STRENGTHENING LOCAL AND ENDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES TO MONITOR ILLEGAL LOGGING USING IMAGERY AND GPS WITH SPECIAL ICONS

Increased involvement in monitoring activities helps people especially poor ones to gain confidence and to improve their living condition by changing local perspectives. Since 1990, the state of Cameroon as put on a new law that emphasised on special aspect concerning local communities and decision making in the forestry sector, this include the participation of the rural population in management of forest resources, promotion of transparent information.
Supported by British High commission and Helveta, we are running a project which aim is to improve the monitoring of logging activities by local and indigenous communities, document their traditional used of the forest resources and strengthen them on negotiation capacities. This will help communities to be better informed, empowered and more effective in their roles on natural resources management in their region.
Generally, because most local community members are non-literate, the hand-held computers associates with a GPS unit have screens made with symbols which they can press to record important sites. For example, a tree designates a medicine or food source, or the image of a fish signifies a river.
All the information’s collected are put in relation with satellite imageries of the area to produce maps that the community and even government authorities used for monitoring of illegal logging. This paper will present the first results of the project and how the communities have been trained to collect the data and to use the maps produced to help local and central administration to fight against illegal logging in Cameroon