In the African rainforest zone, wildlife can provide up to 70 % of animal protein to the population and is used for various cultural reasons (e.g. tastes, food habits, rituals and prestige). Cameroonians have become famous for their attachment to the consumption of game meat. Moreover, the availability of wildlife maintains a variety of public services, forming the basis of substantial numbers of public and informal jobs in the branches of transport and trade. But this natural and cultural heritage is severely threatened by the intensification of illegal activities, including the destruction of habitats and poaching. This book questions the current legal framework of wildlife resources management in Cameroon, asks whether the country’s legislation could be improved towards a sustainable exploitation of wildlife resources and makes concrete suggestions for a possible reform.

The central aim of this publication is to consider the key elements of a modern, comprehensive, and effective legal framework for successful management of protected areas. They provide practical guidance for all those involved in developing, improving, or reviewing national legislation on protected areas, be they legal drafters and practitioners, protected area managers, interested NGOs, or scholars. These guidelines include fifteen case studies, eight dealing with the protected area legislation of individual countries and six cases dealing with specific sites providing fundamental solutions that stand the test of time.

This comprehensive review of Cameroon's development policies since the 1970s-including public finance, privatization, trade, infrastructure, and governance-finds that Cameroon's malaise is due less to a lack of resources than to an inability to sustain reforms and to implement growth-enhancing policies. While the government's strategies have been sound, this volume argues that an "administrative inertia" has set in. This study makes a number of key recommendations to overcome this inertia, enhance cohesion and consistency in government actions, strengthen capacity to effectively execute programs, and hence increase development outcomes for Cameroon.

Voice, social contract, and accountability are discussed from the point of view of the function of law, justice, judicial systems and related areas from human rights to government policy, urban development, resource management, gender, social rights, economic reforms, governance, sustainable development and anti-corruption.

This situation analysis was undertaken to inform responses to several resolutions made at the 5th World Conservation Congress in 2012 about the plight of large vertebrates in West and Central Africa. It draws on a wide range of information to provide information on the status of these species, important sites, pressures, legislation, the effectiveness of protected areas, and both community-based incentives for conservation and institutional responses. The overriding conclusion is of substantial wildlife declines and inadequate responses to either long-standing pressures or rapidly escalating threats that have emerged in recent years.

The meat of wild species, referred to in this report as ‘wild meat’, is an essential source of protein and a generator of income for millions of forest-living communities in tropical and subtropical regions. However, unsustainable harvest rates currently