Land governance

COMAID strongly intervenes in the area of land governance. We undertake pro-poor land governance initiatives to enhancing access, control and management of land especially for the vulnerable, marginalized, minority groups and the physically challenged. Of recent there has been high demand for land by agro companies, rich, and politically influential individuals, in Cameroon and Africa at large. This has led to widespread land grabbing and communities have been dispossessed of their ancestral land and vital spaces, consequently putting at risk the livelihoods of local and indigenous communities of Cameroon. Furthermore, the current Land Tenure Law of Cameroon is obsolete and have been under review since 2012. Its dispositions cannot address the complex land problems that the country is experiencing today, there is need to bring all the stakeholders on board to inform the new law to be people centered and pro-poor oriented. No meaningful levels of poverty can be achieved without secured access to land for the poor local and indigenous communities of Cameroon COMAID is working at various levels to initiate innovative and relevant interventions in ensuring equitable access and control over land for local communities through the development of Village Land use Plans, participatory mapping, by-laws development, legal empowerment and advocacy campaigns for changes in policy and practices to improve on pro-poor and people centered land governance in Cameroon.

Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation

Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation constitutes a main domain where COMAID operates. Recent environmental threats have had diverse impact on the natural resources and ecological services being benefited by rural communities. Ecosystems have become very fragile due to increasing deforestation and degradation of natural habitats. Water and forest resources are facing depletion and rural communities are increasing facing adverse living conditions. COMAID principally works along the Western Highlands and Lowlands of Cameroon in the Key Biodiversity Areas with high level of endemism of the flora and fauna but unfortunately are not protected and under enormous threat from illegal activities including; illegal logging, illegal hunting, transformation of natural forest to palm plantation, clearance of forest for unsustainable livelihood and income generating activities. COMAID is keen at ensuring a win-win situation between conservation initiatives and the sustainable development of the local communities that depend on the forest for their subsistence. Consequently, approaches like community forestry, participatory ecological restoration, traditional forestry, research in flora diversity and ethnobotany are being undertaken by COMAID to deepen knowledge on community conservation models while mainstreaming indigenous knowledge in conservation actions. More innovative community led conservation approaches like Community Food Forest, Api-forestry, peri-urban and urban beekeeping, Nature Based Solutions and creation of conservation banks and community conserved areas are being integrated in the new orientation that COMAID is undertaking to ensure more effective and practical options to conservation.

Geographic Information Systems

COMAID has a solid experience in the domain of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) for many years. COMAID has successfully integrated GIS/GPS in conservation, Council development Plans, Risk Management, General mapping, Feasibility Studies (water supplies, HEP projects). This decision support tool is widely used today in every work of life. We offer GIS/GPS services both to public and private institutions. We are home to ArcView and ArvGIS for GIS analysis and mapping.

Enterprise Development

COMIAD believes that poverty is essentially a product of the process of exclusion of the people from value producing resources. The enterprise development program therefore seeks to improve access of the poor especially women to markets for economic resources including financial services, skills/technical services, market information, and organisational competence etc. to enable them become more efficient and competitive in specific agricultural value chains where poorest people in Cameroon are involved. We employ a business model in market facilitation from our rich expertise in the area of value chain finance, producers group strengthening, market intelligence, service providers strengthening etc. Our fundamental approach consists of multi-stakeholder processes, capacity building, public/private partnership, localization, research, evidence based advocacy, etc.

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