On Thursday, July 09, 2026, in Lomié, Ecotrading Sarl signed a framework agreement for collaboration with the Cooperative Centre Vert de Lomié (CVL) in the TRIDOM landscape. This agreement brings together about twenty Baka and Bantou communities around a common goal: to legally structure the Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) sector.
This agreement aims to facilitate access to local financing to ensure the direct and legal purchase of NTFPs from local communities, indigenous Baka populations, and to structure the logistics chain for collecting products in the villages, storage, and seeking outlets, thus ensuring the sustainability of both structures.
In a sustainability logic, Ecotrading commits to reinvest 10% of its net profit from marketing into the community conservation fund. This reinvestment will be made in proportion to the volume collected by each community, based on a traceability system. A model that combines local economic development, social equity, and forest conservation.
Ecotrading has committed to following the process of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) to ensure respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC), particularly regarding the purchase prices of products at their level.
It is important to emphasize that Ecotrading, as part of this initiative, benefits from a P4F (Partnership For Forest, Congo Basin) grant from UKAID under the project Bridging the Market Gap: NTFP Market Access for Forest Communities in Cameroon.
The agreement was signed under the coaching and guidance of technical partners Nature+ and Global Conservation.
