Community forestry as a green economy pathway in Cameroon

Agroforestry, as well as its ’parents’ agriculture and forestry, relate to the portfolio of 17 Sustainable Development Goals in multiple ways, as indicated in chapter 17. On-going efforts in Cameroon to breathe new life into the ‘Community-Based Forest Management’ efforts by connecting the policy reform of local forest management more clearly to agroforestry and local business development, can serve as an example of the ways SDG 16 (governance) interacts with SDGs 15 (terrestrial ecosystems, including forests), 12 (responsible production and consumption) and 1 (income). Where smallholders are part of the problem of forest degradation and deforestation (See Box 15.1), solutions are unlikely to work without involving them at the level of rights, incentives and motivation. The Cameroon example demonstrates how landscape level and national level constraints together shape the issues, and how furthersynergy is needed to resolve them.