2021 Reports

Transparency of Land-based Investments: Cameroon Country Snapshot

Szoke-Burke, Sam; Nguiffo, Samuel; Tchoukep, Stella

Despite a recent transparency law and participation in transparency initiatives, Cameroon’s investment environment remains plagued by poor transparency. In this report focusing on agribusiness projects in Cameroon, CCSI and the Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) find that communities continue to be excluded from decision-making around investments, and face challenges in securing legal protection of their legitimate tenure rights. As a result, the government faces threats to its legitimacy as the grievances of citizens and investors alike lead to the barring of roads by communities and investor withdrawals. CCSI and CED therefore call for a new law concerning the governance of land and land-based investment in Cameroon, and a national moratorium on any new approvals for large-scale agribusiness and other land-based investment projects until Cameroon’s legal and policy landscape has been reformed.