Photo by flickr / Sapphiren

Resources

Africa focal points:

• Paolo Cerutti p.cerutti@cgiar.org
• Tim Fometé timfomete@yahoo.fr

Presentations

• GFC Accra - 28 September 2006, presentation given by David Brown (PDF, 240kb)
• Le Projet ‘VERIFOR’, presentation in Nkolbisson, 20 Septembre 2006 (in French, PDF, 576kb)

Case studies

• Cameroon
• Ghana

See also

• Bibliography - Africa
• Bibliography - Cameroon
• ODI Natural Resource Perspective 75- From supervising 'subjects' to supporting 'citizens': Recent developments in community forestry in Asia and Africa, February 2002

VERIFOR activities in Africa 2007/2008:

• Paolo Cerruti, VERIFOR Africa team member, attended the 'Atelier sur le contrôle des flux transfrontaliers de bois entre les pays de la COMIFAC actuellement impliquées dans le processus FLEGT' (Control of transboundary timber trade among COMIFAC countries engaged in the FLEGT process), on 3-4 April 2008
• In March 2008 the VERIFOR Africa team finalised the Cameroon case study and drafted the Gabon, DRC and Congo case studies.
• VERIFOR Africa focal point, Tim Fometé, attended the first Central Africa FLEGT Forum in Brazzaville from July 3-4 2007.
• In May and June 2007 VERIFOR organised training sessions for students at the University of Dshang in May. The course content focussed on Illegal logging in the Tropics, Institutional and legal arrangements for forest control in Cameroon and Experiences of verification systems (based on the VERIFOR case studies).
• VERIFOR attended the Regional workshop on decentralisation and the contribution of forest sector taxes to socio-economic development in the Congo Basin (Kinshasa, 14-15 June 2007). Under the coordination of the Commission for the Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the WWF, VERIFOR moderated the session on forest revenue utilisation and governance.

VERIFOR activities in Africa 2006:

• VERIFOR focal point in Africa, Tim Fometé, made an invited contribution at the International Parliamentarian Conference on Sustainable Forest Management, held in Yaoundé (24-28 October 2006), as the moderator of a session on legality and financing mechanisms.
• VERIFOR Director David Brown spoke and presented at the 'Policy Forum On Forest Verification System Development In Ghana 'held in Accra on 27 September 2006, organised by the Ghana Forestry Commission. The initiative to establish a forest verification system is one of the key natural resource strategies of the Government of Ghana, and a response to the changing international market for timber. The Government's response to this shift in preference is through the implementation of the Validation of Legal Timber Programme (VLTP) at the Forestry Commission. The purpose of this forum was to help shape the developing VLTP by an informed debate among key stakeholders, including national legislators and senior civil servants. David Brown was asked to address comparative lesson learning from both the forestry sector experience, internationally, and extra-sectoral experience.
• National Workshop on Verification, Cameroon
  VERIFOR held a national workshop on verification in Septembe 2006, at CIFOR, Nkolbison, Cameroon. This was attended by key policy actors and decision makers in Cameroon, from government, donors and NGOs.The meeting began with a presentation from David Brown and Tim Fometé (in French) on verification practice internationally and the Cameroon experience. Participants then discussed issues arising. The general view was that progress was being made, but some significant challenges remained. The two principle challenges were to translate the consensus on what legality entails in Cameroon into a set of criteria and indicators, and to harmonise the information systems of the various ministries and departments.
• Following the Experts' Consultation in April 2006, the VERIFOR Africa Programme organised an update on the findings to stakeholders in Cameroon, followed by a presentation to the COMIFAC Ad-hoc committee (this included the COMIFAC secretariat and representatives of international NGOs active in the region).
• In August 2006, the Ministry of Forest in Cameroon invited VERIFOR to contribute to the finalisation of the legality standard. Tim Fometé was one of a small number experts invited to play this role. VERIFOR was then invited to facilitate an NGO workshop to review the legality standard and discuss legality criteria produced in the framework of the TRAFFIC/WWF project. From August to October 2006 VERIFOR-CIFOR has been a member of the Civil Society Working Group in Cameroon, contributing to the production of a position paper on the VPA process and legality standard.
• VERIFOR was presented to the Forest and Environment Ministry Partners Coordination Group (CCPM) in order to highlight VERIFOR's work and explore opportunities for future collaboration.
• Discussions are underway with the Congo Basin Forest Partnership Facilitation regarding a possible regional event on forest governance. The AFLEG Task Force (active since September 2006) have been targeted through the regional French technical adviser posted in Brazzaville.