IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v173y2025ics1389934125000498.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability performance of community forest enterprises (CFES) in Cameroon: Pathways to viable business models

Author

Listed:
  • Piabuo, Serge Mandiefe
  • Hoogstra-Klein, Marjanke
  • Ingram, Verina
  • Foundjem-Tita, Divine
  • Minang, Peter A.
  • Duguma, Lalisa
  • Runhaar, Hens

Abstract

Community forestry has evolved from devolved forest management to the valorisation of forest resources for community development. Community forest enterprises (CFEs) now apply business approaches to enhance economic, social, and environmental outcomes. However, limited research has evaluated CFE performance in tropical countries across these dimensions. This paper proposes a contextualized multi-dimensional framework to evaluate CFEs' performance and applies it to nine CFEs in Cameroon. Data were collected from income and expenditure statements, forest land-use transects, satellite image analysis, and focus group discussions. The study evaluates the performance of Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs) in Cameroon using a multi-dimensional framework. The majority (66.67 %) are intermediate performers, with scores between 2.5 and 3. However, they score poorly on the economic dimension, making them intermediate but skewed performers with better scores on social and environmental dimensions. Only 11.11 % CFE is classified as an effective performer, with scores of three or above on all dimensions. The study found that CFEs face significant challenges in effectively allocating resources to trade in forest products and generating profits, resulting in poor economic performance. However, they perform better in investing in social projects, employing community members, and reducing illegal logging and agricultural expansion. Financial and technical support, policy coordination, and institutional collaboration are needed to improve performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Piabuo, Serge Mandiefe & Hoogstra-Klein, Marjanke & Ingram, Verina & Foundjem-Tita, Divine & Minang, Peter A. & Duguma, Lalisa & Runhaar, Hens, 2025. "Sustainability performance of community forest enterprises (CFES) in Cameroon: Pathways to viable business models," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:173:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125000498
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103470
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934125000498
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103470?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:173:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125000498. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.