CAMEROON: Fears for Forest as Dam Construction Begins

Crouched on a low wooden stool in front of his mud hut in the village of Pangar, Alain Selembe puffs away at his clay pipe, his gaze lost in the surrounding forest, quite oblivious to the noise made by his two playing daughters. All he hears is the rumbling of bulldozers opening up a 30 kilometre road from Deng Deng village to the confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers, where the government plans to construct a new dam.

“This is bad news for us,” Selembe tells IPS.”The construction of a dam here means that we will lose our homes, our land, and our property.”
Several kilometers away, at Lom village, a Baka pygmy just returning from a hunting expedition, Gilbert Gwanpel spits out his anger at the construction of the dam.

“The dam will submerge our forest, and the animals will flee. We live basically on hunting. Where do they want us now to go?”

The concerns of these two men reflect the general mood in the Lom-Pangar region of eastern Cameroon, 410 km from the capital Yaounde. Locals fear the construction will lead to the displacement of 28,000 people, flood protected forest areas and hurt farming, fishing and hunting activities in the area.

In January 2004, government officials met with traditional chiefs in the area and told them that parts of their communities would be displaced.

And past experience with similar projects in Cameroon suggests that promises of compensation and resettlement will not be satisfactorily implemented.

The Cameroonian government is determined to construct the new dam to ease short-falls in energy supply and boost economic growth. Cameroon, which is heavily dependent on hydro-electric power, has recently suffered significant reductions in supply due to drought.

Funding from the French Agency for Development, The African Development Bank, IMF, and the Islamic Bank will go towards the construction of the dam, the building of a 24 MW hydro plant at its foot to supply local power needs, and an electricity transmission line running 120 Km from Lom-Pangar to the region’s chief town, Bertoua.

The submerging of large portions of the forest will lead to the loss of highly prized tree species like the iroko, bubinga, and sapele. It will also cause the displacement of such flagship wildlife species as chimpanzees, and gorillas.

The dam, expected to generate some 1,500 jobs over four years will also lead to an influx of people into the region, worsening the specter of illegal logging , poaching and fishing, and obviously generate associated risks like diseases spread.

IPS