The Access Initiative

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Cameroon

Region

Africa

1.71

Environmental Democracy Index Score

Cameroon received a fair score on the Transparency pillar, and a good score on the Participation and Justice pillars. For the Transparency pillar, the law requires all relevant ministries to proactively disclose environmental information. There are also legal requirements to monitor and collect information on activities that can adversely impact environmental quality. However, there are no requirements for timely dissemination of information in environmental emergencies. Cameroon scored well on the Participation pillar because there are strong participation rights within the Law on Environment Management. However, the requirements are more limited for public engagement in creating policies, plans, and programs. Cameroon scored well on the Justice pillar because the public can bring environmental claims and there are mechanisms for timely and effective enforcement. Addressing these gaps would support the strong provisions that have already been enacted.

Visit the Environmental Democracy Index to explore the EDI score.

Since signing the Rio Declaration in 1992, Cameroon has made significant regional progress regarding laws on access rights to citizens, but has not done as well at the level of implementation. Since then, Cameroon has joined the Partnership for Principle 10 and has made strides in promoting greater and more effective stakeholder consultation. The TAI Cameroon coalition has been committed to accelerating the compliance of the Government of Cameroon to the Rio Declaration and implementing the Principle 10 guidelines.

 

The coalition has been active in operationalizing the TAI National Advisory Panel between the Government of Cameroon, key agencies, and representatives from civil society for open dialogue to facilitate planning and development of the country’s commitments to P10. Through these efforts, it has focused on capacity building at multiple levels. It has provided a framework to guide NGO’s in the oversight of Cameroon’s implementation of its commitments in public access to information, participation and justice. Additionally, TAI Cameroon was chosen to be the lead in expanding TAI in Central and West Africa because of the government’s receptiveness to the project and the country’s bilingual nature, helping it serve as a model for the region.

 

Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme Cameroon (BDCPC) is the lead TAI Partner in the country and has worked with building the capacity of the TAI Democratic Republic of Congo Team.

 

TAI Cameroon has been instrumental in translating the TAI toolkit and training materials in French to help build the capacities of partner organizations in Francophone Africa. In 2009, TAI Cameroon collaborated with the Government of Cameroon to come up with a draft policy document on the Access and Benefit Sharing arising from the use of Genetic Resources, which involved the creation of a taskforce that included stakeholder institutions and extensive stakeholder involvement.