Macro-economics, markets and the humid forests of Cameroon, 1967–1997
In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 38, Heft 2, S. 225-253
ISSN: 1469-7777
This paper analyses how macro-economic and agricultural policies, market
fluctuations and demographic changes affected forests in the Humid Forest
Zone of Cameroon in four periods between 1967 and 1997. For each period
it examines how these variables influenced cocoa, coffee, food, and agroindustrial
crop production and area, and logging. It concludes that government
policies, market fluctuations and demographic changes all had a
strong impact on forests. Pressure on forests increased after structural adjustment
policies were initiated in the mid-1980s. Malthusian reasoning alone
cannot explain the level of deforestation and forest degradation in Cameroon.