Applied research in ecology and social sciences

The specific objectives of the RESSAC programme are:

• To organize and support applied research that seeks to strengthen knowledge in social sciences and in ecology on the management and enhancement of natural resources in the forest ecosystems of Central Africa
• To promote the use of this knowledge in the operating methods of targeted stakeholders and in the development, implementation and monitoring of public policies and sustainable development assistance programmes in Central Africa. The goal of this EU-funded programme is to direct research towards the “operational solutions” that need to be invented and applied by stakeholders in the field who are confronted with the concrete challenges of sustainable management of natural resources as part of their duties or their everyday socioeconomic activities. The following categories of stakeholders are concerned:

• National, regional and local administrations responsible for the environment and natural resources, land-use planning, infrastructure development, rural development and the various ways of exploiting and enhancing the natural and mineral resources of forest ecosystems and their peripheral areas
• Managers of protected areas (PAs) who work either at public institutions or for independent operators that have signed public private partnerships with the public authorities responsible for the management of PAs
• Managers of forests managed for timber production (the administrative body in charge of the sector and forest operators involved in the sustainable management of their concessions, whether industrial players, local authorities or communities organized for this purpose, as in the case of communal forests and community forests)
• Agro-industry operators and extractive industries, whose activities and geographical scope of operations may compete with forest areas
• Civil society organizations promoting and overseeing local community development initiatives (community forests, conservancies, NTFP development cooperatives, etc.) and defending and promoting the rights of local stakeholders (with a particular focus on indigenous peoples).

The programme seeks to mobilize and “assign” university researchers – such as from Wageningen University- to these various categories of stakeholders, so that they can benefit from dedicated scientific support that will enable them to implement innovative strategies of action in the management of natural resources.

The programme funds applied research for the beneficiary stakeholders listed above, based on an academic and scientific framework. This includes Master’s students (in ecology and social sciences) enrolled in Central African universities and in European inter-university cooperation programmes (Msc Erasmus+ / Erasmus Mundus) within an EU university that will have expressed interest in becoming a programme partner. Through the university where they are enrolled, these students will receive specific financial support from the programme to cover the costs of their engagement in Central Africa. They will engage in one-off actions (maximum 6 months) with a beneficiary stakeholder, with which a research-support protocol will be signed.

An example is the “Analysis of the operation and contribution of agroforestry systems based on cocoa, coffee and oil palms to the conservation of biodiversity around forest concessions” a collaboration between University of Dschang, Cameroon, Wageningen University, Netherlands and timber company Cameroon United Forests, Cameroon. In Cameroon on the outskirts of forest concessions, agricultural pressure is increasing, particularly due to cocoa, but also oil palm. These commodities are often produced in agroforestry systems in which timber and non-timber species (NTFPs) are conserved or introduced. The existence of these agroforestry systems induces a change in land use patterns, but also in ecosystems and socio-economic products and services rendered by the original natural ecosystems, hence this study on the analysis of the operation and contribution of agroforestry systems based on cocoa and oil palm to the conservation of biodiversity around forest concessions, with 2 post docs and 3 MSc students supervised by a team of Dschang and WU professors.

Research objectives and activities

• Analyze the contribution of agroforestry systems to the sustainable development of forest concessions.
• Analyze the links between cocoa, oil palm, coffee and timber production, biodiversity and ecosystem services and products (including NWFPs) of agricultural and timber production systems, and how this can be influenced by farmers' values and trade-related initiatives.
• Assess the links between ecosystem services in these landscapes and the well-being of farmers.

Related link: https://www.cifor-icraf.org/ressac/

Caption for photo at top, from left: Abdelmalik Toupka (PhD candidate University of Dschang, Cameroon), Mees Kort (FNP MSc thesis student), and cocoa agroforestry family