays a part in and fosters export; since rates are increasing during the 94-95 cocoa campaign, some planters restore their plantations. But for all that many of them donít give up on trapping, which has become a blooming activity: the flow rate of forest smoked meat to cities does not stop to increase, much to the detriment of antelopes... and of nature protectors who do not know how to limit the flow ! The unexpected result of European chocolate It is within this context that, on the 30 May 1996, the European Commission presented to the European Parliament a Directive proposal relative to the products derived from cacao and chocolate intended for human consumption [COM(95) 722; JO C231, 9/8/96]. This proposal provides, among others, to authorize State member chocolate makers to use, in the chocolate making, up to 5% of vegetable oils other than cacao [COM(95) 722 ; EU Bulletin 4-1996 § 1.3.8]. Fine chocolate lovers protest against the product quality decline. Africaís friends, as far as they are concerned, wonder about the consequences for the Third World producers. Chocolate industrialists estimate that this possibility would only entail a fall inferior to 3% of demand (60 000 T/year) while producing countries value it from 6 to 12% (140 to 270 000 T /year). Beyond these estimate disagreements, it is certain that a demand fall would first of all affect the smallest, most vulnerable producers. Cameroon, seventh world producer, only produces 120 000 T/year, 5% of the world tonnage. No doubt that Cameroonian forest planters would rapidly go back to trapping to make up for, once more, predictable income losses. Conclusion In the synthesis note in preparation of the debate within the European Parliament, the reporter, Mr Paul Lannoye, stresses, after the Development and Cooperation Commissionís opinion, that "the Directive limited advantages donít make up at all for its major inconveniences (demand decline |
| generating a temporary overproduction which will accentuate the prices fall; resort
to substitution fat less expensive than shea butter, additional cost for Stabex)." [European Parliament, Synthesis Note 15-10-97]. To these inconveniences, we should add another, which at least involves Cameroon : the cacao demand decline would bring about poaching and commercial hunting increase, destroying even more the wildlife that the European Commission, in other respects, strives to protect through the creation of protected areas which are very expensive for the European taxpayer. by Serge Bahuchet Serge Bahuchet, Director of Research, CNRS, and APFT Scientific Council Director |
| 10. Can rattan help save wildlife? As the social, economic and cultural importance of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) in the Congo Basin becomes increasingly clear, certain hypotheses which appeared environ-mentally appealing, now need to be reconsidered. Recent evidence from the Yaoundé (Cameroon) area questions the hypothesis that the harvesting, commercialisation and transformation of certain NTFP by the rural poor can be a means of shifting efforts away from the predatory and unsustainable exploitation of ecologically sensitive forest products such as wildlife and tropical hardwoods. Some researchers and conservationists hold that providing alternative cash-earning possibilities to village populations thanks to NTFP could contribute to a viable conservation approach. On the contrary, our observations reveal that rattan harvesting and the commercialisation of game are two complementary and mutually supportive activities in terms of time allocation, the use of scarce cash and the increasingly intensive use of peri- urban forest space. The "NTFP-as-alternative" hypothesis is predicated upon the assumption that villagers have closed systems of needs and that once they acquire a certain amount of cash to pay for the basics, they could be persuaded to reduce commercial hunting and trapping or hardwood tree felling. Unfortunately, the economic reality is somewhat different. Villagers require ever more cash to meet real and perceived needs. Even though the development of the cash economy is far from being a recent process, new demands are emerging. Governments throughout Central Africa, and that of Cameroon is no exception, are finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil their social, educational and health responsibilities. This means that populations have to develop and adapt their own survival strategies without relying on the state. Globalisation, familiarity with trends taking place abroad and contacts with cities all incite villagers to wish to acquire radios and televisions, to dress in Western fashion and consume what is perceived as "modern" foods and drinks. The prestige of being able to consume beer and bottled soft drinks, for example, is a clear social marker. There are other reasons why villagers' systems of needs are expanding rather than fixed. In this Ewondo region where traditional political power is not inherited but acquired, money also talks: it gives those who have it le droit à la parole. Moreover, if proposed legislation is approved and applied, a new need for cash will be the payment of the "impôt libératoire" Like many other NTFP, rattans (notably Ancistrophyllum secundiflorum and Eremosphata macrocarpa) play an important economic role in the interface between the populations of Yaoundé and its hinterland which is slowly but surely being emptied of its natural resources. Indeed, the expanding halo around the Cameroonian capital, like that encircling other cities in the region, is becoming a relative biodiversity vacuum (Trefon 1997). Urbanites, be they the poorest of the poor or the well-to-do, rely to varying degrees on forest space and resources. Harvesters from more than twenty villages in the area provide rattan to a wholesale market at Mvog Mbi which in turn supplies approximately 117 workshops (Defo 1997) with the sticks and climbers needed to craft a variety of products ranging from baskets and mats to pieces of furniture such as beds, sofas, bookshelves, etc. which even a casual observer in the city cannot fail to notice. These products are in vogue with all social classes of this expanding one million-plus city. Most villagers engage in diverse economic activities and rattan harvesting is just one of many. Others include food production for consumption and sale of surpluses; cocoa farming; hunting and fishing; wood extraction and the small-scale cutting of planks; harvesting of other NTFP such as leaf wrappers, wild mango, nuts, palm wine, etc.; extraction of sand needed for building; distillation of odontol (local alcohol made from palm wine); etc. Although physically exacting (heavy loads are carried out over long distances), painful (because of the sharp thorns in the rattan's outer casing) and dangerous (because dead branches are often pulled down along with the climbers), rattan can provide rapid cash at any time of the year with no investment. The problem of seasonality which handicaps so many other economic activities does not apply here. It is still widely available around numerous villages and the large number of craftsman in Yaoundé make it a relatively easy seller. In a recent survey (Defo 1997) rattan harvesters were asked the question whether it would make economic sense to abandon commercial hunting or hardwood extraction and devote their time and efforts solely to rattan. They nearly all replied in the negative, emphasising that these other activities |
| are considerably more lucrative and that there is a high degree of complementarity
between them. We have been able to identify three types of complementarities. Most harvesters also hunt. They have numerous snare traps set in the forest space which they pass through in order to find rattan. Checking or setting up these snares is efficiently done while en route to cut rattan. Moreover, harvesters identify paths taken by animals while looking for rattan and set up traps accordingly. Sale of game pays for transportation costs. These villagers have no savings and serious cash flow problems. Saving money for the future is largely an abstract notion. Money earned at the time of sale is usually spent on the spot for basic necessities such as salt, soap or kerosene; on drink; or is earmarked for specific expenses like school fees or health care. They consequently don't return to the village with the surplus needed to pay a lorry to transport rattan to market the next time. A porcupine or antelope caught and sold along the road or in a nearby town (Mbalmayo for example) provides the money needed to pay rattan transportation costs. Many harvesters are craftsmen themselves. Again, because of cash flow problems, they do not have the money needed to purchase the equipment required to work the raw material. Cash is needed for nails, butane gas, varnish, etc. and can be earned by selling what has been caught in a trap.In addition, the cash earned from selling rattan pays for cable used in snares. It also pays for the fuel or the hiring of a chainsaw which can be used for felling and sawing a Sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum) or a Bubinga (Guibourtia spp.) into planks. Given the present economic conditions and constraints in the Yaoundé hinterland, as well as the inventiveness of villagers to find survival strategies, combining numerous and comple-mentarity economic-subsistence activities is the rule. Can rattan help save wildlife? Unfortunately not. The response is not rattan or wildlife but rattan and wildlife. by Theodore Trefon and Louis Defo Theodore Trefon coordinates Forest-City Relations for APFT. Louis Defo, Université de Yaoundé I, is an APFT junior researcher. A FEW REFERENCES Defo, Louis, La Filière des Produits Forestiers Non Ligneux: L'exemple du Rotin au Sud- Cameroun, APFT Unpublished Report, 1997, Yaoundé. Trefon, Theodore, « Urban Threats to Biodiversity in the Congo Basin » in The Congo Basin: Recent Developments and Alternatives for Sustainable Development, BOS Newsletter, Journal on Tropical Forests and Forestry for Sustainable Development, Vol 16 (3), N° 37, Nov. 1997, Wageningen, Holland. |