An AHP Assessment Of Barriers in Adopting Sustainable Forest Management Practices in The Context Of Carbon Emission Reductions in Cameroon

ABSTRACT

As the role of forests in climate change mitigation is explicitly recognized in the Paris Agreement, the need to enhance the adoption of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) practices is crucial. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying and evaluating barriers in adopting SFM practices in the context of forest carbon emission reductions. A total of 15 barriers in adopting SFM practices are listed through literature and expert inputs. Using Cameroon as a case study, the listed barriers are then evaluated by experts to determine their relative importance using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. According to our findings, the ‘Regulatory and Legislative frameworks’ barrier category was attributed to the highest importance among other categories, in adopting SFM practices in the forestry sector. ‘Inadequate political will and incentive to enforce regulations’ appears to be the major obstacle in adopting SFM practices in Cameroon. As carbon emission reduction initiatives are being developed, there is need to move from broad to concrete suggestions that will overcome these barriers. However, proper diagnosis is necessary in order to target barriers with the right incentives and enabling conditions that will support carbon programs and projects to deliver effective emission reductions.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• sustainable forestry
• mitigation
• REDD+
• forest management
• Cameroon

Acknowledgments

The paper benefited from the financial support of the GIZ Forest-Environment Program (GIZ/ProPFE) in Cameroon. The views expressed in this paper remain those of the authors and not of the donors or the affiliated organizations. The valuable suggestions made by anonymous reviewers is gratefully acknowledged.