Cameroon's Agricultural Policy in the Face of Resistance to the Deforestation of Tropical Rainforests

The Congo Basin is the second largest forest reserve in the world after the Amazon rainforest. It covers an area of 16,876,143 hectares (consolidation of data and vegetation produced by UCL, JRC and SDSU). This area includes dense lowland forests, swamp forests, montane forests and others. Resistance to the deforestation process is essentially linked to agricultural and fuelwood exploitation in rural areas. Both small-scale and large-scale farming practices are contributing to the gradual destruction of forest cover in the Congo Basin. From pre-colonial times to the present day, agriculture has played a central role in Cameroon's economic development. Indeed, its evolution is linked to major events in its socio- economic life, such as the economic crisis, the devaluation of the CFA franc and structural adjustment program.