A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT LAWS ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES OF CAMEROON

Abstract

The 1994 forestry law reform gave local communities the opportunity to manage some natural resources which have an impact on their livelihoods. But are the strengths and opportunities of these communities had to be uplifted for their aspiration to be met. For this aspiration to meet the purpose for which it is intended there must be follow-up conferences to buttress this aspiration and evaluate implementation. In 1983 the United Nations convened the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), also known as the Brundtland Commission. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 followed and culminated with the Rio Declaration. The Rio Declaration Agenda 21 and the convention on Biological Diversity, prescribed universal legal standards for the protection of the rights of local communities to their traditional knowledge and practices in relation to environmental management and conservation. In this vein, the main aim of this work is to investigate whether the legal and regulatory standards on environment adequately protects local communities’ rights as well as examining the impacts faced by the local communities in Cameroon. The methodology employed in this article is purely doctrinal which is based on both primary and secondary data which enable us to discover that there are a lots of positive and negative impacts of Environmental Protection Laws on the Regional and Local Communities of Cameroon. The paper concludes with some robust recommendations which if effectively implemented and enforced will go a long way to remedied these obstacles thus, enhance sustainable environment.