Open Letter from CEO of Herakles Farms in Response to Report On ...

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wrongly portray Herakle Farms…) It would have been most wonderful for Bruce to use this medium to inform Cameroonians and the international community, instead of further bruising people. Unfortunately, Bruce prefers to bruise critics instead of using their talking points to throw more light on the issues raised. The threat by HF to level Cameroonian rainforest while negatively impacting the lives of tens of thousands of formerly happy and content indigenous hunters and farmers in the South West Region of Cameroon is real and is already being seen in the nurseries. At the Fabe nursery, over 50 hectares of pristine and robust forest have been cleared. Crops have been destroyed along the way. HF has planted its beacons and pillars in local cocoa farms in the Nguti area around Ayong, Bombe Konye and Ekita. HF recruited surveyors from Ghana who went through the Cameroonian forest unaccompanied by technicians from the survey department to assist in the illegal demarcation process. It is even alleged that these Ghanaians were helping HF prospect for minerals as well as carry out other activities which should never be known by Cameroonians. If HF was only interested in survey and demarcation, surveyors abound in Cameroon, trained by the Public Works schools in Buea and Yaounde. Why did HF not get them if it had no hidden agenda? While the Cameroon government might still be considering the application from HF, the company has gone ahead to unilaterally demarcate the forest without any respect for sacred sites, burial grounds, areas of High Conservation Value, and the wishes of the indigenous peoples. In fact, it is only after the President of the Republic would have signed a land lease that HF would have been allowed to go with the indigenes for the demarcation of their forests. Once more I iterate that the forests belong to the indigenes according to the 1974 Land Tenure Law, which states that people who have been occupying land since 1974 can own land and apply for a land certificate. Most of the lands in the concession area have been occupied by the local population for more than a hundred years. HF, its agents and assigns have maintained an elitist discourse in the communities. HF has told local populations and their curious leadership that they were operating on the instructions of government and did not need the opinion of the people living in Nguti, Mundemba and Toko. Even the government of the Republic of Cameroon listens to indigenous populations when its interest intervenes with the rights of the people. So why will a foreign company have overriding powers to set the agenda and pace in Cameroon? To set up a school that will benefit the local population, government appeals to the local communities to identify a suitable location for the project. Through consultation and prior consent, the local community and the divisional lands consultative board, headed by the sub divisional officer will now go out to appraise the suitability of the land and make sure it is unencumbered before authorizing use for a government project, in the interest of the public. President Paul Biya cannot sign a land lease for 73,000 hectares without the informed opinion and consent of the local lands consultative board. For the concession area that HF is interested in, three Land Consultative boards come into play. The Mundemba sub divisional Lands Consultative Board, the Toko sub divisional Lands Consultative Board, the Nguti sub divisional Lands Consultative Board, made up of at least nine members each, would have to sign a document attesting their visits to the concession area and declaring that such lands are unencumbered by the customs and the traditions of the people before the President can sign. HF has been carrying out illegal activities by not subscribing to these basic tenets of land appropriation and concession in the Republic of Cameroon. Herakles Farms is not absolved of the law setting conditions for land acquisition in Cameroon. Bruce Wrobel describes HF as an “incubator” of ideas. The assertion may be good for other parts of the world. In fact, in Cameroon, HF is an “Incubator of Poverty”. If any assessment was done of the
economic might of the concession area, HF would have realized that the people in Nguti, for instance, are self-sufficient, surviving very well in their natural environment and allowing nature to thrive. I have been going to this area to study the socio-economic situation of the people for the last 15 months. I will describe the Nguti sub division as one of the richest in Cameroon. Take the village of Ntale, for instance. Ntale is made up of over 1000 cocoa farmers, according to the village head, Chief Ajang Samuel. The smallest cocoa farmer I met was Antonio Enobi with 10 hectares of cocoa. Averagely he harvests 300 kilograms of cocoa per hectare. This puts him in the neighborhood of 3 tons a year. A ton of cocoa in Ntale costs FCFA 850,000. Antonio makes about FCFA 2,550,000 a year. Other farmers in Ntale recruit over 20 labourers during the cocoa peak season of about three months. On no occasion will Antonio have earned FCFA 212,500 a month if he was employed as a labourer by HF. Presently, HF pays about FCFA 60,000 a month for general labour. HF has also told its workers that once the company has its authorization, this amount will drop to FCFA 30,000. Young Antonio Enobi could, alone, pay 7 wages from his monthly intake. So if the Oakland Institute Report claims that people had been living happily, then they are right. It is certain that HF has its eyes on the 10 hectares of land Antonio is farming. Bruce Wrobel says they are not going to take farms. I wish he could explain what he means by paying land rents of US$1.00 for developed land. Developed land here will mean all land which was formerly occupied by cocoa and other crops. Is it possible that the government of Cameroon believes that a hectare of land is worth only FCFA 500 a year? If it so believes, then the vision 2035 will only be realized in 6025. Taking the land from the people of Nguti and giving it to HF will send the local population 4 centuries back. HF knows this. Bad Arithmetic Section 13.5 of the Convention concerning Surface Rental states; Commencing on the Effective Date for Investor and continuing through out the Term, Investor shall pay annual surface rent to Government of US$1.00 per hectare for State Land that is Developed Land, and US$0.50 per hectare for State Land that is not Developed Land. It is unbelievable that HF intends to destroy crops on Developed Land which fetches indigenous farmers FCFA 400,000 (US$800.oo) a year, only to pay a pittance of FCFA 500 or US$1.00 to government as annual rent for land. Each ton of cocoa that is shipped from Cameroon pays custom export duties of over FCFA 75,000. HF tactfully, included a clause in the convention exempting it from all forms of import or export duties for the Term of the contract (99 years exemption from duty). It means Cameroon will be losing FCFA 475,000 a year from a hectare of cocoa to make FCFA 500 from a hectare of land surrendered for HF palm oil plantations. Local people also stand to lose an important source of their non timber forest products like Njangsanga, African bush mango, black pepper, bitter cola, eru and others. These products have both nutritive and medicinal value, tested and proven by both alternative and modern medicine. Most African countries depend on the forests of Cameroon for these resources which are almost extinct in West Africa. Section 12.1 Import and Export Taxes and Duties. Throughout the Term, Investor shall enjoy a total exemption from any and all existing and future Taxes and Duties payable on imports and exports. Is this not robbing Cameroon? This leads us into asking whether Louis Paul Motaze had scales on his eyes when he signed the Establishment Convention or he simply does not understand English. The whole thing smells of another Albatross style fraud. We are waiting for President Biya to order parliamentary and judicial investigations on this wholesale auction of Cameroon by the hand of Louis Paul Motaze et al.
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Page 5 and 6: and flora. However, listening again
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Page 9 and 10: lawyer, cancelling the meeting when

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