ABSTRACT
Cameroon is generally seen as a country with abundant natural resources, especially with its dense rain forest covering around 17.5 million hectares. The deforestation rate is estimated at around 0.9 per cent per year, with an annual loss of roughly 220,000ha over the last decade. In spite of the range of resources, however, most Cameroonians are impoverished. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report on Human Development, Cameroon is ranked 142nd, at the very beginning of the low human development countries category. Three indicators are given to justify this ranking: life expectancy, 48 years; adult literacy rate, 72.4 per cent; gross domestic product per inhabitant, US$559. The situation is all the more worrying in that the UNDP index has decreased over the last decade, mainly because of the negative evolution of the gross domestic product per inhabitant ratio of around −0.6 per cent per year.
