The municipality of Mbangassina in Cameroon places sustainability at the heart of its development plans

Mbangassina is a town and commune located in the Central Region of Cameroon. The municipality covers a total area of about 815 km², comprising 19 villages with a population of about 60,000 inhabitants. Cocoa is the main cash crop in the region, accounting for more than 70% of household income. It is often grown as part of agroforestry systems, which combine cocoa trees and shade trees, providing fruit, firewood, and timber to cocoa farmers. Cocoa plantations, however, have grown in recent years, becoming one of the main drivers of forest degradation in the municipality.

The municipality is located on the border of two key ecosystems, a forest ecosystem and a savannah ecosystem, making the region more vulnerable to climate change, which is accelerated by land-use change. Low cocoa productivity, weak farmers' organizations, poor access to markets, few or no value-added options, and weak value chains for food crops are all factors that result in low incomes for the dominant farming population in Mbangassina.

Local authorities, farmers' organizations and civil society representatives recognize the need to maintain forest cover in Mbangassina while ensuring that the municipality's growing population has stable sources of income through agricultural activities. With the support of IDH and WWF, they embarked on a journey to support community livelihoods, increase the sustainability of cocoa production, while ensuring that forests are protected and restored.

On 22 December 2020, 30 actors from the public sector, the private sector and civil society signed a letter of intent, by which they agreed to set up a multi-stakeholder coalition and develop a Local Land Use and Sustainable Development Plan (PLADDT) for the municipality. This development plan will focus on increasing the sustainability and economic viability of agricultural production, protecting and restoring forests, supporting community land tenure, among other topics. It will be developed with the support of the EUREDD-EFI Facility, the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development and the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Economy.

Mr. Belinga Belinga, traditional leader of Boura 1 village expressed his gratitude for signing the letter of intent:

"We are pleased to have been chosen to be part of the HDI initiative. We need to change the old way of working and improve it. We need to have other knowledge that can help us express ourselves better on the field. For example, we should avoid destroying trees, because it is trees that improve biodiversity.

 

The letter of intent was signed by public sector stakeholders (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Ministry of Social Affairs and the Subdivisional Officer of Mbangassina), civil society organisations (Network of Women's Cooperatives and National Youth Council), GIZ, EUREDD-Facility EFI, Proforest and the private sector (Barry Callebaut and Telcar-Cargill).

The newly established local coalition will meet regularly to contribute to the development of the PLADDT, thus strengthening the governance of the commune. This will create an enabling environment to attract new sources of financing and investment from private and public institutions. To help channel these investments, IDH and WWF teams asked ICRAF to develop projects that could address some of the challenges and needs identified during interviews with local stakeholders in 2020. These project plans are now ready to be shared with potential partners and investors interested in supporting the implementation of the project, towards sustainable cocoa production, diversification of farmers' sources of income and protection of forests in the municipality. These projects are welcomed by local actors such as Mrs. Manga Manga Martine, representative of the Network of Women's Cooperatives of Mbangassina:

"As a cocoa farmer, we believe that there will be added value to our lives, as cocoa farmers will be able to improve their incomes."