In many tropical landscapes, activities such as agriculture, mining, forestry and biodiversity conservation compete for space amongst each other and with other land uses. The Tri-national Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) area, covering almost 20 million ha in adjacent areas in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon, presents a good example. It is an area of high biological and cultural diversity; and with its important mineral deposits, the region faces major developments in the near future. The three countries have committed to cooperate in managing this landscape for conservation, rational use of natural resources and sustainable development. This requires integrated and participatory spatial planning that considers all interests in the area. In Cameroon, TRIDOM is seen as a pilot area for a national land use zoning process.
In this context, Tropenbos International Cameroon publishes a study of the Cameroonian part of TRIDOM that presents an overview of the economic, ecological and social situation in the area. The study compiles all available data and information gathered in this area over more than 20 years, and presents it in a harmonised way in maps and tables. The information covers environment, infrastructure, hydrology, energy, population, forestry, mining, agriculture and biodiversity and is expected to provide a baseline against which to conduct the zoning process and to assess the impacts of landscape developments in the area.

This study was commissioned by a range of organisations collaborating in the TRIDOM Platform, including World Bank, GIZ, the project TRIDOM MINFOF / UNOPS / GEF, Tropenbos International, IUCN, UNESCO, and WWF. It was implemented by the University of Yaoundé I.

For a high resolution version (17MB)of the document, please send an e-mail to: juanita.franco@tropenbos.org