Cameroon has no land usage policy - Survey

One of the findings of a study on the legal and institutional framework of access to information in the granting and management of land concessions in Cameroon has revealed that there is “no land policy document or land use plan in Cameroon.

The study, carried out by the Network for the Fight Against Hunger, RELUFA, was presented recently at the Muna Foundation.

Presenting the findings of the study, a jurist, Prof. Pierre Etienne Kenfack said: “The analysis of the Cameroonian internal legal framework for access to information on the allocation and management of land concessions reveals an unfavorable situation of access to information through direct means, but has elements of indirect access to information.”

Prof. Kenfack argues that there is no provision in the legal framework for access to land transactions and no obligation to publish the land contracts, indicating that there is no land policy document or land use document.

He, however, identified perspectives of indirect access to information on land allocation and management such as the investigative power of the media, Parliament and associations.

The study recommends the adoption of a general law organising the process of access to public information and make public land available for agro-industrial concessions and auctions notices for land available for concessions.

The study also recommends that civil society organisations should contribute to access to information by disseminating information on land concessions by collaborating with the press to use the provision on the law on social communication and train citizens seeking information on companies.

Providing the rationale for the study, carried out with the financial support of the Cameroon-European Union Cooperation Support programme to Civil Society Organisations, PASC, the Coordinator of RELUFA, Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo, underscored the importance of advocacy to ameliorate the legal and institutional framework in relation to access to information in the attribution of land concessions for agro-industries.

He opines that, though industrial concessions bring about jobs, they equally threaten food security, increase poverty of small farmers and workers and despises transparency.

It is in this light that the study, in line with principles of transparency, strives to ensure that investments are more open and in a participatory manner in which stakeholders have access to information.

Clemence Tabodo, Head of RELUFA Advocacy project, indicated that an advocacy would be carried out following a communication plan that has been elaborated.

Besides working with the media, RELUFA intends to sensitise communities on access to information on allocation and management of land concessions.