In the forest communities of Africa, a division of labour has long been clear among men and women. Women have typically been in charge of feeding the family through food crops cultivation with their diet completed with non-timber forest product (NTFP) collection, while the men helped to clear the food crop plots and concentrated more on cash crop cultivation and hunting. NTFP gathering and food crop cultivation were mainly for domestic use. But gone are those days! Nowadays, the opening up of remote areas, better access to urban markets and new opportunities of income have motivated women as well as men in forest communities to be actively involved in the sale of NTFPs and agricultural products in order to make more money.

“Unlike in the past, one can say things are improving for the best for the rural woman” says Mr Kira TONGO Boniface, a Bantou native from Petit-Pol village in the East Region of Cameroon, during a gender-segregated focus group discussion (FGD) in his community. He claims there are so many activities – agriculture, NTFP gathering, etc. – the rural woman is involved in presently, which provide her with daily income to sustain her family. Is this really the case?

Interestingly, information obtained through gender-segregated FGDs showed that men and women have a similar access to NTFPs in the wild, with restrictions occurring only on plots of land under cultivation or in fallows, where in general the land owner and his or her close relatives have exclusive access to these products. However, the men and women who participated in the discussions expressed having different preferences for forest products.  The women take more interest in NTFPs such as Bush mango, for which they are the primary gatherers, processors and sellers. Fewer men are involved in this activity. Those involved say they do to raise income when they are in dire need for money while some do it as a form of assistance to their wives when they are out of activities. Men are much more actively involved in other forest-related activities such as bush meat hunting and small-scale logging.

Nowadays, NTFPs are more valued because the revenue they provide is becoming increasingly important to rural communities. But then, some hindrances – the seasonal nature and unpredictable productivity of NTFPs, lack of experience by traders, limited access to processing technologies, poor marketing strategies and inadequate market information, etc. – arise! This weighs on the amount of income realised from NTFP sales.

“Though NTFP gathering and sale are important and profitable to some extent, we cannot rely solely on them for our survival”, says Madam Ndimba, a Bulu native from Metylkpwale village in the South Region of Cameroon. “We can’t eat only (?) NTFPs every day, we need to diversify our diet, we need money when NTFPs are not producing and money from NTFP sale is not enough to provide income for the family throughout the year. We need more money. As a result, we expanded our agricultural activities (more plots of farmlands were open, more crops were planted) – which is now the principal activity – primarily for subsistence and secondly as a means to raise income for the household” she said.

Because of the increasing cash flow from NTFP gathering and food crop cultivation and sale, men are becoming interested in these “women’s businesses”. When asked why, Mr. Menguele Jean, a Bulu native from Ngon village, South Region of Cameroon, replied: “cocoa produces just once a year and before production we need money for farm maintenance and also for family upkeep. We therefore, decided to open larger plots in order to produce more food crops too for sale.” This new drive for income over time has led to more labour for the women who are expected to cultivate larger plots while maintaining their demanding daily house chores.

During a FGD in Melambo village in the East Region of Cameroon, Mrs Adrienne, a newly wed lady complained that she laboured more for money, yet earned less than she thought she would. She said: “we the women, who do most of the labour, get to remain retailers of NTFPs and food crops with very little profit, but the men – natives and non-natives alike – have become more of wholesalers and are enjoying most of the profit without labouring as much as we do”. As a result, the respective share from the sale of NTFPs and agricultural products between men and women needs to be renegotiated.

Photo: Family in Kouedjina,East Cameroon collected bush mango for sale as a family business

Blogpost by Yvonne Kiki Nchanji – Consultant/Gender Fellow, Center for International Forestry Research-CIFOR (Yaoundé, Cameroon) – ynchanji(at)gmail.com
Photo by Camille Dehu