Abstract
The environment in sub-Saharan Africa presents a precarious situation. Although the subcontinent is blessed with vast natural resources, these resources are under constant threat of decline and dissipation, with dire implications for human survival, the ecosystem, and environmental and social development. The emergence of environmental NGOs in Africa followed the liberal participation of NGOs in development practice in the developing countries, especially since the democratization era of the 1990s (p. 2). Markham and Fonjong’s text examines the roles, organizational structures, and the challenges of environmental NGOs in Cameroon (p. 1). The authors rightly justify the research in that whereas there are numerous works on environmental NGOs, ‘most have little, if anything to say about the operations of these NGOs in individual countries’(p. 2). The researchers selected Cameroon as special case study because of its location ‘at the geographic intersection of West and Central Africa’ (p. 5), its Francophone and Anglophone heritage, and its status as ‘Africa in miniature . . . [containing] examples of most of sub-Saharan Africa’s ecosystem types and ranks near the top in biodiversity’ (p. 5).
There are three categories of environmental NGOs in Cameroon. Markham and Fonjong identify them as International NGOs, Type I NGOs (local, but well-funded through affiliations or close relationships with international organizations), and Type II (local, but with little or no funding; pp. 6–7, 182–187). The study adopted an empirical approach, aimed at arriving at valid, reliable, and possibly generalizable results. The authors, however, present various theories including interest group theory, social movement theory, new social movement theory, theories of political opportunity structure, and theories of civil society (pp. 13–37) without integrating them into a proper framework that would provide a definite ideological or paradigmatic focus for the study. In the end, the supposed ‘theoretical framework’ amounts to a mere theoretical review with little or no guiding relevance for the research. Data were collected through interviews with the heads of 52 environmental NGOs in Cameroon. Lacking definite information and secondary data on the number of environmental NGOs operating in Cameroon, the researchers engaged a painstaking, but purposive, process of selecting samples based on their ‘legal status, size, resources, goals, and location within the country’ (p. 41). Hence, the sample included NGOs that are involved in activities across diverse biomes and in the different regions of Cameroon including the Centre Region, the Littoral Region, the South-West Region, the Far-North Region and the East Region (pp. 41–43). The book details the geography, topography, and environmental problems of Cameroon as well as the country’s political, economic, and social challenges, which put the operations of environmental NGOs in precarious contexts (pp. 49–87).
Just as the case in many developing nations, many proprietors and leaders of (especially local) NGOs founded their organizations partly due to deplorable economic situations and joblessness, especially since the era of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in the late 1980s and the 1990s. In fact, an interviewee reported that the NGO he works for ‘was founded by 12 former government employees who thought their advancement chances and opportunities working for government were low’ (pp. 91–92). The authors further note that ‘In several cases, groups of university friends had come together after graduation to found an NGO. For example, one group, which focused on encouraging urban gardening, was founded by a group of idealistic college graduates who had been unable to find employment’ (p. 92). Hence, a primary objective of the founding of NGOs for many local founders is the economic survival of the proprietors and their dependents, and not necessarily the need for environmental protection, which is secondary. In consequence, founders and/or proprietors often hold on to the control of their NGOs perpetually, and populate NGO governing boards with their friends, families, and trusted staff (p. 90). This breeds corruption and NGO leaders are often accused of misappropriating funds and siphoning off money for personal benefit (p. 121). They are like operators in an ‘informal economy, where management is informal, formal accounting is uncommon, personal and business funds are not always clearly segregated, and use of available financial resources to maintain patronage arrangements is common’ (p. 123).
Funding is a major challenge, especially for the Type I and Type II NGOs (pp. 6, 120). Just as is the case in many other developing nations, people are barely educated and not inclined to donate to NGOs (pp. 120–121). The NGOs are largely deemed benevolent givers who provide for the vulnerable, and the recipients hardly ask how and where NGOs get their funds. NGOs receive hardly any funds and/or consultancy from the government of Cameroon. Hence, they seek funding from international organizations. Access to funding therefore is a very competitive process, especially with many local NGOs lacking transparent administrative and budgetary procedures. The international environmental NGOs therefore stand a better chance of accessing funds than their local counterparts because of their pedigrees, research and intervention histories, administrative and budgetary transparency, and connections with parent and/or partner NGOs in developed countries. The few local NGOs that can access funds are influenced by the goals or research and intervention focus of funders and, as a result, local NGOs change their foci and goals depending on the availability of funds from international agencies and governments (pp. 131–136). The relationship with governments and local communities are not ‘hiccup’ free. Cameroon’s sociopolitical environment, with an autocratic ‘democracy,’ is not an environment conducive to criticizing the government without backlash, ranging from the withholding and withdrawal of essential approvals and licenses, harassment by security agents, and threats of repatriation of expatriates working with NGOs (pp. 156–157). Because they require government approval to remain in place, environmental NGOs in Cameroon are not entirely free from government influences (p. 150), hence they strive to maintain good relationships with government (p. 149) while battling the challenges of corruption, delayed approval for projects, and backlash from the government for known and unknown infractions arising from projects and advocacies that may be critical to official conventions or comfort (pp. 156–157). Furthermore, Markham and Fonjong report that NGOs’ relationships with local communities are relatively good; however, these relationships are sometimes punctured by local resistance to projects, corruption, factionalism, and suspicion, among other challenges, with debilitating implications for project success (pp. 161–174).
Despite its theoretical shortcomings, Markham and Fonjong’s book is a classic empirical contribution, especially to the study of the social dimensions of environmental conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. Its spectacular detailing of the contributions and challenges of international and local environmental NGOs is an empirical eye-opener, which shows that due to challenges of funding, lack of transparency by NGO administrators and leaders, and frosty relationships with and restrictions from government, environmental NGOs are inhibited from optimally achieving their primary goal of environmental preservation. Hence, the environment in sub-Saharan Africa remains under constant threat.