Of Herakles, BetockVoices And Cameroon Government Officials

BetockVoices have been at war with  Herakles farms (SGSOC) accusing Herakles for taken advantage of the naivety, corruption and desperate greed of some Cameroon politicians and highly placed civil servants to take possession of a huge area of land , promising jobs as well as a number of other poorly defined benefits. The shocking arrangements Herakles farms (SGSOC) have withgovernment and traditional authorities ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd. Some traditional leaders signed a temporal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Herakles farms (SGSOC) to enable them prove to the Government of Cameroon that the US Company was acceptable to the local inhabitants who are supposed to be the primary beneficiaries of the project.

The understanding was that after government authorization of the project, Herakles farms (SGSOC) had to come back for a concrete MOU with the local inhabitants. By some strange happenstance, Herakles farms (SGSOC) proceeded with the Establishment Convention that was signed and avoided negotiating further with the affected communities. Cameroon farmers were not consulted but simply found concrete boundary markers planted in their farms and forests overnight by Herakles farms (SGSOC). The Establishment Convention stipulates the conditions which apply to Herakles farms (SGSOC) activities in Cameroon and requires the Herakles farms (SGSOC) to respect the laws of Cameroon. But the same Establishment Convention also claims to take precedence over Cameroonian law as well as over certain international agreements. Herakles farms (SGSOC) did show non-respect of the law. In 2010, without a presidential decree authorizing the concession, Herakles farms (SGSOC) started the exploitation of forest to establish oil palm nurseries. Herakles demarcated numerous farmlands with fake oral promises and without consent.

 Herakles farms (SGSOC) now fell trees without authorization. The regional delegates of Forestry and Wildlife, Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Land Tenure and State Property have jointly  declared that they are powerless. The Regional Delegate of Planning recently opined that he was not aware of any establishment convention between SGSOC and his minister in Yaounde. The actions of some of the traditional rulers have been shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. Chief Lordson Asek of Ayong recruited in the accounting unit of Herakles farms (SGSOC) in the Talangaye site to convince the local communities was removed by Herakles farms (SGSOC) like an ordinary man. Chief Dr. Atem Ebako of Talangaye is claiming he personally invited Herakles farms (SGSOC) to come and do its nursery and plantations in his village. Chief Eben Nkongho of Manyemen is also in support of the project.   “The problem with this project is that they wanted the wood on the surface removed theirs. It is at this point that the Minister of Forests and Wildlife told them'' No''. The wood removed on the surface is not theirs. They just want to create a plantation. Apart from the Chiefs, cabinet ministers such as Philip Ngole Ngwese is also implicated. Some of Minister’s Ngole Ngwese correspondence on this issue are very disturbing. For instance, the Minister wrote: "I have the honour to know that such suspension of the authorization of logging on the site your agro-industrial project based in Talangaye, Nguti district, the South-West, as enacted by my correspondence referred to above, is lifted from the date of signature of this dispatch. I remind you here that the logging operations must be conducted in accordance with the laws and regulations under the supervision of the Regional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife of the Southwest.”  The minister failed to expressly authorized Herakles Farms to continue its work. In addition, the regulation stipulates that before any such slaughter should obtain, an authorization for removal of timber felled (AEB) must be gotten from the Minister. However, the Minister has not yet issued any authorizations to Herakles Farms (SGSOC). Thus, according to this letter, the regional delegate before giving the OK for logging will ask Herakles Farms (SGSOC) to indicate whether it has complied with all procedures. So Herakles Farms could not resume work if it does not comply with the regulations but they did.

 As part of a later deal, Herakles farms (SGSOC) were to surrender all the timber in its concession to the government. Apparently, the Herakles farms (SGSOC) did not take this kindly and so looked for another way of taking possession of the timber. It’s evident from reports today the sale of timber from Herakles farms’ concession is an integral part of its business following its purchase of Uniprovince. To date the local communities does not have direct benefits from the company in terms of royalties. Another CPDM Minister involved in this scandal is the Minister of Agriculture, Essimi Menye.  "I do not know everything that was signed before, everything will now be renegotiated in the rules of the land” Both officials of  the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, under anonymity agreed that the first agreement signed with Herakles Farms was signed by people who did not know the agriculture and forestry laws in Cameroon. Yet, nothing has change. This US Company did cut corners with our national laws and international norms and along with these mishaps, side-lined the rightful owners of the land. The Government of Cameroon and others have fallen for the well-oiled corporate trickery and agreed to give Herakles complete legal impunity in their business plans. Herakles farms (SGSOC) has been made stand above  national law – giving them the power to destroy protected nature reserves, force people from their land, and "search, apprehend, detain, exclude, and evict" anyone trespassing on their leased land. To date the Cameroon government has failed to investigate the practices of Herakles farms (SGSOC), or compel them to amend their 2009 Establishment Convention raising concerns such as the rights granted to the Herakles farms (SGSOC) to local resources and inconsistency of certain provisions with Cameroon's international legal obligations.   A report by the Cameroonian Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and a program of the German Technical Cooperation called the “Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources” observed that negotiation for land was done with lot of intimidation and bribery, targeting the chiefs and some few influential decision - making members of the communities.

With lack of transparency, human rights abuses, allegations of illegal logging, corruption and intimidation, Herakles Farms (SGSOC) was sinking as investors fled, no revenue and employees absences, with the few remaining devotees a new management was set-up in late 2012. The new management obtained a Presidential Decree in late 2013 to finally officialise Herakles Farms (SGSOC) presence in Cameroon. The comeback was so impressive Herakles Farms (SGSOC) was even named to Global Exchange’s prestigious top 10 corporate criminals list.  Herakles Farms’ cow meat for land strategy was to win control of our rain forest and existing farms worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while paying almost nothing has moved from bad to worse. To contribute to Cameroon’s sustainable development goals for 2035, Government should invest more in rural populations and support small farmers to ensure that they get enough credit and enough inputs and enough labour for their work and to also ensure that their crops are well marketed.