PAYMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES AND FOREST CONSERVATION: AN ANALYSIS OF POPULATION PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMUNITY FOREST OF MOLIMOZOK IN THE EASTERN REGION - CAMEROON

Abstract

The main approaches to forest conservation are often combined without the fact that stakeholders' perceptions and expectations are understood clearly and systematically. The main objective of this study is to analyze rural households’ behavior face to new approaches of PES in the management of community forestry. The contingent valuation method has been used. Econometric and statistical analyses show that the socio-economic characteristics such as age of the household head (+), marital status (-), household size (+), income (-), ethnicity (-), significantly influence the participation of households through their willingness to accept (WTA). Furthermore, the only logic of compensation at opportunity cost of practices competing with forest in the use of land, doesn’t lead unlikely to sustainable results. It is necessary for this purpose, to move from logic of compensation to an investment perspective, at the national level as at the local level. This will make PES scheme more efficient and equity in the distribution of resources.

Keywords

• participation
• rural population
• biodiversity conservation
• PES
• contingent valuation
• WTA
• Community Forest
• Cameroon