RM (Rene) Dombeu Kaam MSc

Rene Kaam currently works for the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) as Director for Central Africa Regional Office.

Rene is a holder of Dipl. Engineering in Wood Science Engineering from Beijing Forestry University in China, and a graduate in MSc. in Forest Science (International Forestry) from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany.

Rene has researched on forest policy in Cameroon where he extensively researched on illegal logging in Cameroon, analysing the influence of instrumental, normative and context specific factors on law compliance by forest loggers in Cameroon. Rene has also contributed to generate knowledge to help understand the impact of Chinese companies on sustainable forest management in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique and Uganda under the project China-Africa Forest governance led by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

After joining INBAR, Rene started research on sustainability and livelihood issues on bamboo and rattan. For rattan, Rene contributed to estimated rattan resources and understand if the current harvesting volumes in Cameroon is sustainable given the regenerate rate of rattan. Rene has also contributed to boost rattan trade with the publication, Terminology of rattan products.

For bamboo, Rene is interested to contributed to change the poor perception of bamboo by estimating the dual contribution of bamboo to livelihood enhancement of local pro-poor communities and climate change attenuation and mitigation, and the role that policy needs to play for governments to harness the potential of bamboo for livelihood and climate attenuation.

Rene also has experience in international standards development, quality assessment and certification. He leads INBAR’s work on bamboo and rattan (B&R) standardization at ISO where he convenes working group (ISO/TC 296 WG 4 Rattan) and oversees B&R international standards development.