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The 4Rs: a Valuable Tool for Management and Benefit-Sharing Decisions for the Bimbia Bonadikombo Forest, Cameroon.

Research reports

A key issue that needs to be resolved when establishing a community forest, is how the costs and benefits will be distributed. This paper reports on the use of the 4Rs tool to facilitate decision-making about management and benefit-sharing in the Bimbia Bonadikombo forest, Southwest Cameroon. The 4Rs tool allows for the analysis of the rights and responsibilities held by each stakeholder group, as well as the revenues (or benefits) they receive from the forest. This enables stakeholders to understand the links between these, analyse stakeholdersí interests more objectively and hence make more equitable decisions on benefit sharing. In addition, it analyses the relationships between the different stakeholders, providing useful information about possible entrypoints for negotiation of difficult issues. In the Bimbia Bonadikombo case, a particularly welcome outcome of the process was a recognition by the Operations Committee of the planned community forest that they were responsible for negotiating on behalf of the whole community rather than according to their own personal views.

Fiona Percy, Charles Tekwe