Commisary of Forestry Companies in Cameroon: Instrumental in the Sustainable Management of Wildlife or Statutory Social Requirement: Case Study in the East Region of Cameroon

Abstract

A commissary is a shop made available by a logging company in which workers, their families and often the neighboring population, can do their daily shopping to supply their needs in staple food stuffs and animal proteins. The creation and operation of a commissary is guided by the labour code to Cameroon and underpinned by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). If the Cameroonian State equates the implementing of the commissaries as a social requirement, the FSC considers it more as a mean of protecting biodiversity. This study aimed to highlight the impact of forest certification on the sustainable management of wildlife through the establishment and functioning of the commissary. Four logging companies located in the southeast of Cameroon have been selected including three certified FSC and one not certified FSC. Information cross-checking helped to: (i) describe the context of the commissary (ii) assess the social and environmental impacts of the commissary. Subsequently, the differences in the functioning of the commissaries were characterized. All the commissaries sell similar products with more or less diversity in items sold throughout the year. In-depth analysis revealed that  majority of the positive impacts appear from the commissaries managed by certified logging companies compared to non-certified logging companies in which the commissaries seem to bear the reputation of the negative impacts (100 %). Furthermore, certified logging companies are characterized by the implementation of the legal requirements associated with the operation of the commissary. Although the link between the establishment of the Commissary and the decrease of pressure on wildlife is not obvious, it is certain in regards to the high quantities of alternatives protein that this may contribute to the decline of the consumption of bush meat.