Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in southern Cameroon

The rate of forest cover loss in the humid tropics of Cameroon is one of th e highest in Central Africa. The aim of the large-scale, two-year research project described here was to understand the effect of the country's econom ic crisis and policy change on small-scale agricultural systems and land-cl earing practices. Hypotheses were tested through surveys of more than 5000 households in 125 villages, and through time-series remote sensing analysis at two sites. The principal findings are that: (1) the rate of deforestati on increased significantly in the decade after the 1986 onset of the crisis , as compared to the decade prior to the crisis; (2) the main proximate cau ses of this change were sudden rural population growth and a shift from pro duction of cocoa and coffee to plantain and other food crops; and (3) the m ain underlying causes were macroeconomic shocks and structural adjustment p olicies that led to rural population growth and farming system changes. The implication of this study is that it is necessary to understand and antici pate the undesirable consequences of macroeconomic shocks and adjustment po licies for forest cover. Such policies, even though they are often not form ulated with natural resource consequences in mind, are often of greater rel evance to the fate of forests than forest policy.