A. Species
Scientific name: Prunus Africana
Common name(s): pygeum, African cherry
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Cameroon
Country/Region:
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: Cameroon
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2004
End Year: 2008
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Gathering/Cutting/Collecting terrestrial plants and fungi or their products from the wild
Lethal or non-lethal: Non-Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: Only parts or products of the organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Medicine and hygiene and Energy
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people, Non-local Internal, Non-local External and International private sector
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Author states: Data discussed in the precedent section tend to show that, the exploitation of Prunus africana has never been conducted in sustainable manner in Cameroon, in spite of the effort made by the forest administration.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: the harvesters collect the maximum of barks, using sometimes felling techniques in order to obtain the tonnage he has fixed or required by his patrons. This confirms what was observed by the National Office of Forest Development (Pouna Belinga 2001) during the field inventory conducted in this zone in 2001. In fact, in the Tchabal Mbabo site, 23.67% of trees with diameter less than the minimum exploitable diameter (MED) were attacked by poachers.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: author states: the Mayor, Mr SOULEYMANOU, firstly outlined the irrational techniques of harvesting used by the harvesters, before denouncing the conflict relations existing between the local populations and the companies and harvesters. When the permit holder was asked to contribute to the local development projects, he used to refuse, claiming that he has nothing to treat (deal) with the villagers, since he has already paid all his taxes to the forest administration in Yaoundé. For Mr SOULEYMANOU, the permit holders do not respect the local populations because they are not educated enough to make any claim.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: bark has medicinal properties, but ecosystem/ forests often destroyed by bad/ illegal harvesting
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
The lesson to be learnt here may be that inviting local communities to earn the community forests is not enough. The Government may explore associated measures to assist these communities in the development and implementation of those management plans. Since 2007, the forest administration took some important measures to alleviate poaching in the exploitation of Prunus including: the restoration of the field book for the harvesters, the instauration of specific way bills for the circulation of Special products, the erection of an important part of the Mount Cameroon in national park, and the reduction of quotas granted for Prunus. But many problems still remain in the monitoring of the exploitation and exportation of Prunus in Cameroon. Problems are observed at all levels of the control, from the forest till the points of exports, and from the central administration to the external services.
Record source
Information about the record source: formal_data_stats
Date of publication/issue/production: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2023-09-28