Community forests as social enterprises – pathways to achieving local development in Cameroon

Social enterprises can be defined as non-profit making organizations that conduct business activities and are expected to generate profits that can be reinvested back into the local community to fund social and environmental causes. In Cameroon, community forests (CFs) are legal entities that are expected to generate profits which are then ploughed back to fund social development projects in their communities. Therefore, they could also be described as social enterprises. However, CFs in the country neither operate as social enterprises nor benefit the communities for several reasons.