Analysis of Agro Alternatives to Boost Cameroon’s Socio-Environmental Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Conservation of Native Forests

Abstract

Located in Central Africa, Cameroon is a country with strong social inequalities and fragile governance and institutions. This has a direct impact on the sustainable development of its territory, communities, and native forest, which are subject to constant socio-environmental and economic pressures due to overexploitation. This research has three purposes: (1) to conduct a comparative theoretical/empirical diagnosis on the quality of Cameroon’s institutional framework, governance, and public policies related to territorial sustainability; (2) to assess the impact of the three clusters identified among the 44 stakeholders interviewed (forestry companies/certifiers; NGOs/communities; and banks/public institutions) on each other; and (3) to analyze the contribution of the use of cassava (Manihot esculenta) as an agro alternative to Cameroon’s socio-ecological resilience, sustainable development, and conservation of native forests. The research found: (1) the need for mixed governance with joint accountability to find equitable and lasting sustainable solutions for the parties involved, making communities/ethnic groups visible in the decision-making process; and (2) the agro use of cassava has a positive impact on socio-ecological resilience by contributing to employment, the protection of devastated soils, and the provision of quality food, and by reducing pollution from the cement industry through using cassava waste as an input.

1. Introduction

Cameroon’s forests cover approximately 23 million hectares, representing almost 50% of the country’s total land area [1]. Furthermore, the same authors estimate that Cameroon is home to some 8260 plant species (of which 156 are endemic) and approximately 2000 wildlife species, making it the fifth largest country in Africa in terms of biodiversity.

The country’s economy is based almost exclusively on the exploitation of its natural resources, which include oil and gas, high-value timber, and non-timber forest products, as well as minerals and agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, cocoa, maize, and cassava [2,3].

Cameroon’s native forests are highly threatened by human-induced deforestation and degradation with a significant annual loss of vegetation cover, which has been gradually increasing from 0.34% during the 2000–2005 period to 0.90% in the 2010–2013 period and there are no concrete indications that this will be reversed in the short to medium term [4].

Logging in Cameroon’s forests is often selective and at the same time extensive [5,6]. Along these lines, it is estimated that the largest area of timber exploitation is found in the eastern and southern regions of the country [3,7,8]. According to Auzel et al. [9], this exploitation is historically concentrated on around twenty species, which account for 75% of the country’s timber production. The species most exploited historically for their commercial value are: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Entandrophragma cylindricum, Terminalia superba, Lophira alata, and Milicia excelsa [9]. Forests, as generators of essential biodiversity, make significant contributions to the local economy, providing multiple inputs (biodiversity, timber, charcoal, medicinal plants, various foods, tourism, etc.), which in some way should contribute to the fight against extreme poverty of local communities [1].

Table 1. Description of forest area and its relationship with other economic areas in Cameroon, by observing specific years.

Year	Total Forest Area (MH) ¥	Forest as Percentage of Land Area (%)	Agricultural Land as Percentage of Land Area (%)	Forest Land Decreasing per Year (%)	Log Industry Production (m3)	Log Industry Permanent Employees	Agricultural Permanent Employees	Total Population Permanent Employed
1999	22	47	19	1	3.0 mill	UN	UN	UN
2009	20	43	20	1	2.4 mill	49,993	26,530	859,000
2015	19	40	21	1	3.2 mill	59,067 α	57,522 α	1,183,752 α

¥: approximate values, MH: million hectares, UN: uninformed. α: value calculated by adding the new accumulated employees with the existing ones in the sector, reported by [11]. Source: [11,12,13].

shows a description of the relationship between the forest area and other economic zones in Cameroon between 1999 and 2015. The forest area has decreased from 22 to 19 million hectares, reaching a deforestation rate of 1% per year, which is one of the highest deforestation rates in Central Africa. Only 10% of the total forest is protected by law [10]. On the other hand, Table 1 also shows that the area destined for agricultural exploitation has increased from 19 to 21% of the total Cameroonian productive territory.

Regarding the logging industry, the percentage of territory that practices this activity is not exactly known. Unsustainable and illegal logging has been identified as one of the main drivers of forest degradation in Cameroon. The misuse of certain logging permits in the country is frequent, due to the lack of effective regulation and law enforcement [14]. A slight increase in the production of logs has been observed, but this growth has varied over the years. However, between 2001 and 2019, Cameroon lost the equivalent of 4.2% of its tree cover, contributing 519 Mt of CO₂ emissions. During the same period, this country lost 3.2% of its primary humid forest, representing 47% of the total tree cover [15].

As shown in Figure 1, according to the African Development Bank Database [13], the production of wood for fuel has increased over the years, which would pose not only a threat to the health of native forests (Figure 1A), but also a threat to global warming through the amount of greenhouse emissions released into the atmosphere [16]. At the same time, cassava cultivation has also gradually increased, which would represent an excellent sustainable development opportunity for the country, by making use of already deforested lands with highly degraded soils to be reforested with native species (Figure 1B).

On the other hand, the amount of agricultural land exploited per hectare per inhabitant in Cameroon increased from one to four hectares per inhabitant in the 1990s, with a sharp increase between 2000 and 2005, and then stabilized at levels of 12 hectares per inhabitant on average, a volume that has been maintained to date (Figure 1C).

Forest land in Cameroon has been declining slightly over the years (Figure 1D), leaving little hope for cultural awareness and adaptation by communities and institutions to protect the country’s native forest heritage in the medium to long term. However, there could be a bias in these data, due to the constant migration of peasant populations to the cities in search of job opportunities. Along the same lines, and perhaps due to the same phenomenon, employment represented by the agricultural sector has suffered a slight decrease between 1990 and 2020 (Figure 1E). The labor force working in agriculture, which had grown significantly in the 1980s and 1990s, stabilized from 2000 to the present at approximately 3.6 million inhabitants (Figure 1F).

The concrete industry is among the most highly polluting in the world, using toxic and carcinogenic non-renewable oils, as well as water-soluble polymers that can be easily replaced by organic amylopectin, which is also highly soluble and can be obtained from cassava. The cement industry presents a significant challenge in terms of sustainability, due to the large amount of concrete used on the planet every day and the number of toxic agents released into the atmosphere, greatly contributing to climate change.

Cameroon, like the rest of the African countries, is experiencing significant population growth, with the consequent demand for this type of cement for the manufacture of concrete and mortars, used in the construction of houses, roads, and bridges [17,18]. Cement is currently irreplaceable in large construction sites, opening a large window of opportunity for starch from cassava waste, while enabling a large reduction in the use of its most toxic components, allowing cassava waste to be given a useful life while also generating a highly innovative and friendlier added value for the cement industry [19,20].

Cameroon needs to be analyzed because of its relevance in curbing climate change. The importance of Cameroon’s forests for the biosphere is widely unknown, but it is only comparable to the forests of the Amazon and the boreal forests, which is why preserving them is an obligation and a duty for humanity [21].

This article addresses Cameroon’s challenge in relation to the sustainable development of its territory and the conservation of its native forests and its rich ecosystem, through alternatives and strategies that help to take pressure off these forests, favoring socio-ecological resilience and mitigating negative impacts based on the opportunity cost. This can be achieved by implementing sustainable growth alternatives that bring together all the parties involved and where cassava (Manihot esculenta) cultivation can play a major role, with the multiple uses of this tuber as food, fertilizer, soil protection, and a supply—through its waste—for a more sustainable cement industry. In fact, it would go a long way towards showing the benefits of implementing a circular economy. A study conducted by Spreafico [22] analyzed some common design strategies to set up circular economy options (i.e., design for reducing wastes, design for using renewable energies, design for reuse, design for remanufacturing, design for recycling, design for energy recovery, design for disposal, and design for recovering energy from waste) and their corresponding impact reductions, concluding that it is useful to research the relationships between the CE options and the types of environmental impacts.

2. Materials and Methods

The research intended to answer two questions: (1) What would be the best strategy capable of generating sustainable development of Cameroon’s native forests, considering the interaction of very critical aspects such as socio-cultural, economic, agricultural, and institutional and governance aspects? and (2) How could cassava (Manihot esculenta) cultivation boost socio-ecological resilience in Cameroon through a specific opportunity cost, thus enabling the conservation of native forests and sustainable local development, and, at the same time, giving life to an industry as polluting as cement?

Two different methodological techniques were used: one for the primary source in the field and the other for the secondary sources of referential information. The aim was to contrast and strengthen the study and, thus, give greater validation to the empirical results.

The primary source data collection consisted of a series of formal on-site interviews with 44 of the most significant stakeholders willing to participate (from 82 potential stakeholders contacted). They make up the Cameroonian decision-making ecosystem in terms of their hierarchical, social, political, business, and ethnic positions related to the object of study. The qualitative information obtained from the interviews was processed as follows: full transcription of the interviewees’ statements, coding, and manual categorization.

The study model used was that of “grounded theory” described by Penalva et al. [23]. This is a method that allows for the discovery of theories, concepts, hypotheses, and propositions based directly on the data, and not on a priori assumptions, other research, or existing theoretical frameworks. The interviews were unstructured (open-ended questions) and a latent content analysis was conducted [24]. The data coding was performed manually and divided by themes to avoid leaving out any of the opinions raised during the interviews. The interviews revealed a saturation of themes by equivalence, i.e., it was observed that the different stakeholders had similar opinions on the vast majority of the topics discussed, regardless of the sector to which they belonged.

It is important to note the degree of difficulty in carrying out this activity, due to distances, in many cases in unsafe situations, and the complexity of establishing contact with the different groups interviewed. The profiles of the 44 interviewees were distributed among representatives of the eight sectors identified as the most important involved in the sustainability of Cameroon’s native forests (

Table 2. Profile of the 44 stakeholders interviewed.

NGO	Banks Sponsors	Forestry Companies	Collective Communities	Political Stakeholders	Political Employees	Others	Direction
6 NGO Directors	1 Fund manager and funder	1 Forest operator	1 Chief Bantou	1 Official of the Ministry of Forestry	1 Departmental delegate	1 Delegate of a community forest	1 Regional Director of company
3 NGO Representatives	2 Funder representative	1 Company president	2 Village chiefs (Baka community)	1 Departmental delegate	1 Sub-prefect	1 Forestry Consultant—Former Forester	2 Site Director, Group
1 NGO Forest-Environment advisor	1 Funder	3 Company	1 Community Forest in the central region			1 Head of certification office
	1 Project coordinator and funder	1 Managing Director of the company	1 Community Forest in the southern region (village chiefs)			1 Certification office coordinator
		1 Internal certification director of the company	3 Community Forest in the south-east region (Chief, president of the GIC, advisor)			1 Model forests
		1 Managing Director of the company	1 Community Forest of the southern region (Member of the GIC)
10	5	8	9	2	2	5	3
44 Stakeholders

N = 44 stakeholders (82 potential stakeholders were contacted, of which 44 finally agreed to be interviewed in person).

).

These instruments made it possible to define components of Cameroon’s organizational culture, as well as the organizational structure of companies involved in logging and timber certification, their management style, and the vision of the role of government and institutions in relation to environmental protection, in terms of the intervention of companies responsible for the exploitation of the country’s forest resources. The data coding and analysis were carried out through interview summary sheets and collected notes that helped to enhance the understanding, perception, and views of each representative interviewed. These tools were coded, as mentioned above, in a sequential and iterative manner. Finally, a cross-sectoral analysis was carried out, taking into account stakeholders and elements of institutional culture. To that end, meetings were held with stakeholders involved in decision-making throughout the research process. Finally, a database was created to describe the different organizations and their objectives for the sustainable development of the territory, the communities involved, and the Cameroonian forests, from the point of view of the stakeholders directly linked to the local ecosystem.

The second methodological technique was based on the exploration of secondary data known as qualitative documentary, which involved the selection, compilation, and review of scientific literature through reading and critiquing the theoretical and bibliographical instruments found according to the “Boolean” operators. These seek to interpret an experience related to predetermined keywords from different sources of information and are characterized by an interpretative approach to the findings and gaps of the research itself [25,26].

To make the search effective, documentary sources or bibliographic databases were chosen by discipline or subject: Science Direct, Agricola, Compendex, Derwent, Statistics Canada, Research Gate, Scopus, Web of Science, Innovation Index, and GeoIndex. These were combined to counteract the degree of data overlap that might exist between them.

The search was carried out based on the selection profile by means of relations between descriptors, using logical or “Boolean” operators (AND, OR). The bibliographic search was structured considering a degree of sensitivity (recovery rate) and specificity (precision rate) based on the definition of the construction of the research questions and objectives, as well as the interviews with the 44 stakeholders to delimit the search for information [26]. Sources were selected and organized through the identification of the following keywords: Theoretical Framework; Native Forest; Conservation; Sustainable; Local Development; Governance and Institutionality; Cassava and Agriculture; and finally, Cement Engineering. Complementary words of the same root as the mother words were added to them, to help understand and explain the dynamics related to the sustainable local development of the territory and the theoretical tools and alternatives of empirical analysis for socio-ecological resilience (use of cassava and its waste in the cement industry) and the conservation of the native forest in Cameroon. Based on this logic, we tried to cover as broad a spectrum as possible to bridge the gap between what is available as secondary information and what was discovered through field interviews.

The empirical analysis was contrasted with the theoretical documentary information, in order to validate the cultural, environmental, institutional, and governance aspects, through the broadest participation of key stakeholders available. To do this, a causal model was used, which is a method that consists of establishing causal links or interactions between different phenomena through a formal process that uses evidence to infer causal relationships or link effects and causes, in this case, the relationship between organizational culture and all the aspects analyzed in the theoretical discussion, in terms of sustainable development [27].

This model is based on contingency theory, which is an approach to the study of organizational behavior that explains how contingent stakeholders such as culture, environment, institutional framework, and governance, among others, influence the design and function of organizations as a social structure [28]. The underlying assumption of contingency theory is that no one type of organizational structure, or another, is equally replicable to all others. Organizational and institutional effectiveness depends on a fit or match between the volatility of the environment and the size and function of the organization in which it is located. The aim is to look for patterns in order to try to understand, rather than predict, the specific political, institutional, and community realities in Cameroon, i.e., how one variable affects another and how they are all under the same institutional umbrella. Eisenhardt’s [29] recommendations to triangulate data collection were followed to increase the robustness of the research.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Theoretical-Bibliographic Review

The information need chosen for the literature search strategy is expressed in a word or short phrase (e.g., sustainable development). Some of the concepts are split in half to have more research scope, “Forests and climate change” into “Forests” and “Change”. We used the words that came up most in the interviews to find keywords for each of the required concepts, as well as using various types of documents (dictionaries, encyclopedias, and well-known articles) to further enrich the search. All words or expressions of a concept are synonyms or quasi-synonyms and, as necessary, there have been cross-references of related words. We have used Boolean operators and parentheses, e.g., (word1 * OR word2 * OR…) AND (word7 * OR…). In addition, exact expressions (“xx”) and appropriate field codes were employed (e.g., in Compendex > WN KY). The “{English} WN LA” was also used, but also literature in Spanish and French, which finally yielded more than 9800 results. Subsequently, to optimize the search strategy, different options were tested, eliminating some keywords that were too generic or not directly related to the search. It was found that the number of results was too high, so, in order to narrow down the search more specifically, the abstracts and titles that matched the object of research were used. Based on the analysis of the results obtained (reading the titles and detailed references, if necessary), we were able to analyze and classify the different articles, considering those that came closest to our research questions, and then we dynamically modified the selection strategy until we reached 217 results, which were considered sufficient to classify and consult. The time window selected was from 2001 to 2021, mainly due to the need to have current data related to the object of the search. In addition, a time window was opened between 1989 and 2000 to include articles that could be classics in the subject analyzed or of great timeless contribution, and even exceptional articles from previous years if required.

3.1.1. Sustainable Development

The concept of “sustainable development” is relatively complex, due to its breadth and lack of consensus among researchers on both the form and substance of what should or should not be considered sustainable. The roots of this more contemporary concept date back to the 1950s [30] with the awareness of socio-environmental problems, in relation to the increasingly abrupt changes caused in the environment, which are manifested in different ecosystems damaged by human intervention and even by nature itself or the combination of both [31,32,33,34,35]. Later, Carson [36] and Meadows et al. [37] emphasized the footprint of human intervention on the biosphere and its various impacts on people’s quality of life and the accelerated deterioration of nature in general, pointing out the limits imposed by natural resources as finite in regards to socio-ecological intervention.

On the other hand, the concept of “sustainable territorial development”, as explained by Ashraf et al. [38] seeks a convergence towards concepts such as ecological capacity/carrying capacity, natural resource/environment, biosphere, environmental technology, and zero/slow growth, which were already used before the term sustainability or sustainable development became more popular. Thus, the concept of sustainable territorial development seems to be a bold approach, basically because it would only remain a grand theoretical principle that adheres little to the actual practices of the organizational and social environment and, therefore, there is no clear definition that brings together all streams of thought on the subject [39,40,41,42].

Goslinga et al. [43] established what they call “critical habitat” to designate the massive deterioration of different ecosystems that represent areas of high biodiversity value and that have significant importance for different species and strongly threatened or unique spaces. Depending on how well natural resources are managed, this will have a transformative impact, which may be positive and/or negative, on the development trajectory of a nation and its society [44]. Figure 2 shows the close interaction between natural resources and the environment.

However, several authors agree that the components of sustainability are economy, society, and environment, which together work towards the long-term prosperity of territories and their communities [33,46,47]. From this trilogy, terms such as circular economy, social innovation, green innovation, eco-innovation, green consumption, among others, have been incorporated, which gives an idea of the plethora of interpretations that accompanies sustainable development [33,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59].

Crucially, many authors are inclined to give superlative weight to economic development, to the detriment of the environment and social and environmental development [38,60]. In this regard, Kjellén’s proposal of a “diamond of sustainability” [61,62] provides more dynamic links. Kjellén removes the environment from the classical paternalistic and hegemonic views of all natural and non-natural, physical, and biological stakeholders, including society and its culture, emancipating natural resources from it. All these dimensions are directly related to each other, and the most sustainable and equitable development, both of different societies and of their territories, often depends closely on their positive interaction, within the same plane of transcendence.

Figure 3 shows how natural resources occupy an elementary place in the diamond, already separated from the environment, although on the same plane as a value structure [63]. Then, there are energy, public policy, economics, technology, and public health, with their respective dependencies such as lifestyle, land, food, water, development, employability, and poverty. While they appear to be independent stakeholders at the level, they are all interconnected and ancillary to each other, in the manner of a complex ecosystem.

Jovovic et al. [33] explore models related to sustainability from another perspective, based on the three classic dimensions involved in sustainable development: economic, environmental, and social, which form the vertices of a triangle as can be seen in Figure 4. Each vertex involves finding answers that balance the three dimensions mentioned, bringing to the surface issues such as social and political impacts, which are often overlooked in the most common sustainable development design processes. In this model, the interaction between the three components can be integrated with an intermediate “sustainability zone” that recognizes the interdependence of biological, economic, and social systems. Through these three zones or vertices, the aim is for all parties involved to gain benefits, in the style of a virtuous winner/winner circle, where optimized returns at all three vertices are achieved through eco-resilience, allowing for greater sustainability while improving the lives of communities.

3.1.2. Governance

The term “governance” is often used in reference to the formal and informal interactions between different levels of government (whether local, regional, or national), individuals, associations, and organizations, with the aim of reducing potentially existing gaps [64]. However, for some years now, there has been an intellectual debate, in reference to the integral development of society, to understand governance from a globalized, interdisciplinary, and multifaceted world, supported by a multitude of criteria, and no longer focused on previous traditional hierarchical governance models.

Today, the aim is to structure governance in a more participatory and interactive way between the various stakeholders that make up an environmental ecosystem and its community, as these not only have an impact at the local level, but also at the global level and, therefore, require simultaneous solutions at different scales [65,66,67,68]. The basis of good governance is provided by a platform of strong institutions, enabling countries that enjoy them to narrow the gaps between different stakeholders and develop harmoniously over time [68].

According to Kardos [69] and Ndeh [70], good governance promotes, among other things, transparency, timely accountability, quality education that makes society prosper, more effective management of resources (human, natural, economic, and financial), and the participation of civil society in decision-making, so that governance and sustainable development should be closely linked, enabling better development of society as a whole and the sustainability of the local territory for present and future generations. On the contrary, poor governance is often associated with corruption, cronyism, clientelism, and various forms of favoritism, lack of quality education, accompanied by a poor or even absent institutional framework, which leads to a lack of effective control mechanisms that in turn regulate investments and the distribution of the benefits or profits generated in this territory that have been left by the state, and can even jeopardize the freedom of the communities involved and democracy itself [70,71,72,73,74].

Governance, seen from a more traditional hierarchical perspective, regardless of whether it is a developed or developing country, has similar historical characteristics in terms of the verticality of its mandate, but not in terms of its institutional capacity. This consists of top-down decision-making, headed by a high-ranking public authority, without the participation of private or mixed organizations in the adoption of decisions, which clearly reveals serious shortcomings, especially in developing countries, with weaker and in many cases almost non-existent institutions.

The incremental incorporation of governance concepts according to the need for progress is more inclusive and takes into account the different ambivalences that can arise, the uncertainty and power manifested through the evolution of society, aiming for change, based on the analysis of the socio-ecological and socio-economic systems present in any community and which are particular to each society [75]. Because of this, since the end of the 20th century, mixed systems of governance have been emerging, which include the environment in decision-making, represented in governmental (public), non-governmental (private), and mixed entities, as one of the solutions to the growing complexity of institutional variables manifested at the beginning of this century [76].

However, despite this evolution, Ndeh [70] believes that Cameroon still suffers from a very marked unidirectional public governance that has been carried over from the colonial era, added to the complications caused by its heterogeneous Anglo-French culture with its historical differences and more than 250 ethnic groups, which further fragment equitable decision-making that allows for the prosperity and sustainability of Cameroonian society as a whole. In addition to this, and the weakness of its institutions, there is a kind of clientelist government that further complicates the process of governance in this country. According to Turner [77] and MacCormick [78], sometimes governance can directly influence culture, while at other times the reverse is true, which can lead to poor organizational culture, leading to poor governance, leading to poor decision-making. Culture, as well as organizational culture, is often presented as intangible elements until they are confronted [79].

In this regard, Cameroon is a country immersed in complex social, economic, and environmental interests and, at the same time, with a very pronounced deficit at the educational level, with large lines of corruption, which could be corrected with “mixed” governance systems that include governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, through the local civil community, trade union members, NGOs, and self-monitoring and auditing companies [67]. This could also strengthen the country’s institutions in general and give them greater credibility in the eyes of the public. On the other hand, there is evidence that from this innovative concept of mixed governance, understanding has been gained about different formal and informal components, which often directly affect environmental and forest governance in these countries [80,81]. Many organizations involved in environmental governance often have to cope with and manage multiple variables, related to social constraints and expectations of the various stakeholders involved, usually due to a lack of competence or capacities of the ones holding responsibility [64,82].

It is essential to highlight the importance of forest resource governance in a country like Cameroon, whose GDP is based on the exploitation of natural resources and particularly forest resources, so it is important to consider mixed participation in its governance. In this regard, for Adeyeye et al. [83], it is key to ensure the participation of indigenous communities or ethnic minorities and greater participation of women in environmental governance, not only for ethical reasons, but also because of the knowledge and interests of the region’s inhabitants, who should be able to express themselves on the present and future of the forest ecosystem.

A closer look at the state of the tropical forests of Cameroon reveals that, for several decades now, numerous legal reflections have been performed, mainly involving the decentralization and reform of the forestry regime in the tropics. The objective is to create favorable conditions for the sustainable management of forests through the stakeholders directly involved, including of a social, private, public, and mixed nature, from the various local communities [68,84,85]; at present, some theoretical and empirical research suggests that collaboration and participation of communities, especially regarding local residents, are essential for the design and implementation of a successful and sustainable long-term development plan, where organizational culture is part of the equation. In that regard, Cameron and Quinn [79] developed six key elements related to the development of organizational culture, such as: most dominant characteristics of culture; organizational leadership; human capital management; organizational “glue”; strategic emphases; and success criteria. Moreover, a key element is the enhancement of local capacities to implement and manage initiatives through a supportive network of regional economic development organizations, as well as environmental protection, with a focus on greater social equity objectives [86,87,88].

Public policies play a crucial role in the decisions taken to protect the different communities involved, especially the most vulnerable ones, without forgetting the impact that climate change will have on them [1]. Cohen and Levinthal [89] argue that public science and technology policies should not only generate capacities within a nation, territory, or region at different levels of resource management, but should also make it possible to put these capacities at the service of organizations and society as a whole. These economies, much more convergent at the institutional level, are the ones that place a greater emphasis on value and knowledge creation and, therefore, on innovation and technological development, which is reflected in the high economic and financial performance of developed nations, also called knowledge-based economies [90,91].

3.1.3. The Natural Resource “Curse” and Socio-Ecological Resilience

Local sustainable development is specific to each region and society, its ecosystem, its culture, and its needs, and is often dependent on existing local knowledge [92]. Countries that base their economies exclusively on natural resources are, paradoxically, often at a disadvantage compared to those that lack them or do not base their economies on their exploitation.

This phenomenon is reflected in the case of the countries known as the “Asian tigers” (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea), which lack significant natural resources [93], but which developed their industries and technology rapidly between 1945 and 1990, leading them to thrive in the knowledge-based economy [94]. Similarly, countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Finland have an abundance of natural resources, but their economies were not based exclusively on the exploitation of these resources, but rather diversified, underpinning them with a more knowledge-based economy, managing to industrialize and develop to become world technological leaders. The key to the development of these countries lies in the quality of the institutions responsible for the governance of these nations [95].

In contrast, numerous authors elaborate on the negative spillover effects that are often caused by abundant natural resources, precisely because of the poor quality of the institutions responsible for their management [96,97,98]. At the same time, several authors have observed the existence of a higher degree of corruption in these developing countries. Moreover, revenues from natural resources can fluctuate considerably from year to year, depending on many uncontrollable variables, such as the volatility of international commodity prices, the abundance or scarcity of a given resource, climatic variations, natural or man-made disasters, and even pandemics such as COVID-19, among others [94,96,98].

In this regard, it is essential to integrate socio-ecological resilience, which will make it possible to recover the loss of environmental balance caused by the permanent disturbance to which the fragile biodiversity of Cameroon’s forests and lands has been subjected for decades [99,100].

The theory of resilience was developed in the early 1950s by physicists, engineers, and mathematicians to describe a dynamic event that started with an object in equilibrium, which was subjected to a perturbation that removed it from that equilibrium phase, and then the time elapsed was measured until it returned to its original equilibrium [101]. Later on, this concept underwent some changes in its interpretation and management, and was used by ecologists to explain adaptive capacity, in which an environmental ecosystem is capable of absorbing a change, maintaining a similar structure, or even returning to its original carrying capacity, after having suffered several major disturbances [102,103]. Along the same lines, González-Quintero and Avila-Foucatla [104] define socio-ecological resilience as the capacity of a system to absorb a given disturbance and then reorganize itself again by undergoing a change that allows it to continue conserving essentially the same function, structure, and identity (Figure 5).

This theory of resilience has evolved in its interpretation. At the beginning, it was considered to be a transforming entity, then over time it moved away from this characteristic and towards a description of two cycles; one of them was known as basic and the other as adaptive, the latter being the most widely used due to its flexibility in the continuous change of socio-ecological systems [102]. According to Heslinga et al. [105], they believe that the concept of resilience is particularly appropriate for socio-ecological systems because both concepts are at the interface of human and natural processes in time and space, and share an interest in the protection, management, and planning of a given potentially disturbed area. On the other hand, it determines the capacity to adapt to and benefit from change. Resilience, from a community perspective, reflects the ability of the community to adapt to an uncertain environment, being able to respond to adversity through the cooperation of governors and the entire community [106]. However, it is important to value social, political, environmental, and biodiversity agreements, which give legitimacy to the success of the initiative, in order to better plan for more sustainable and long-lasting development [107].

3.1.4. The Opportunity Cost of Cassava

A viable proposal to the overexploitation of Cameroon’s native forests is to take advantage of the opportunity cost presented through the socio-ecological resilience of cross-cutting sustainability, managing the cultivation of cassava (Manihot esculenta), which is very rich in starch as food and whose waste, equally rich in the glucidcarbohydrate binder, can be used as a component for the cement industry, giving concrete greater strength and structural stability.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz, Euphorbiaceae) is a crop that was apparently domesticated in South America’s central Amazon approximately 8000–10,000 years ago, being then brought to Africa by Portuguese explorers about five centuries ago [108,109]. This vegetable, a woody tuber, is widely used in the diets of local African communities, to the extent that it provides 30% of the calories consumed by them, making it the most important of all root and tuber crops as a source of calories, but it also ranks fourth in importance in terms of the number of hectares planted, after rice, sugar cane, and maize [110]. More than 800 million people (approximately 11.5% of the world’s population) depend on it as an important source of carbohydrates, and it is also one of the products with the highest energy yield per hectare cultivated, in which 100% of the plant is edible, with up to 80% of the total available starch being concentrated in its roots [111,112,113,114]. Numerous studies refer to the advantages that the consumption of a starch-rich diet confers to health in general and to the heart in particular, making it a direct benefit for communities to have this important resource [115,116]. In addition, cassava roots are consumed boiled or processed into other products and byproducts, such as flour, modified cassava flour (mocaf), cassava rice, in chips, gari and fufu water, in cassava stick, and in “mitumba”, while the leaves of the plant are consumed as vegetables.

While it is not the largest producer of cassava in Africa, Cameroon currently cultivates approximately 341,000 hectares of this fast-growing tuber, which leads the country to produce about 5.4 million tons per year (

Table 3. Production in tonnes of cassava in the World, in Africa, and in Cameroon 2015–2018 and their respective shares [117].

Year	World	Africa	% World	Cameroon	% World	% of Africa
2015	277,072,000	152,822,000	3.27	5,000,000	1.8	3.27
2016	276,510,000	155,607,000	3.32	5,170,000	1.87	3.32
2017	275,655,000	157,453,000	3.39	5,799,000	1.94	3.42
2018 (estimated)	277,070,000	160,730,000	3.36	5,400,000	1.95	3.36

), with an estimated revenue of about USD 700 million [117]. Each Cameroonian household consumes approximately 75 kg of cassava per year, representing more than 2.5 million tons of this vegetable annually [118,119,120,121]. In other words, Cameroon currently produces twice as much cassava as its population consumes annually, where its use is almost entirely for food and feed only.

Figure 6 shows how the global cassava market has grown steadily since 1970, despite a virus disease that has been stalking this crop since 2013 and is known as “cassava brown streak disease” [122]. This disease is characteristically found in sub-Saharan Africa and not in Latin America, so germplasm from Colombia is being used to try to generate greater genetic diversity in plants to combat this virus, which causes chlorosis of the veins, streaks on leaves and stems, and necrosis of the roots, making them inedible, with the consequent loss of harvests and socio-economic damage [123]. Establishing an accurate and early sanitary diagnosis of the fields affected by the virus is very costly, so through technological innovation, stochastic epidemiological modelling and simulations are carried out to reduce these costs and be more accurate in the diagnosis and final intervention, in order to reduce the incidence of the virus and potential losses [124,125].

Despite this setback, the global cassava market grew from 91 million tons in 1970 to 277 million tons in 2018 and the market volume is expected to exceed 345 million tons by 2024 in line with the progressive population increase in Cameroon and Africa in general.

Moreover, Cameroon’s climate is highly conducive to the cultivation of this tuber, which favors its production throughout the year in the country’s five forest zones [129]. It is also important to note that cassava is a hardy plant, capable of withstanding all kinds of inclemency, to the extent that it has a high tolerance to extreme soil conditions and drought, all of them important attributes for it to be chosen as a circular alternative for the socio-ecological resilience of Cameroon’s native forests and to cope with the climate change being experienced [111,130,131]. Thus, cassava opens the door to a more sustainable use of the local territory through lands that have already been deforested and their soils devastated or impoverished by highly nutrient-demanding crops and by the action of water and wind erosion that occurs when these soils are stripped of their original natural vegetation cover and are practically irrecoverable to their original rich condition, due to the damaging effects on both the structure and quality of the soil [132]. This means that they are often no longer suitable for reforestation with native trees, which require specific nutrients and particular biodiversity [133].

According to Tieguhong et al. [3], production forests in Cameroon are exploited and managed under four models of forest management and partnership arrangements (

Table 4. Production management models in Cameroon and their respective shares [3].

Production Management Model	Share of Total Forests	Type of Partnership
Forest concessions/forest management units	30.64%	Government in partnership with the private timber sector
Community forests	8.04%	Government in partnership with local communities
Council forests	6.71%	Government in partnership with local councils
Sale of standing volumes	1.65%	Government in partnership with the private sector

Source: [3].

). These four production management models cover 47.04% of Cameroon’s forests, representing 23% of the total territory [134]. There are 111 forest management units in Cameroon, covering a total of 7,058,958 ha, where 66% (5,071,000 ha) are managed concessions and 34% (2,393,061 ha) are certified [3,135].

In terms of forest production, efforts are focused on stabilizing the volumes of timber harvested and developing non-timber forest products. In addition, the state promotes projects that consider: (1) the transformation of forestry waste into energy; (2) the application of methods and technologies for the appropriate use of firewood; and (3) the implementation of a development plan for the production of starchy maize and cassava.

It is hoped that through these actions, growing nutritional needs can be met, as well as the development of new productive and industrial niches that will benefit the economy of the country and its regions, while at the same time taking pressure off native forests at all levels.

Cameroon’s strategy for sustainable development and poverty reduction in the future includes increasing agricultural production and the area of land used for this purpose by about 30% compared to 2005, in order to ensure food production, strengthen growth and employment in the agricultural sector, and thus reduce pressure on native forests and their communities [94] (GESP, 2009). This plan is implemented through two main actions: (1) Promoting medium- and large-scale farms by facilitating access to farmland; and (2) Encouraging the creation of groups and institute synergies of family businesses in the form of cooperative societies. The latter with the support of the state, including:

• Access to new production techniques through mechanization and agricultural consultancies.
• Access to agricultural credit with the opening of micro-finance establishments and banks interested in this specialized line of credit.
• Access to markets through improved marketing channels and support for the promotion of Cameroonian agricultural products (such as yucca and maize) on the international market.

The overall plan considers special support for youth development in rural areas of Cameroon and the implementation of development programs related to production in forested areas [94] (GESP, 2009), which would greatly open the doors to sustainable agroforestry, using rather “rustic” crops in terms of nutritional requirements at the soil level, as is the case of the cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz, Euphorbiaceae).

This activity is closely related to the “opportunity cost” [17,136], which means that while cultivating cassava on land that has already been ravaged and almost deserted by erosion, it also prevents further degradation, while at the same time facilitating the conservation of forests that have not yet been invaded by human activity, ensuring that they remain without or with very little human intervention. This is presented with a view to protecting the country’s native primary forests and helping to combat climate change, preserving the atmosphere from large quantities of CO₂ emissions, which is fundamental to achieving the socio-ecological resilience of a forest that is emblematic for the planet. The analysis of all these variables leads us to reflect on cassava as an excellent resource to be considered as a key factor in cross-sustainable development, while raising awareness of the importance of these forests in the ecosystem, not only locally, but globally.

On the other hand, cassava is a very versatile crop, in terms of the multiple planting systems it can support at small, medium, and large scales, making it an important source of employment for local villages that are involved in the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of this plant, which is used for different value-added sub-products in diverse industries [120,137]. Indeed, in addition to feeding the population and its animal production, cassava can also provide economic income through the generation and sale of starch for industrial use from its waste. This industrial starch has an enormous binding capacity, and this is where one of the interests in this research lies, particularly as a specific component in the cement industry, in the relentless pursuit of generating greener and more sustainable concrete production in the medium and long terms [109,138,139]. Thus, the incorporation of starch obtained from cassava residues as a more sustainable input in the manufacture of a more environmentally friendly Portland cement is proposed.

This type of starch contains two categories of macromolecules, called linear amylose and branched amylopectin, which consist of glucose chains [140]. Branched amylopectin accounts for 83% of the carbohydrate content present in cassava roots, while linear amylose occurs in a much smaller percentage, approximately 17% [112]. It is important to bear in mind that the thickening action of starches and their derivatives, as well as their hardness upon solidification, must be analyzed taking into account the relationship between these two macromolecules. The properties of linear amylose are as a thickener, water binder, emulsion stabilizer and gelling agent, while branched amylopectin is the one that constitutes a higher percentage of starch and is highly soluble [112,141].

The ratio of linear amylose to branched amylopectin in cassava yields a starch with higher hardness and strength, which is often used as a biomaterial adjuvant in many industries such as adhesives and in the construction of wood laminates, to provide greater strength in the processing of such laminates, as well as giving them considerable fire resistance. However, the main interest in this research lies in its use in the cement industry, due to its physicochemical characteristics as a binder in concrete when water is added to the mortar, as well as allowing the mixture to considerably lower its temperature during setting [141,142,143,144,145].

This glucose chain (amylose and amylopectin) that makes up cassava starch has been shown to give the cement mix greater strength and flexibility compared to mortars lacking this substance [146,147]. It also improves the durability properties of concrete when exposed to chloride-rich, sulphate-rich, or alkaline environments [140].

The resistance of cement to chemical attack, moisture, abrasion, and other deterioration effects is very important for the life span of the structure in a building. Chemical admixtures are often used to increase the durability of concrete. Examples of such chemicals are non-renewable oil-based products such as polynaphthalene sulphonate (PNS), polycarboxylate (PC) and polyacrylate (PA), and particulate matter (PM), which are not only toxic to health and the environment in general but are also extremely expensive. They all contain formaldehyde, which can have carcinogenic effects on humans [19,141,148,149,150]. Water is another resource that is generally affected with different concentrations of sulphates and toxic metals such as zinc, lead, and chromium, which can even reach groundwater, as well as rivers and lakes [151]. The level of pollution generated by the cement industry is such that, to obtain one ton of cement, the equivalent of 0.8–1 tons of CO₂ is emitted into the atmosphere, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change [152].

Because of this, the use of organic additives such as starch from cassava has strongly emerged as a great eco-sustainable green engineering option. This material is renewable, thus contributing to environmental sustainability, has a good amalgamation capacity due to its high solubility, and confers higher hardness and compressive, tensile, and flexural strength than samples lacking it [19,148,149,153,154,155,156,157,158].

3.2. Empirical Study

The different postulates and interdisciplinary foundations related to sustainable territorial development, addressed in this article from a theoretical perspective, such as governance, institutionalism, critical habitat, the four pillars of sustainability, the curse of natural resources, opportunity costs, as well as the diamond of sustainability, including natural capital and socio-ecological resilience, show a directional convergence with the empirical results obtained in this research [33,61,99,100,104,159,160]. An interesting contribution of this article is that the different variables are addressed for the first time all together to explicitly explain the lack of concrete actions towards local sustainability in the Cameroonian territory.

In this regard, and in order to enrich the discussion based on interviews with 44 stakeholders from sectors directly or indirectly involved in the management, coexistence, and exploitation of the native forest in Cameroon, at least three distinct groups or clusters were identified with different commitments to the sustainability of forest territories. On the one hand, there are the forestry and related companies, together with their certifiers, which make up what we call cluster 1, which have an evidently more economic vision and whose organizational culture seeks to maximize profits and minimize losses, without considering aspects unrelated to this [79,161,162], on the other hand, a second cluster (cluster 2) was formed by local communities, NGOs, and mixed (public/private) partner institutions, which have a greater sensitivity and awareness of the dangers of forest overexploitation and the degradation of biodiversity and soils [14,32,67,163,164,165]. Finally, a third group (cluster 3) is identified, although it is not as decisive due to its intermediate characteristics, made up of banks and the government itself, with views and positions that are both divergent and convergent in relation to the two preceding clusters [87,88].

The interviews revealed that the main objective of 80% of Cameroonian forestry companies is to exploit the forests to the maximum of their capacity, seeking to extract all the resources available to them, in terms of timber, for as long as possible and at the lowest possible cost. This occurs without considering the consequences of their activities, which impact the sustainability of the local territory and its communities in the medium and long term, as they are not concerned with a balance between their development and the extraction capacity of the available natural resources [35], as well as the socio-ecological resilience of the exploited territories [102], given that natural resources are limited despite their abundance, which would justify the natural resource curse theory [99,100,101,160]. This way of acting on the part of forestry companies in their exploitation of allocated forests, even if legal, shows a flagrant lack of ethics, but also and most seriously, it exposes once again the lack of comprehensive public policies to warn of potential abuses by companies and thus put a limit to what is happening in Cameroon with the annual loss of almost 1% of native forests. However, this is very difficult to materialize in the short and medium term because of a very top-down, inefficient, and incompetent governance and institutionality, with bad practices rooted from colonial times [1,34,64,69,70,75,84,166]. However, there are some signs of awareness of the importance of migrating from the current top-down governance system towards a mixed system, including reflexive and arguably even environmental governance [37,64,80,81,82,167,168].

Along the same vein, forestry companies show a worrying lack of commitment to the land they exploit and the communities that live there, hiding behind existing government regulations, many of which are flawed by a certain degree of corruption and social and skill or capacity limitations of those with responsibilities over the various affected communities [64,82,169]. Clearly, the actions of forestry companies are not illegal, as existing regulations for concessions and exploitation of forest territories support them [8]. However, these same authors believe that some international private sector forestry policies may not be the best option for the protection of the Cameroonian forest ecosystem, because they are concentrated in the hands of large forestry corporations to the detriment of small forestry corporations and the communities living there, where community participation in decisions that concern them is essential [68,83]. In doing so, these corporations show a lack of sensitivity and empathy towards the ecosystem and local communities, who are often harmed by their abusive behavior, which, curiously, on many occasions, in turn threatens the future of their own logging business model. The empirical study also shows that local communities understand that forest use is not infinite [100], but at the same time they are aware that they lack self-management and adequate management skills, but are very open to learning. This is an important element, as it is these local communities who mostly know the behavior of the forest and its ecosystem and yet are willing to learn what is necessary about the management and sustainable use of the forest [170,171,172,173,174,175]. On the other hand, 100% of the consulted NGOs recognize the need to increase communication between communities and their abilities to diversify the production of resources, without forgetting the complexity of managing 250 different ethnic groups fragmented by their history, culture, and even languages and dialects [169]. It is important to highlight NGOs, as they are the ones in charge of seeking and delivering a certain balance of dissemination and protection among stakeholders, but particularly among the most vulnerable [164].

These elements lead us to believe that government authorities and the public policies sanctioned by them [165] have failed to require changes in terms of reference for the allocation of exploitable forests to recipient and certifying companies, including the banks in charge of financing such activities. The key here would be to impose stricter conditions that go beyond the rules in force in 2021. It should not be forgotten, however, that Cameroon has the oldest system of forest concessions in Africa and there is what is known as inertia in the work and concession models, making it very difficult to change deeply rooted habits in the social collective [176]. Cameroon exploits its forests under four management models and partnership agreements, where 66% of the territory is managed by managed concessions and 34% by certified concessions. However, it should be noted that there has also been timid progress in the intention to bring about change through the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), signed in 2010 and ratified by Cameroon in 2011 [177], with which, the aim is to reduce, to a certain extent, those who illegally exploit the timber extracted there, considering the sharp decline in the country’s forest cover from 22 to 19 million hectares, mainly due to illegal logging [14]. However, there is a systematic relapse into the vicious cycle of poor institutions and poor-quality governance in the country and human capital is poorly educated to solve this problem, [74,81,178,179].

The results of the empirical study also reveal that certified forestry companies consider that compliance with the law is the best way to protect the environment and thus, they transfer all responsibilities linked to the environment where they operate directly to the State, which must guarantee the formation of communities and the protection of concessioned lands [180,181]. In this regard, it is important to note that the vast majority of forestry companies operating in Cameroon are only interested in maximizing the exploitation of forests they are supported by banks from their economic/financial capital perspective and also have the support of certification companies, but they forget, in this important equation, the natural (or ecological) capital, which is the generator of both natural resource flows and natural services, as suggested by [182]. Likewise, the government becomes practically a mere spectator, relying on the laws that they themselves dictate, which are rarely for the benefit of local communities, but rather in support of large corporations, which intensively exploit, almost to the point of extinction, the concessioned lands, leaving lands razed to the ground [70]. The same author points out that this reality suggests a certain degree of complacency on the part of government authorities, which has been carried over from colonial times and which does not seem to be overly concerned about the consequences that these practices may have for biodiversity, climate change, and the more than 250 local ethnic groups that live there, leading to an imbalance plagued with inequalities between the parties involved [169]. This point is the key, as it leads to the question: What is supposed to be balanced and constant in the sustainable local development of a territory? The answer is clearly geared towards establishing a benefit for future generations that is not resented over time [31,183], which is clearly not met by current logging regulations, where although there is a management regulation for Cameroon’s production forests in partnership, almost 31% is given in concessions and barely 8% are considered community forests [3].

The results also show that communities and NGOs, unlike forestry companies, expect to contribute to the sustainable development of forests and have a more long-term vision of forest exploitation. Regarding the responsibilities for managing sustainable exploitation of Cameroon’s forests, opinions are divided, with 80% of the forestry companies and NGOs interviewed considering that the state (government) has the greatest responsibility for enforcing the logging law, training communities, and developing a program for the sustainable use of natural resources.

However, on the contrary, 100% of the forest-dwelling communities consider that the forestry companies should be responsible for this action, which shows, at a glance, a power struggle between the different conglomerates involved. Meanwhile, 100% of the banks and certifying companies have a much more balanced opinion on the matter and consider that all parties should have a degree of responsibility, according to the degree of exploitation that corresponds to each one. Therefore, a mixed control would be the most appropriate and thus counteract the lack of credibility of the different governments and institutions and seek a balance between the parties [81,178].

On the other hand, 100% of the sample is related to the banking institutions responsible for financing the work of forestry companies, whose main objective is the exploitation of the forest as a purely economic component, while financially supporting the certification of timber companies, so that they can take advantage of the different available forests granted by the Cameroonian government. In this regard, it should be noted that Cameroon took the decision in 2010 to promote sustainable growth in the country, proposing projects with a long-term development vision until 2035. In this context, the “Growth and Employment Strategy Paper”—GESP (2010–2020) was created to promote development, while seeking to reduce poverty levels by taking advantage of the exploitation of the abundant natural resources available [180]. As can be seen from the interviews with these stakeholders (certifiers, forestry companies and banks, governments), the reality shows that there have been no major changes since 2010 despite attempts to change course. There are intentions, but there is a lack of action.

More than 95% of the companies and institutions consulted indicate that certification and law enforcement is the best strategy to care for the environment in the long term, and so far, they have not speculated on any other type of strategy. In general, cluster 1 and 3 stakeholders consulted think that the forest regenerates itself and that this is sufficient for their aspirations to obtain the resources necessary for their livelihoods. When asked about the sustainability protocols applied in their home institution, they indicated that they apply the law and that this seems to them to be sufficient. Therefore, in the institutional framework, governance and transparency are key to decision-making and compliance with existing protection regulations [184]. The biggest problem lies in the fact that those who make up these two conglomerates believe that the forest regenerates itself infinitely and furthermore without taking into consideration the degradation of biodiversity and the soils that support the forest canopy by indiscriminate logging. Unfortunately, we know that the forest does not regenerate by itself, since when it is cut down, the fertile layers of the soil are rapidly degraded, which leads to desertification or loss of yields, which is why forests must be protected, to safeguard the biodiversity that accompanies them, in addition to the fact that they contribute to the local economy by providing multiple inputs and are an important reservoir even for the pharmaceutical industry [1].

At the same time, 60% of the forestry companies consulted consider that any activity carried out by a private company in relation to the protection or improvement of the environment and biodiversity should not only be financed, but should also be the responsibility of the government of the day, with the former avoiding this equation of responsibilities, claiming that they are certified and that they comply with all current regulations and that they are not obliged to make improvements of any kind to the land they have been awarded to exploit. However, the most surprising aspect of this reflection is that 100% of the certifying companies consider that those forestry companies that have been certified contribute to the care of the environment. This is somewhat contradictory to the current exploitation of Cameroon’s forests and the incessant loss of their vegetation cover year after year [99], with an average loss of 4.2% of tree cover annually (adding native and non-native forests), which represents 519 Mt of CO₂ released into the atmosphere and contributes greatly to climate change [13,15]. It follows that the companies responsible for certification claim that certified forestry companies, by the mere fact of being certified, already comply with all the regulations, which from a technical point of view is true, but then the question arises: Does their claim respond to a structural failure of the bidding specifications for concessions based on an inefficient public policy? The answer is clearly yes, due to the deficiency and lightness of the obligations subscribed to in the bidding specifications, which we have addressed in this discussion. Therefore, changing the policies and conditions of concession and use of forest territories is fundamental for a radical change in the way these territories are conserved, and in this regard, the theories of Kjellén [61,62] and Hawkes [159] are powerful tools to consider in this paradigm shift. Another reality may be related to the fact that corporations that exploit forests lack local culture and ancestral attachment to their ecosystem [92,185,186]. Probably for this reason, they do not have an ethical and more ecological view of the impact of their actions. Therefore, they only rely on the weakness of existing policies, without measuring the harmful consequences of their actions on the ecosystem, biodiversity, and the communities that inhabit it, as well as the impact on climate change that such actions could cause in the long term. What is interesting, however, is that the communities and NGOs participating in the study consider that care for the environment is essential to keep logging sustainable in the long term. They appear to have a much greater socio-ecological awareness of the key importance of forest care in maintaining long-term sustainable logging, perhaps underpinned by local knowledge that is critical to the conservation not only of forests, but of biodiversity as a whole [171,175].

Continuing with the empirical results, 100% of timber companies and certifiers responded that they consider the forest to be a renewable resource in its own right. Of all the parties consulted, only the communities (100%) indicated that they are concerned about reforestation. There is a total lack of knowledge among stakeholders about the real regeneration capacity of forests as a non-renewable resource [99,100,101,160].

At the same time, 100% of the forestry companies and certifiers specify that their organizations are top-down and that decisions are taken by a chief or general manager, which brings them much closer to the system of governance prevailing in Cameroon, where it is precisely a top-down system that allows acts of corruption or at least lack of transparency to permeate [70,81]. In contrast, 100% of the communities, partner organizations, and banks consulted state that their decisions are made by an advisory board, which makes them more mixed in nature, and therefore much more transparent in their actions [67].

When stakeholders were consulted on what actions should be taken most urgently in relation to forest care and sustainability, the general response from NGOs, communities, and banks was that a “Mixed Intermediate Organization” should be created, with the participation of the government of the day and the different actors directly and indirectly involved in forest exploitation. This takes us in the direction of mixed and even reflexive governance [76]. For their part, forestry, certification, and related companies did not respond, because they firmly believe that applying the law as it stands, in addition to being certified, is sufficient for the care of the environment and the biodiversity of the natural resources found there. Furthermore, 100% of the consulted NGOs indicated that there is a need to increase communication and develop skills and competencies in communities, eliminate poverty, and decentralize power, which brings us towards what Dries et al. [76] suggest with mixed governance systems that include the environment in decision-making, represented by public and private as well as mixed entities.

In addition, there is a need to improve the quality of education to increase the generation of knowledge suitable for the country’s development. Taking into account this dynamic correlation, the empirical study showed that social, ecological, and territorial vulnerability are intrinsically linked and should be considered as integrated socio-ecological systems, where anthropogenic resilience is considered together with its object (nature) and subject (human activities). These elements are directly related to the so-called “forest use” and “forest dependence” described by Bele et al. [1] in the search for a balance that reduces the poverty of the communities involved and contributes to the country’s development through the good management of available natural resources.

Interestingly, 100% of forestry companies and certifiers consider that the country’s development is based on the creation and good functioning of hospitals and schools, along with the construction of civil works. However, the communities and NGOs consulted indicate that not only are these works necessary, but that it is also essential to educate people and train them to become critically aware of the work they do. Furthermore, these stakeholders indicate that the economic matrix must be diversified, generating new businesses and thus not depending only on what the forest and its biodiversity provide as a natural resource and avoiding in some way the postulate of the curse of natural resources. This is why the alternative of cassava as a value-added engine, generating labor, food and a complement to industries such as cement, is so interesting to consider. These results indicate that there is a need for better educational training and an increase in the welfare of the population [33].

4. Conclusions

The study suggests the use of balanced alternatives for all the parties involved in the large conglomerate, which in our study was represented by the 44 stakeholders interviewed (forestry companies/certifiers; NGOs/communities; and banks/public bodies). From this problematic approach, we sought to answer the two main questions of this research: (1) What would be the best strategy capable of generating sustainable development of Cameroon’s native forests, considering the interaction of very critical aspects such as socio-cultural, economic, agricultural, and institutional and governance aspects? and (2) How could cassava (Manihot esculenta) cultivation boost socio-ecological resilience in Cameroon through a specific opportunity cost, thus enabling the conservation of native forests, sustainable local development, and, at the same time, giving life to an industry as polluting as cement?

All participating stakeholders, regardless of their sector, indicated that they expected the government, through public policies, laws, and mixed institutions, to generate actions for the protection of both native forests and the community dependent on them. However, citizen participation at the governance and decision-making levels is extremely limited. The latter is mainly due to the fact that many people are unaware of their rights and duties as citizens. The ability to organize and build group trust is also limited, which generates verticality in the way people deal with each other, leading to nodes of corruption. Moreover, the lack of education at all levels and the development of basic health and welfare services limits the development of critical thinking among the population. All of this favors governmental verticality in decision-making, and therefore favors some sectors such as large forestry corporations in these decisions.

Interestingly, the empirical study revealed that 100% of the participants indicated that there should be a “Mixed Intermediate Organization”, involving all stakeholders related to the Cameroon forest, including the government of the day. However, without quality basic education, it is impossible to think about the care of the forest and its ecosystems, and even more so to include the thinking of the communities, who in the study proved to be the only ones who have a view of sustainability underpinned by their culture. It is worrying to know that none of the stakeholders interviewed who were responsible for forest exploitation and who were also important actors in making crucial decisions concerning the forest and its communities were aware that the forest is not renewable on its own. The exception was NGOs and indigenous communities, who were concerned about their future and that of the forests and were willing to educate themselves more and better in order to improve their competencies in sustainable management of native forests. However, mistrust and discrimination among the more than 250 ethnic communities and the displacement to which they are often subjected greatly limits their participation in discussions and decision-making. Changing this balance of power and coexistence between local communities is essential to reduce the social gaps between them.

It is essential to highlight the importance of the “opportunity cost” as a management strategy to promote the cassava (Manihot esculenta) as an alternative agro forestry source and as an important agent of change and socio-ecological resilience in Cameroon. This crop not only serves as a staple food for the population and for animal production, but also allows, through its vegetal cover, to protect the soil from erosion and desertification caused by deforestation. At the same time, it offers the opportunity to preserve large extensions of virgin native forests by preventing them from being exploited. Likewise, its waste is also converted into a fundamental input for new green cement engineering, giving it greater robustness and resistance, while eliminating the use of highly polluting products in its manufacture, thus providing sustainable support and a means to foster the development of a most circular economy.

One of the major weaknesses of the study was the relatively small number of stakeholders interviewed. A greater number and diversity would obviously have made the study more robust, not only statistically, but also in terms of a greater diversity of opinions. However, it is not an easy task in Cameroon to bring together people involved in power and willing to participate in critical research because of the costs, distances, and different dialects in this African country.

In future research, it would be very important to obtain a larger and more diversified number of stakeholders (despite the difficulties mentioned above) and to consider three crucial elements. The first would be to analyze the effectiveness of cassava cultivation in the longer term on deforested land and evaluate how this agricultural alternative behaves in the regeneration of eroded soils. The second would be to measure, in the long term, the potential impacts on the opportunity cost explained above, in terms of the positive or negative effects of the use of cassava waste in the cement industry to promote at the same time a permanent circular economy. The third would be to analyze in the medium and long term how the native forests behave by removing the pressure of overexploitation that exists on them today by dissuading the communities towards the agricultural alternative of cassava.