Community lawyers in Cameroon

This project aims to help forest communities to benefit from the opportunities that exist in the Cameroonian legal system to reduce poverty and increase civil rights.

To date the majority of forest communities have been unable to exercise their rights under Cameroonian law because the laws are highly complex, and communities don’t have access to legal knowledge or understanding of how it can be used.

In early 2005 10 young Cameroonian law graduates were recruited and trained in human rights and forest/environmental law.

These young lawyers are now working for non-governmental organisations and community groups working in 5 areas in southern, central and eastern Cameroon (based in Akom II, Djoum, Lomié, Abong-Mbang, Yokadouma), there is also a mobile team based in Yaoundé. The lawyer working around the proposed Lom Pangar dam site divides his time between Yaoundé and the town of Deng Deng.

The Community Legal Field Workers are providing advice and training to forest communities on issues such as the prevention of illegal logging, establishing community forests, and ensuring that revenues from forest exploitation are returned to forest communities and spent on village development projects. They have also helped pioneering work in the official recognition of BBBB traditional chieftains and BBBB land rights.