DRYAD: Financing Sustainable community forest enterprises in Cameroon

Community forestry in Cameroon faces many challenges, amongst which include access to finance. Better access to finance can catalyze viable and sustainable enterprise around forest products and services for the benefit of forest communities. Hence the Dryad project, a five-year FCDO funded Initiative.

Project Goal:

To enhance viable community forest enterprises (CFE) with sustainable livelihoods and environmental benefits through performance-based public finance and support mechanisms.

Objectives:

Well-established and sustainable CFEs with viable business cases and sufficient skills to manage and maintain community forest land.

Communities derive economic, social and environmental improvement as a result of Dryad funding that benefit community members equitablyTowards this goal and objectives, DRYAD will channel public funding to CFEs that can demonstrate sustainable impact environmentally, economically and socially. The project targets to reach 25-30 CFEs covering a maximum of 150 000 ha of forestland over a period of five (5) years.