Case Studies UNDP: RIBA AGROFORESTRY RESOURCE CENTRE, Cameroon

7/27/2019 Case Studies UNDP: RIBA AGROFORESTRY RESOURCE CENTRE, Cameroon

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Equator Initiative Case StudiesLocal sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities

Cameroon

RIBA AGROFORESTRYRESOURCE CENTRE

Empowered live

Resilient nation

Empowered live

Resilient nation


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UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE CASE STUDY SERIES

Local and indigenous communities across the world are advancing innovative sustainable development solutions that wo

or people and or nature. Few publications or case studies tell the ull story o how such initiatives evolve, the breadth

their impacts, or how they change over time. Fewer still have undertaken to tell these stories with community practition

themselves guiding the narrative.

To mark its 10-year anniversary, the Equator Initiative aims to ll this gap. The ollowing case study is one in a growing ser

that details the work o Equator Prize winners vetted and peer-reviewed best practices in community-based environmenconservation and sustainable livelihoods. These cases are intended to inspire the policy dialogue needed to take local succ

to scale, to improve the global knowledge base on local environment and development solutions, and to serve as models

replication. Case studies are best viewed and understood with reerence to The Power o Local Action: Lessons rom 10 Years

the Equator Prize, a compendium o lessons learned and policy guidance that draws rom the case material.

Click on the map to visit the Equator Initiatives searchable case study database.

EditorsEditor-in-Chie: Joseph Corcoran

Managing Editor: Oliver Hughes

Contributing Editors: Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Erin Lewis, Whitney Wilding

Contributing Writers

Edayatu Abieodun Lamptey, Erin Atwell, Toni Blackman, Jonathan Clay, Joseph Corcoran, Larissa Currado, Sarah Gordon, Oliver Hughes,Wen-Juan Jiang, Sonal Kanabar, Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Rachael Lader, Patrick Lee, Erin Lewis, Jona Liebl, Mengning Ma, Mar

McGraw, Gabriele Orlandi, Juliana Quaresma, Peter Schecter, Martin Sommerschuh, Whitney Wilding, Luna Wu

Design

Oliver Hughes, Dearbhla Keegan, Matthew Konsa, Amy Korngiebel, Kimberly Koserowski, Erin Lewis, John Mulqueen, Lorena de la Parra

Brandon Payne, Mariajos Satizbal G.

Acknowledgements

The Equator Initiative acknowledges with gratitude the guidance and inputs o Kangong George (Riba Agroorestry Resource Centre) Anne Wachira (World Agroorestry Centre). All photo credits courtesy o the Riba Agroorestry Resource Centre and Charlie Pye-Smith/W

Agroorestry Centre. Maps courtesy o CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia.

Suggested Citation

United Nations Development Programme. 2012. Riba Agroorestry Resource Centre, Cameroon. Equator Initiative Case Study Series. New Y

NY.
http://equatorinitiative.org/images/stories/events/2012events/Book_Launch/power%2520of%2520local%2520action%2520final%25202013%25208mb.pdfhttp://equatorinitiative.org/images/stories/events/2012events/Book_Launch/power%2520of%2520local%2520action%2520final%25202013%25208mb.pdfhttp://equatorinitiative.org/index.php?option=com_winners&view=casestudysearch&Itemid=858http://equatorinitiative.org/images/stories/events/2012events/Book_Launch/power%2520of%2520local%2520action%2520final%25202013%25208mb.pdfhttp://equatorinitiative.org/images/stories/events/2012events/Book_Launch/power%2520of%2520local%2520action%2520final%25202013%25208mb.pdf


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PROJECT SUMMARYRiba Agroorestry Resource Centre is a community-based organization working in mountainous northwestCameroon, close to Kilum-Ijim Mountain Forest. The Centrepromotes sustainable tree-based arming to rehabilitatewatersheds and degraded land and generate income or thelocal community. A rural resource centre provides trainingin agroorestry and nursery management, watershedprotection, beekeeping, micronance, and marketing otree seedlings and arm produce.

The initiatives tree-based arming system has successully

halted deorestation and improved soil ertility, whilesales rom tree and honey nurseries are supportingsustainable livelihoods. The initiative is guided by a sel-help ethos, which has served to empower members o thecommunity, promote gender equity, and instill a belie inthe communitys collective capacity to achieve positivechange and a sustainable uture.

KEY FACTS

EQUATOR PRIZE WINNER: 2010

FOUNDED: 1995

LOCATION: Bui Division, northwest Cameroon

BENEFICIARIES: 26 satellite farmer groups

BIODIVERSITY: Bamenda Highlands

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RIBA AGROFORESTRY RESOURCECENTRECameroon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background and Context 4

Key Activities and Innovations 5

Biodiversity Impacts 6

Socioeconomic Impacts 6

Sustainability 8

Replication 9

Partners 9


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iba is a community located in the mountainous Bui Division o

Cameroon, 2,000 meters above sea level. A prominent eature o

he local landscape is the Kilum-Ijim Forest, the largest remaining

Aro-montane orest in West Arica. The orest is a vestige o regional

iodiversity, and contains a wide range o unique ecosystems, ora

nd auna. The local economy and that o the region writ large

is highly dependent on agriculture. The mountainsides and hills

urrounding Riba, however, have been heavily logged and degraded,

which has resulted in a loss o soil ertility, biodiversity and overall

conomic security or the local population.

iba Agroorestry Resource Centre (RARC) was established to

romote sustainable tree-based arming systems as a way oestoring soil ertility and improving the livelihoods and productivity

local armers. The vast majority o RARC activities are carried out

hrough a community-unded Rural Resource Centre. Trainings are

rovided to local armers in agroorestry and nursery management,

watershed protection, bee-keeping, use o micronance, and

marketing o tree seedlings and arm produce.

A local centre o excellence in agroorestry

he group began as the Riba Young Foresters Club in 1995 with the

im o promoting sustainable agroorestry. Over the next ew years,

he club was assisted by several Peace Corps volunteers to become

egally registered as a common initiative group. This is a legalesignation under Cameroon land law (Law No 92/006 o 14 August

992), which anoints community leaders as ocial custodians o

overnment-owned land, giving them control over its distribution

nd responsibility or resolving any emerging conicts. In 2002, the

riginal architects o the initiative agreed on a project structure

hat would include training activities, business development, and

arming. Ater some undraising within and outside the community,

nd ollowing establishment o demonstration arms to test activities

nd techniques, Riba Agroorestry Resource Center was born.

RARC now covers seven hectares o land with a woodlot, a tape

o tree hedges, a thriving tree nursery, and ertile elds where w

beans and potatoes are grown. The Rural Resource Centre gro

house oces, a training hall and dormitories or visiting ar

groups. RARC oversees 26 satellite armer groups, all o whom

applying their agroorestry techniques. Satellite group mem

range on average between 10 and 45 armers. Each grou

engaged in soil ertility restoration activities, nursery managem

and tree domestication techniques. The majority o armers

grow indigenous ruit trees in their nurseries.

The initiative has a vision o local armers empowered to imp

their livelihoods through community-driven sustainable naresource management. RARC aims to impart to armers

understanding o how agroorestry can improve arm product

and long-term sustainability. Agroorestry skills are also ap

to the sustainable management o water resources through

protection o catchment areas. Decision-making occurs in a Ge

Assembly, in which every registered community member is ab

vote on proposals made by an Organizing Committee.

Background and Context


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Key Activities and Innovations

Riba Agroorestry Resource Centre ocuses its energy and eforts

on two diferent areas. The rst is helping armers to improve soil

ertility and, by extension, crop yields. This is accomplished largely

hrough the planting o leguminous plants (what the initiative reers

o as ertilizer trees), which x atmospheric nitrogen. The group

lso has trained armers in contouring, alley cropping, allows, and

omposting, all o which help to improve soil ertility and combat

oil erosion.

he second priority activity or RARC is supporting armers to

omesticate superior varieties o indigenous ruit trees Arican

plum (Dacryodes edulis), bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis), and other

pecies that reduce armer dependency on cash crops such as cocoand cofee, which are oten subject to dramatic price uctuations.

ree domestication is undertaken through a participatory approach.

armers work cooperatively with researchers rom the World

Agroorestry Centre, Ministry o Agriculture and Rural Developm

and other technical agencies to develop and select superior vari

o trees that are adapted to individual arms. In this activity

RARC has helped to introduce non-mist propagators, air laye

marcotting, grating, budding and pre-treatment o seeds or q

germination.

Above all else, RARC is a learning and knowledge sharing plat

or armers to share their experiences peer-to-peer and to rec

technical guidance that is tailored to their livelihood ne

Knowledge exchanges have been carried out in the areas o

domestication, soil ertility restoration, biodiversity conserva

strategies, watershed management, organic arming, honeywheat production, environmental education, and the cultiva

and promotion o medicinal plants.


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6

Impacts

BIODIVERSITY IMPACTSThe Bamenda Highlands o the northwest region o Cameroon

re home to a wide variety o animal species. Endemic primates

nclude chimpanzees, the western lowland gorilla, Pruesss Monkeys,

nd Black Monkeys. The area is also an important habitat or

ardvarks, the western highland antelope, and the our-horned

hameleon. Several important plant species propagate in this

highland ecosystem. Oncoba lophocarpa, or example, grows only

n Cameroon and primarily in this region. Chassalia laikomensis is

endemic and is classied as critically endangered by the IUCN Red

ist, while Scheera mannii is classied as vulnerable. Further, the

rea is home to a number o medicinal plants, including PrunusAricana, Allanblackia gabonensis, and Entada Abyssinica.

Combating deorestation and species loss

The region and its ecosystems have sufered extensive deorestation.

Between 1987 and 1995, 25 per cent o the orest was lost in one

rea o the Bamenda Highlands. RARC has worked to rehabilitate

degraded lands through sustainable agroorestry, which has paid

dividends or the local armers in improved on-arm vegetation

nd productivity. In 2008-09 alone, over 117,000 seedlings were

grown and planted on community arms. Integrating traditional

orest species into arming systems, RARC has successully reduced

pressure on surrounding orests. Where timber and non-timberorest products were previously harvested in the orest exerting

pressure on an already ragile and declining ecosystem they are

now harvested in arming systems. The regions watersheds have

lso been protected. Over 16,000 trees have been strategically

planted in riparian strips to improve availability o water in the

ommunity, which is particularly important during the dry season.

Tree species were selected based on specic qualities related to

water purication and ltration.

Many o the trees now grown on the community arms or exaEnantia chlorantha, Voacanga aricana, and Prunus Aricana

threatened montane species, which also provide important hab

or local bird and monkey species. There has been a resurgen

two tree species (Swietenia mocrophyla and Clorophora excela)

one monkey species (Red Colobus), the populations o which

dwindling or, in the case o the Red Colobus monkey had vanish

the region altogether. Birds have also prolierated in the comm

arms. When the initiative began, the Grey Beaked Camarop

warbler was one o the only birds seen in large numbers. By

2010, twenty-one diferent species o birds were living and thr

in the region, and an additional nineteen visiting on a seasonal b

varying each season depending on tree and crop yields. RARCcreated a biodiversity impact assessment orm which is compl

by participating armers and RARC outreach ocers. Data colle

is carried out door-to-door and arm-to-arm.

SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS

The socioeconomic benets o RARCs work are closely li

with its biodiversity benets. The adoption o tree-based arm

has had both planned and unplanned biodiversity benets

diversication o tree species would qualiy as a planned biodive

benet. On the other hand, the prolieration o organisms in

soil and wildlie in the region would perhaps qualiy as unplan

biodiversity benets. Both outcomes, however, regardless ointent, have translated to better agro-ecological unctions, m

productive arming systems, a reduced need or articial erti

and pesticides, and improved local incomes.

For instance, RARC promotes intercropping with nitrogen-

tree species, such as Calliandra, Sesbania and Tephrosia. This

improved soil ertility and resulted in a doubling o crop y

In the case o one armer, where he used to harvest only


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50-kilogram bag o maize per year, he can now harvest up to six

bags rom the same plot o land, credited largely to improved soil

ertility rom appropriate trees. Boundary trees have also been

planted on community arms to act as windbreakers. A woodlot on

he hilltop provides odder or livestock and a habitat or bees. RARC

also promotes the domestication o indigenous ruit trees, using

vegetative propagation techniques such as grating and marcotting.

ncome generation

Sales rom the RARC tree nurseries have rapidly improved local

ncomes over the last ve years. Early on, nurseries made little in

he way o prots. Once they were well-established, however, they

began to generate signicant revenues. On average, armers that

built and maintained tree nurseries began to see a return on their

nvestment in two years. Annual sales rom RARC nurseries rose

rom USD 90 in 2003 to USD 1,350 in 2009. For satellite nurseries

over the same period, sales grew rom USD 20 to USD 100. Similar

ncome benets were seen over the same period rom Irish potatoesSolanum tuberosum), where revenues rose rom USD 800 to USD

2,250.

A urther income source has been the commercialization o honey,

which has been produced rom owering trees. Total honey

production during the period 2007- 2009 amounted to USD 13,000.

Bee hives have been established in and around orest reserves, and

apiaries have been created using both indigenous and oreign tree

pecies. The honey value-chain sees local armers producing and

elling beeswax and honey-based drinks, which also supplement

incomes. Other armers are engaged in raising medicinal pl

which have both improved incomes and served as a secon

health care system or the community, saving them mone

hospital visits. Others still are engaged in livestock arming, ano

area o training provided by RARC. Where armers in the past h

dicult time nding enough odder at certain times o year or

livestock, now through the planting oAcacia and Calliandra t

they have been able to use leaves rom these trees as odder du

the dry season.

Spillover benefts rom agricultural improvements

In disseminating its model o agroorestry, RARC has been particu

successul in reaching women and youth: over 40 percent o R

members are women and over 30 percent are men under the a

35 years. This is relevant because most o the agricultural activ

in the area are traditionally handled by women. Agricul

improvements and greater arm productivity have reduced

drudgery o womens work, availed more time or other activ

(e.g. reducing the need to travel long distances to collect w

or uel), and improved their incomes. Revenues rom biodive

conservation activities have also been reinvested into school

hospitals, local inrastructure, alternative energy techno

reorestation projects, and water purication. Other socioecon

benets rom the project include improved ood security, a w

range and abundance o local ood markets in the commun

greater access to micro-nance and loans, and improvemen

population health.

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8

Sustainability and Replication

SUSTAINABILITY

ARC has been operating since 1995. Its members have acquired

xperiences and skills that are enabling them to scale-up

groorestry activities in the community. The Rural Resource Centre

s community owned and operated, and is used to cultivate crops

with desirable agronomic traits such as high yields, good taste, early

nd regular ructication, pest and disease resistance, and climate

esilience. The centre is the heart o the projects sustainability. It

erves as a training and demonstration centre to build and expand

ocal capacity, and is where local armers produce plant seeds, grats,

marcotts and cuttings.

Demonstration sites are owned and managed by local armers, who

se their arms to disseminate new techniques and skills to other

armers and visiting communities. Local government staf have

ven visited to learn what agroorestry techniques are proving

uccessul. As a result o demonstration arms, the adoption rate o

groorestry techniques has increased more than 50 percent at both

he household and community levels.

o urther its long term sustainability, RARC is also engaged in

primary and secondary school program, where students are

upported to visit demonstration arms and cultivate their own arms

t their respective schools. Involving children ensures the passing o

careully cultivated conservation ethic rom one generation to theext.

he key components that make the project sustainable are training

o armers in nancial management, active and direct community

articipation, established channels o awareness-raising, and wide

rganizational and partner support. Among the most critical partners

n sustaining the project are the World Agroorestry Centre (who

rovide capacity building, technical support, and nancing) and

he Grasseld Participatory and Decentralized Rural Development

roject (who provide environmental development support).


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99

REPLICATION

he RARC model has been shared with more than 80 communities

nd has been actively replicated in 18. Knowledge is exchanged

hrough trainings and workshops, eld days, and exchange visits

etween armer groups. The RARC model is also being promoted

y the World Agroorestry Centre, who have developed training

materials based on the RARC experience and who are providing

perational costs, plant propagation, motorbikes, and otherquipment essential or training and outreach.

PARTNERS

ARC maintains a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary

artnership, which has evolved over time through trial and error. Key

artners to RARC include:

World Agroorestry Centre (ormerly the International Centre or

esearch in Agroorestry, or ICRAF) has aided in capacity building

xercises, and provided technical support in the orm o arming

quipment, processing machinery, a motorbike, polythene pots

sed in tree nurseries, and helped to rehabilitate the water system

sed or the tree nursery.

Heier International(2000-2003) contributed small livestock spe

including rabbits, sheep, poultry, and pigs to RARC communitie

Grassfeld Participatory and Decentralised Rural Development Pro

This rural development initiative co-unded by the Cameroo

government partnered with RARC to protect water catchment a

through growing and planting seedlings rom tree nurseries.

Netherlands Development Organization: SNV has partnered on

keeping initiatives and developing both timber and non-timorest products. They have also assisted in identiying and protec

rare and endangered species in the Bamenda highlands.

Food and Agriculture Organization: FAO has supported R

nancially to create six community nurseries and provide trainin

the production and extension o high-value tree species, especPrunus Aricana.

RARC is also in partnership with several government minis

including notably the Ministry o Agriculture and Rural Developm

The latter ministry is involved in the multiplication o impro

seeds. Traditional and administrative authorities (village heads,

councils, head o administrative units and elected mayors)

been instrumental in the implementation o local regulations

the governance o agro-pastoral activities. Traditional autho

have also been essential in the resolution o conicts.


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FURTHER REFERENCE

Riba Agroorestry Resource Centre Photo Story (Vimeo) http://vimeo.com/15752545

Pye-Smith C. 2010.A Window on a Better World. An innovative agroorestry development programme is transorming lives and landscap

rural Cameroon. ICRAF Trees or Change no. 5. Nairobi: World Agroorestry Centre. http://www.worldagroorestry.org/downloads/p

cations/PDFs/B16612.PDF

Equator Initiative

Environment and Energy GroupUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

304 East 45th Street, 6th Floor

New York, NY 10017

Tel: +1 646 781 4023

www.equatorinitiative.org

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UNs global development network, advocating or change and

necting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better lie.

The Equator Initiative brings together the United Nations, governments, civil society, businesses and grassroots organizati

o recognize and advance local sustainable development solutions or people, nature and resilient communities.

2012 by Equator Initiative

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Case Studies UNDP: RIBA AGROFORESTRY RESOURCE CENTRE, Cameroon