Verina Ingram

The objective of this study was the chemical analysis of four selected samples of African propolis (Congo and Cameroon) and their biological evaluation. Twenty-one secondary metabolites belonging to four different chemical groups were isolated from the 70% ethanolic extracts of propolis and their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectral evidence. Three triterpenes and two diprenyl-flavonoids were identified from Congo propolis, which has been investigated for the first time, while thirteen triterpenes, three diprenyl-flavonoids, two monoterpenic alcohols and one fatty acid ester have been identified from Cameroon propolis samples. To our knowledge, the identified diprenyl-flavonoids, as well as five of the isolated and determined triterpenes, are reported for the first time in propolis. Moreover, the total polyphenol content was estimated in all extracts and the antimicrobial activities of all four extracts were studied against six Gram-positive and -negative bacteria and...

As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation’s activities in order to secure and guarantee their access to land and labor resources. Certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and adherence to responsible investment guidelines further strengthen this likelihood by requiring plantations to consult and engage local communities. Using household data from Tanzania, we assess households’ experiences with their participation in plantation activities by comparing the experiences of households in villages adjacent to private, FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to a non-certified, state-owned plantation. Our quantitative analyses show that households in the vi...

Dutch stakeholders join forces to improve sustainability in coffee and cocoa sector: In 2010, a range of public and private actors, civil society organisations, research organisations and stakeholders in the cocoa and coffee sectors signed letters of intent aimed at increasing the sustainability of imports into the Netherlands. The goal was to ensure that 50% of the beans used in cocoa products and 75% of coffee beans would be certified as sustainable by 2015. A complex challenge. These goals were not set lightly and no one underestimated the challenge ahead. The cocoa and coffee chains are characterised by a large volume of beans supplied by many small producers in developing countries. The sheer number of suppliers involved and the difficulties involved in certifying the beans bought from these smallholder farmers mean that improving sustainability in the coffee and cocoa sectors is a complex matter. To certify the sustainability of the sector, we must have knowledge about how the technical aspects of the chain – traceability, management & control and chain configurations – affect sustainability. As sustainability is strongly linked to productivity and the use of agricultural inputs, particularly fertilisers and water, many of the voluntary sustainability standards aim to improve productivity and the efficiency of input use. Action-oriented research: More research was clearly needed in order to gain a better insight into more effective and efficient ways of improving the sustainability of cocoa and coffee beans. In 2012 Wageningen University & Research took the lead in the design, coordination and implementation of an action-oriented research programme. The aim was to support the stakeholders united around the two letters of intent in reaching their goal of a significant rise in sustainable coffee and cocoa consumption in the Netherlands by 2015. This project was made possible by the financial support of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, which gave a strong signal of support for both the research concept and the goal of the letters of intent. Wageningen University & Research worked with partners from organisations directly involved in the initiatives – the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and indirectly the ISEAL Alliance, UTZ Certified, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, the DE Foundation and the Royal Dutch Coffee and Tea Association – as well as other research institutes, most notably the Royal Tropical Institute (IT) and CIRAD, the French agricultural research centre. Innovative efforts: Under the umbrella of the Dutch government’s innovative ‘Top Sector’ policy, the project ‘Improving the sustainability of Dutch cocoa and coffee imports: Synergy between practice, policy and knowledge’ was ran from 2012 to 2015. Scientists, business experts, government agencies and support partners spent four years deploying action-oriented research to improve the sustainability of cocoa and coffee imports to the Netherlands. The project addressed knowledge needs in relation to impact assessment, the upscaling of services delivered to farmers, knowledge sharing and information systems. Below we indicate several key results, with more being explored later in this document: •Supporting the development and implementation of impact assessment in monitoring and evaluation. Examples are our contributions to the Living Wage Income Methodology and a study on the role of training in enhancing sustainable coffee production in Vietnam. • Creating models to upscale service delivery for sustainable coffee and cocoa. This article on upscaling services to cocoa and coffee farmers is an excellent example. • Facilitating the embedding and consolidation of strategic research in publicprivate partnerships. KIT and Wageningen University & Research contributed to Cocoa CONNECT, the knowledge portal for sustainable cocoa and we helped design a strategic research agenda. • Contributing to information systems for credible, transparent and evidence based impact reporting. Wageningen University & Research gave important input to the ISO-CEN-NEN Sustainable Cocoa Standard and monitoring the Dutch letters of intent for coffee and cocoa http://www.wur.nl/upload_mm/9/1/d/e4ec0b29-4362-410e-9a93-54c57db5da29_2016-048%20Rijn_final.pdf

... her doctorate, agreeing with the team that PAR represented a valuable learning framework for ... These forests, however, are threatened by a combination of climate change, ie, increasing ... This marked an important milestone in the consolidation of relations between Guiding Hope ...

ABSTRACT Community forestry (CF) was introduced in Cameroon in 1994 as a way to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable forest management. CF activities have primarily focused on timber exploitation rather than non-timber forest product (NTFP) collection, processing or marketing. This study reports on a two year participatory action research project that aimed to test ways of increasing access to income from NTFPs for women and people of the Baka ethnic group in nine CFs around Lomié, East Cameroon. After a participatory diagnosis of problems and stakeholders harvesting NTFPs, approaches to enhance processing, packaging, marketing, monitoring and data collection were evaluated. This led to the development of a market information system that aimed to balance supply and demand by providing information lines on market prices between buyers and sellers. Training support was provided for sustainable harvesting, and to aid harvesters to negotiate prices. This led to 100% price increase in group sales; an increase in selling prices by 39% and an increased sales volume of six NTFPs: Irvingia gabonensis, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Pentacletra macrophylla, Baillonela toxisperma, Tetrapleura tetraptera, Pleurotus tuber-regium resulting in a sales revenue increase of 210% (to € 72,500) between 2010 and 2012. In a context where logging is restricted to men, supporting access to NTFP markets has led to increased income for women and Baka. These results suggest that support to sustainably harvest and market NTFPs can aid development and access to markets for women and minority ethnic groups. The implications for the revision of the law on small scale commercialization, and the ability of the CFs to continue this system without support from development NGOs are discussed.

ABSTRACT Sustainably developing the apiculture sector in Cameroon actually requires little investment. Cameroon has an ideal natural environment for beekeeping, and using traditional and adapted methods can produce superb, high quality, large quantities of honey with relatively low pro-duction costs. • Quality standards for honey, adapted to the Cameroonian sector, are needed, to assure good prices, and a quality that ensures consumer and buyer confidence. By-products (can-dles, wine, cream, etc.) currently produced are often of basic and variable quality and crudely marketed, making it difficult to compete with more sophisticated and manufac-tured products on a price–quality basis. There is however expertise readily available in Cameroon on production techniques and training services for beekeepers (listed in the right panel) that can provide solutions to these issues. • Marketing as a group. Individual producers harvest honey in quantities often too small to create economies of scale that permit producers to charge lower prices. Working as a group can overcome these disadvantages but requires business expertise and well-organised producers. Working in groups can also increase the scale of production, particularly for pro-cessing and selling the by-products and adding significant extra value to hive harvests, es-pecially for wax. Processing adds more value and provides locally demanded products with a ready market (candles, soaps, creams etc). • Most packaging is unsatisfactory; the majority of honey containers are re-used bottles or inadequate plastic containers. There are, however, some innovations (for example mini plastic sachets and new labelling). The Netherlands development agency SNV has started an initiative to produce on a large scale a specially designed bottle for the honey sector in Cameroon.

ABSTRACT Special Issue: Enhancing forest governance for development http://www.etfrn.org/index.php?id=39 Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that improving forest governance is an important prerequisite for sustainable forest management and reducing deforestation and forest degradation. Making governance work better for people and forests is not an easy task. Divergent interests, imbalanced power relations and unequal access to information, decision-making, resources and benefits all contribute to this challenge. The 29 articles in this issue of ETFRN News showcase a rich diversity of examples of how forest governance has been addressed in various settings. The issue brings together experiences from a wide range of forest governance reform initiatives. Some relate to new lessons from well-established approaches to forest governance reform, such as community forestry; others relate to more recently developed initiatives, such as FLEGT. The articles show that international instruments — such as Voluntary Partnership Agreements, forest certification and more recently, REDD+ — are important drivers to address governance in the forest sector. Experiences described in the articles demonstrate that forest governance challenges do not have "one-size-fits-all" solutions. They also show that regardless of the entry point to initiate forest governance reform, there is always a set of underlying inter-related governance issues. Therefore, an integrated process approach is essential to successfully address forest governance reform. The participatory processes of "good" forest governance create the capacity for continuous learning and enhance the ability to adapt to lessons learned. The articles reveal that transparency, communication and access to information, and multi-stakeholder engagement in deliberative processes, particularly the meaningful participation of disadvantaged groups, are essential ingredients in moving forward with forest governance.

"Value chains of products – from the forest in Cameroon that move through harvesters, processors, traders and retailers to consumers worldwide - operate in very dynamic, changing and complex settings. Alongside legal pluralism, messy with overlapping and multiple layers of institutions, the configurations of which have changed over time, there are voids where no institutions govern certain practices of access to resources and markets and the chains themselves. Some actors, notably NGOs, project-related and market-based actors, fulfil roles normally the reserve of the state. In other chains the state performs it duties, in others not, and customary authorities, projects, civil society and voluntary govern. This incongruence makes it difficult to entangle how the bricolage impacts livelihoods and the how fine the bricolaged arrangements and institutions are in positively impacting sustainable livelihoods. This context seems unlikely to be smoothed into a mono-governance system anytime in the near future. This is evidenced by the chequered history of different governance arrangements and slow rate of land and regulatory reforms, the still firm grasp of customary governance in some areas, the insidiousness of corruption and the increasing influence of new economic, cognitive and social institutions. Thus, for actors in forest product value chains, it seems that they are forced to stay, and become even more adept bricoleurs. They make the best of the arrangements in which they both find themselves, and creatively use capitals available, building on natural capital to construct new governance arrangements and/or remould existing ones aiming to meet their current objectives, circumstances and livelihoods. This situation reflects notions of institutional bricolage: the dynamic and multiple identities of the bricoleurs and multi-purpose institutional arrangements and the crafting arrangements which advance livelihoods, individually and collectively. It also reflects productive bricolage with its focus on livelihoods as the flexible and dynamic crafting of livelihood options and associated impacts on landscapes. This paper aims to disentangle the “fine mess” by introducing and characterising the different forest product governance arrangements and institutions. It will examine the impacts of how they interact and their combined impacts on the sustainable livelihoods of those involved in the value chains. The challenges and opportunities for development and conservation policy will be addressed, using examples of successes and failures. "

This document reports on the development of a prototype Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) called Kusheh, na minem Fatu, en mi na koko farmer (“Hello, I am Fatu and I am a cocoa farmer”). The DFFS provides an ICT-based alternative to traditional agricultural extension. More specifically, it offers a tablet-based substitute for the face-to-face certification training for cocoa farmers in Sierra Leone. The fact that gatherings of more than five people at a time were not allowed as a consequence of the Ebola outbreak triggered the development of the digital alternative to group training for cocoa farmers. In 2014, FairMatch Support, a developer of sustainable supply chains, contacted the Wageningen UR Science Shop. Because of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, FairMatch Support wanted to explore alternatives for the conventional certification training for cocoa farmers. Jula, a local business development service in cocoa development, is a partner of FairMatch Support in Sierra Leone and, in cooperation with the research group Knowledge, Technology and Innovation of Wageningen University, responsible for the testing of the prototype DFFS. The report describes the design of the first prototype and its testing, which took place in Kailahun and Kenema districts in Sierra Leone, January 2016. During the testing, the DFFS and its specific Farmer Field School-based learning strategy was received very positively by the cocoa farmers and other value chain actors. Farmers, male and female, young and old, expressed a keen interest and a high level of motivation and ability to use the DFFS. The DFFS appeared to be culturally and technologically appropriate and aligned with operational and strategic communication skills. A promising sign is that farmers can use all the functions that are available on the tablet, which include making real-time phone calls about farms issues to the trainers in the back office. The narrative structure with Fatu, a female cocoa farmer as principal character, seems to be a valuable contributory factor enhancing farmers’ motivation. The development and testing of the prototype leads us to conclude that the DFFS creates new opportunities for knowledge creation and exchange. A particular strength of the DFFS is that it enhances the position of both female and male farmers as regards playing a more autonomous role, and that training can be highly adapted to their needs. Some elements of the DFFS have potential for stand-alone use: the films and the regular interactions between the farmers and the back office through the tablet. It is recommended that an affordable, intuitive design be further developed and iteratively tested, making creative use of available resources. This report and all films on the prototype are available at the project website of the Wageningen UR, Science Shop, http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/project/A-digital-farmer-field-school.htm. Also watch the film ''Cocoa Training in Times of Ebola, Sunday Morning Reflections of Mohamed Fofanah'' available on the same website.

ABSTRACT roduits forestiers non ligneux se referent au quotidien dans les maisons et sur les marches a travers le bassin du congo. Comme c'est le cas dans d'autres forests tropicales de par le monde, il existe un paradoxe a propos de ces produits: malgre leur importance et leur utilisation quotidienne, on dispose de tres peu d'informations sur leur valeur ecologique et socio-economique, ce qui en gene le suivi, la reglementation et la gestion. L'expresion chains de valeur aide a comprendre la succession des activites depuis l'extraction d'un produit de la foret, sa transformation et sa production, jusqu a sa livraison aux consommateurs finaux et finalement sa mise au rebut. L'analyse d'une chaine de valeur est un cadre economique, social et environmental. Elle a pour but d'aider a comprendre comment et ou les entreprises et les institutions sont positionnes sur les chaines de valeur et, d'identifier les opportunites et les eventuels moyens de pression pouvant les aider a s'ameliorer. cette analyse englobe les nations d'organisation, de coordination, d'equite, de rapports de pouvoir, de relations et de gouvernance entre les organisations et les acteurs. il sera necessaire a l'avenir de renforcer les liens entre les chercheurs, les decideurs politiques et les acteurs de la chaine de valeur des PFNL afin que les premiers puissent informer les autres sur les resultats de leurs etudes. Il sera egalement utile d'entretenir un debat dans le but de creer un consensus parmi les acteurs des chaines de valeur (exploitant, commercants, organisme de regulation, consommateurs) sur le principle des PFNL prioritaires au moyen d'une approche holistique aux niveaux national et regional

"Value chains of products – from the forest in Cameroon that move through harvesters, processors, traders and retailers to consumers worldwide - operate in very dynamic, changing and complex settings. Alongside legal pluralism, messy with overlapping and multiple layers of institutions, the configurations of which have changed over time, there are voids where no institutions govern certain practices of access to resources and markets and the chains themselves. Some actors, notably NGOs, project-related and market-based actors, fulfil roles normally the reserve of the state. In other chains the state performs it duties, in others not, and customary authorities, projects, civil society and voluntary govern. This incongruence makes it difficult to entangle how the bricolage impacts livelihoods and the how fine the bricolaged arrangements and institutions are in positively impacting sustainable livelihoods. This context seems unlikely to be smoothed into a mono-governance system anytime in the near future. This is evidenced by the chequered history of different governance arrangements and slow rate of land and regulatory reforms, the still firm grasp of customary governance in some areas, the insidiousness of corruption and the increasing influence of new economic, cognitive and social institutions. Thus, for actors in forest product value chains, it seems that they are forced to stay, and become even more adept bricoleurs. They make the best of the arrangements in which they both find themselves, and creatively use capitals available, building on natural capital to construct new governance arrangements and/or remould existing ones aiming to meet their current objectives, circumstances and livelihoods. This situation reflects notions of institutional bricolage: the dynamic and multiple identities of the bricoleurs and multi-purpose institutional arrangements and the crafting arrangements which advance livelihoods, individually and collectively. It also reflects productive bricolage with its focus on livelihoods as the flexible and dynamic crafting of livelihood options and associated impacts on landscapes. This paper aims to disentangle the “fine mess” by introducing and characterising the different forest product governance arrangements and institutions. It will examine the impacts of how they interact and their combined impacts on the sustainable livelihoods of those involved in the value chains. The challenges and opportunities for development and conservation policy will be addressed, using examples of successes and failures. "

Page 1. This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. ...

â–º A steady-state model for predicting carbon emissions in domestic buildings is presented, the Tarbase Domestic Model. â–º A facility to account for energy-saving refurbishments in dwellings is included for guidance towards large-scale retrofits. â–º A discussion of the limitations of steady-state modelling is provided, clarifying how and when such models should be used. â–º The model is applied to

Prunus africana, known as pygeum and locally as kanda stick, alumty (Nkwen), wotango (Bakweri), ebla (Oku), kira (Lamnso), mueri (Ken), elouo (Kom) and bi’beh’kemb’oh’ (Fulfulde), is a tall, slow-growing evergreen tree whose timber and non-timber products have multiple uses for rural communities and urban populations. It has thick leaves with red coloured stalks, dark-brown to grey bark, creamy white flowers and fruit resembling a cherry when ripe, which is eaten by monkeys, birds and squirrels.

au bien-être Dans le nord-ouest, l'apiculture n'est pas la principale source de revenus, mais beaucoup d'api-culteurs la voient comme une grande source secondaire de revenus du ménage. Le revenu des activités d'apiculture contribue de 10 % à 70 % au revenu annuel total, une moyenne de 30 %, et plus de 80 % doivent entre 30 à 60 % de leur revenu annuel à l'apiculture. Dans l'Ada-maoua, l'apiculture est traditionnellement géré par un individu ou une famille, mais pas comme activité collective. Une moyenne de 68 % de ménages dans le Djerem est impliquée dans l'api-culture, et pour 55 %, c'est leur principale activité génératrice de revenus, soit près de 48 % du revenu total du ménage. Le caractère saisonnier (certaines années 2 récoltes sont possibles), ainsi que de grandes variations de floraison (il y a alternance de bonnes et mauvaises années de production dans les forêts de savane et montagnes), et les changements climatiques in-fluent sur le ren...

Eru has multiple uses for forest-based and rural communities and urban populations. It is one of the highest value non-timber forest products traded in and from Cameroon. When ecological, legal, economic and social aspects are taken into account, the chain from harvester to consumer can be more effective, sustainable and profitable.

En RDC, le Fumbwa est généralement disposé en bottes ou paquets pour la vente en gros et en tas pour la vente au détail. Dans la ville de Kinshasa, le prix de vente moyen d'une botte est de 662 F CFA (0,90 $ US) au détail et 255 F CFA (0,35 $ US) en gros. Dans la Province de l'Équateur, le prix au détail est stable, il est de 100 F CFA par botte (0,14 $ US). A l'Équateur, le prix moyen de vente en gros est de 77 F CFA (0,10 $ US). Cette petite différence de prix entre le détail et le gros dans l'Équateur est due au fait que les vendeurs sont tous connectés aux ex-péditeurs de Kinshasa. Pour ce qui est de Kinshasa, les détaillants re-çoivent une marge mensuelle d'environ 157 000 F CFA (220 $ US) alors que les grossistes reçoivent environ 89 000 F CFA (125 $ US). En re-vanche à l'Équateur, les marges nettes par an des grossistes est de 123 034 F CFA soit une marge mensuelle de 20 468,66 F CFA (28,82 $ US). Qui contrôle la filière Fumbwa ? Les acteurs de la fili...

Ndo’o, also known as wild mango or bush mango, is a non-timber forest product used across Central Africa, especially in Cameroon. The tree has multiple uses: It is a hard wood, a nutritional source of protein and the bark and kernel have medicinal uses. Bush mango provides incomes for actors along the market chain from harvester to consumer. It is increasingly used in America and Europe as a weight-loss aid and a health supplement. Its rich oil is used in cosmetics.

Le ndo’o ou mangue sauvage (ou encore Bush mango en anglais) est l’un des produits forestiers non ligneux les plus prisés en Afrique centrale en général et au Cameroun en particulier. Il constitue une source majeure de protéines végétales et de revenus pour les différents acteurs impliqués dans la filière.

La terre est la vraie richesse de l’Afrique subsaharienne (ASS). Ce co ntinent est caractérisé par une très grande diversité d’écosystèmes naturels, qui hébergent des ressources telles que les sols, la végétation, l’eau et la diversité g énétique. Ces éléments constituent la principale richesse naturelle de la région. Ils doivent être pérennisés afin que les populations africaines –qui en tirent leur nourriture, l’eau, le bois, les fibres, les produits industriels et les fonctions et services des écosystèmes – puissent continuer à y vivre. Dans le même temps, la terre fournit directement les moyens d’existence à 60 pour cent des personnes, au travers de l’agriculture, de la pêche en eau douce, de la foresterie et d’autres ressources naturelles (FAO 2004). Mais la surexploitation menace sérieusement les ressources en terre et en eau dans quelques régions, bien que la disponibilité de ces ressources y soit l’une des plus élevée sur terre. C’est la conséquence directe des besoins crois...

Land is the true of wealth of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The region is characterized by a very rich diversity of natural ecosystem resources, including soils, vegetation, water and genetic diversity. Together, these constitute the region’s main natural capital. It is from these assets that the provision of food, water, wood, fibre and industrial products, and essential ecosystem services and functions are derived. And they must be maintained in order to support African populations into the future. Simultaneously, it is from the land that 60 percent of the people directly derive their livelihoods - from agriculture, freshwater fisheries, forestry and other natural resources (FAO 2004). However, African land and water resources in some areas are seriously threatened through overuse although per capita availability is one of the highest in the world. This is a direct result of the increasing needs of a growing population, combined, often, with inappropriate land management practices. Th...

ABSTRACT Non-timber forest products (NTFP) comprise a diversity of natural resources that support livelihoods of those along the chain from harvester to traders. The Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) recognises the importance of NTFPs in alleviating poverty and conserving biodiversity and has proposed directives to aid member states to implement appropriate regulations. Data on the regulations governing the chain and its impacts were collected from literature, 12 small and medium enterprises trading an NTFP known as okok (Gnetum spp.) from the production forests to the port of export in Cameroon, and workshops. Laws were bureaucratically, arbitrarily and weakly implemented and enforced. Of 18,368 financial transactions recorded, 81% were bribes, comprising 34% of trader's costs. Corruption in the permit system further creates high transaction costs, negative environmental impacts due to illegal and over-exploitation, and reduces government revenues. The regulatory framework does not promote an enabling business environment. Improvements in governance are imperative if the economic impact upon the livelihoods of thousands of people in the chain is to be maintained and enhanced to ensure sustainable trade. Recommendations to improve the sector in Cameroon include revisions in the regulatory framework and its implementation to increase transparency and counter corruption. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934115300332

basis van hoogwaardigheid, efficiëntie, duurzaamheid en investeerbaarheid Douwe-Frits Broens en Verina Ingram Met medewerking van: Johan Sanders (AFSG Wageningen UR) Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd in opdracht van het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu. LEI Wageningen UR Wageningen, maart 2014 LEI 14-010