Kadey, (Cameroon) – In an innovative push to combat illegal logging, community-volunteers in Cameroon are being trained to use smartphones to take the images of freshly-cut stumps and relay the
information to the authorities.
Under a partnership between the government and environmental groups, young people are using satellite-linked phones to document tree-cutting in areas where logging is not allowed.
They can then upload the photos and make toll-free calls to report the suspicious activities, not just
to the police and forest-ministry, but also to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, said Bangya Dieudonne, a forestry and wildlife official in Kadey in the country’s East-Region.
“Getting these three institutions informed makes it difficult for forest exploitation criminals to bribe
their ways through.”
Training frontline forest defenders aims to reduce illegal deforestation. Deforestation is depriving the
government of billions of CFA francs in income, hurting communities that make their living from the forest, and making the country more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
“With corruption hampering forest management, new and stronger measures are needed,” Dieudonne said.
So far, more than 100 people have been trained as community “forest defenders” in the East Region and other areas where logging has been especially prevalent.
The Rainforest Foundation in UK is also supporting the project.