Patrice André Pa’ ah CAFT/ GACF Caft.cameroun@gmail.comm Presentation for the conference on Taking stock of smallholders and community forestry Montpellier France March 24-26, 2010

1. Rights of Communities Confronted with Exclusive Mining Zones: The Case of Communities Neighboring the Mbalam Iron-Ore Bed in the Ngolya Region By Patrice André Pa’ ah CAFT/ GACF Caft.cameroun@gmail.comm

2. Location of the transborder mining zone (Cameroon, Congo and Gabon) From 1994 to 2004 the whole Congo Basin zone was focused on conservation of wildlife and forest resources; Creation and identification of critical ecology zones “zones à écologie critique » by USAID/CARPE (Ex: TRIDOM) Since 2005, the local debate is changing and getting polarized on substantial State mining projects

3. Mining Zones in the “TRIDOM” CAMEROUN Cobalt and Nickel project exploitation of Nkamouna (Lomié) Iron exploitation project of Mbalam (Ngoyla)

4. REAL THREATS ON THE FORESTS AND FAUNA There will be the disappearance of the forests and fauna of the strip/ open-cast mining exploitation Serious threats on traditional and customary activities of local communities living in the mining areas

5. SERIOUS NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON UNDERGROUND AND SURFACE WATER The only water tower of the area will be affected by the iron exploitation There will be disappearance of the river where the water tower rise in Emergence of new transboundary conflicts from shared water among countries

7. Inability to establish community forests and, as a result, the inability to plan for future use of communities’ forest resources

8. Lack of boundary lines and unclear borders between Cameroon, Congo and Gabon

9. Potential negative impacts for communities in the three countries as regards surface water quality during the upcoming open-air iron-ore mining project