• Reference: P-Z1-C00-007
• Approval date: 04/11/2009
• Start date: 17/11/2009
• Appraisal Date: 19/01/2009
• Status: OngoingOnGo
• Implementing Agency: OPED - Organisation for Environment and Sustainable Development
• Location: CAMEROON

In Central Africa, traditional economic activities of women include freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) fishing, finfish processing and marketing, which depend heavily on mangrove forests as a source of prawn juveniles and fuel wood for fish smoking. This project will contribute to slowing the rate of mangrove deforestation, reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth by helping the women who rely on mangrove forest ecosystems for their livelihoods to adapt and adopt profitable aquaculture and fish preservation technology that will reduce demand for mangrove wood as fuel for fish smokers (currently accounting for >80% of mangrove forest losses in southern Cameroon) while at the same time decreasing post-harvest losses and increasing revenues by augmenting the supply of prawns and fish supplied to the market. Particular attention will be paid to the activities and strategies that will promote the model developed in this project and ensure its wider uptake.Three immediate outcomes are anticipated:

Reduced deforestation rate by the adoption of less wood-consuming fish processing techniques; ¢Increased net profits to women fish traders by improving the quality and lowering the cost of smoking and reducing post-harvest losses, and;

Enhance supply and revenues from the existing women's prawn capture fishery by helping local female prawn fishers diversify into prawn aquaculture. Three interventions are proposed that will engender these outcomes:

1.Improved Fish Processing Technology The estimated 1000 women active in fish smoking and marketing in the project area will be offered training in improved smoking and solar drying techniques using existing technology adapted to local conditions. Improved smoking technology reduces fuelwood consumption by up to two thirds and low-tech solar drying technology developed in Cameroon entirely precludes the use of wood. By reducing demand for fuel wood while increasing revenues, the adoption of improved processing technology can significantly improve local livelihoods while reducing deforestation and protecting the vital role played by mangroves as fish hatcheries and nurseries and as a protection against flooding. Based on inventories of communities that depend upon mangrove forests for their livelihoods, a 50% adoption of improved smoking technology could reduce mangrove deforestation in the area by nearly one third.

2.Development of Prawn Farming There are at least 3000 women in Southern Cameroon dealing in freshwater prawns. Current harvest is in excess of 1000 tons per annum. Through a series of participatory research and assessment activities conducted in the area over the last three years, more than a dozen women's community groups have expressed their interest in increasing their revenues through prawn aquaculture. Fisherwomen engaged in prawn capture and marketing will be given the opportunity to participate in prawn aquaculture adaptive research trials and be supported through the strengthening of the value chain that links producers to markets for both inputs and outputs. With high prices, substantial traditional knowledge and established marketing channels throughout West-Central Africa, prawns do not face the major problems of market development encountered by other non-timber forest products. At current prices, a 20% increase in prawn sales through aquaculture would return an additional $1 million to local women.

3.Strengthening the Value Chain Approximately half of the revenues generated by fish production and marketing systems accrues along the value chain from producer to consumer. While existing prawn and fish marketing mechanisms exist, improvements in both efficiency and product quality create opportunities for new entrants and a wider range of beneficiaries. Helping women understand markets and organize to exploit new markets for their products will improve wholesale prices. Increased volumes and training seminars will create opportunities for more capital intensive businesses such as ice plants, transporters and specialized retailers.

Above all, the project fits into COMIFAC's Strategic Area (SA) 6 (development of alternative activities and poverty alleviation) by focusing on strengthening women's livelihoods and developing income generating activities while reducing the destruction of natural ecosystems. Other strategic areas also covered are SA2: knowledge of the resource which will be expanded through a series of documented participatory development exercises and a monitoring plan that will track changes in forest loss; SA4: biodiversity conservation, in particular result 413 relating to mangroves, SA5: sustainable use of forest resources, and SA7: capacity building, stakeholder participation, information and training.

To conserve the ability of mangrove forests to deliver livelihood and ecosystem services

In addition to operating within COMIFAC's convergence plan, at national level, the project strongly supports the following policies of Cameroon:

-Poverty Reduction Strategy Process - sustainable management of forest ecosystems to improve the livelihoods of the population);

-Rural Sector Development Strategy Paper (especially strategic axes 3.3.3: increase of the income of producers and rural farmers; 3.4.3: sustainable management of natural resources; 3.4.4: promotion of national and international markets for agropastoral and forest products; and 3.4.5: promotion of employment and the role of women and the youth by encouraging their entrepreneurship and networking); -Forest Environment Sectoral Programme; -National Forestry Action Plan; -Model Forest Programme -National policy for the sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems (strategic axes 1: conservation of mangrove ecosystems and their biological diversity, and 2: integrated and sustainable management of mangroves in view of developing their productivity and improving the living conditions of adjacent populations).

The 250,000 ha of Cameroonian mangrove forests support fisheries (employing directly 60,000 fishers and 100,000, mostly women, in processing and marketing), generate non-timber forest products (NTFP) and protect the coastline from calamitous flooding. Despite their rich biodiversity, the source of livelihoods they represent for thousands of people and their capacity to mitigate climate change effects, 300 ha of these forests are cut annually. Deforestation rate is higher in the project area, south of the Douala-Edea Wildlife Reserve, than national average Most of the 150,000 tons of fishery products emanating from southern Cameroon are smoked on mangrove wood using inefficient technology causing 84% of deforestation and resulting in 30% post harvest losses. Along with the trees and associated biodiversity, the single most important NTFP in mangrove areas, the freshwater prawn, is also under pressure from over-harvesting and habitat destruction. This threatens the livelihoods of thousands of low-income families

In the project area, more than 1000 women are engaged in fish processing/marketing and another 3000 capture and sell prawns. Protecting the mangrove forest they depend on is key to their future.

In partnership with the Women's Platform of the government's Model Forest Programme (representing a coalition of women's groups that will be capacitated by the project to undertake such actions - outreach and dissemination), inventories of local fisheries resources and studies on traditional management systems and livelihoods were used to inform discussion of practical technology and potentially viable businesses based on sustainable use of aquatic resources. Opportunities and constraints were discussed at a series of participatory livelihoods exercises. Improvements to the prawn fishery (especially aquaculture) and efficacious fish processing technology reflect major concerns of these groups and were repeatedly prioritized. Opportunities in participatory action research (PAR) to solve production and value chain constraints will be open to all women, but it is expected that those already engaged in fish smoking or prawn fishing will represent the bulk of project participants. 100 of these women are expected to engage in household level PAR, with many others benefiting through information dissemination exercises and the expansion of the local economy through the value chain

The project is innovative in the sense that it combines techniques, skills and knowledge into a new set of activities that aims at reducing deforestation and improving rural women's livelihoods. It addresses the issues vulnerable women themselves have expressed, is grounded in a solid understanding of local context and is supported by the scientific, managerial and field expertise of the partner institutions. The innovation of the approach, the methods developed and the set of activities combined will be, by the end of the project, ready to be easily replicated elsewhere in similar settings.

A community-based approach to the development of market-driven women's fisheries enterprises in southern Cameroon is novel. No serious effort has been made to introduce improved fish preservation technology to the mangrove zone. In the past, projects seeking to commercialize non-timber forest products have struggled to engage significant numbers of adopters and find markets, this project is different as it responds to well established and high value markets. Demand for both fish and prawns is increasing rapidly increasing beyond the capacity of the natural ecosystem and prices are rising. The approach is thus innovating and exemplary in the way it targets sustainable poverty alleviation in the region.

This project is designed to meaningfully transform the lives of women living in mangrove rainforests by creating profitable and sustainable business opportunities based on the responsible use and management of rainforest resources. The income of the women practicing prawn aquaculture is expected to at least double and the need for fuelwood is expected to decrease on average by 75% thanks to the introduction of low-tech, cheap processing techniques. At a larger scale, by proposing a model of sustainable NTFP-based livelihoods, the project has the potential to significantly improve the way mangrove forest are exploited in Central Africa. It thus will represent an important way to improve women's livelihoods and thus reduce poverty as well as a strategy to engage local populations in the protection of the mangrove forest on the coast of the Equatorial forest. More conceptually, the project seeks to inform and transform the prevailing NTFP and NRM project paradigm away from a focus on small-scale collection and sale of wild foodstuffs and medicinal plants that add only marginally to rural livelihoods, to an emphasis on commercially viable products and processes that can generate incomes in line with the Millennium Development Goals

TSHIMBALANGA Mbombo Veronique - CBFF

Finance source	Amount
Co-financier	UAC 255,355
Delta	UAC 1
Total	UAC 255,354