This study focused on the sacred forests of anthropized areas in the southeast of Far North Cameroon. These are forests from a few square meters to a few hectares. The floristic data collected from the surveys showed that the average richness is 17 species. A total of 67 plant species grouped into 27 families have been identified. Formerly preserved for ritual practices, these forests are experiencing regressive changes both in terms of specific richness and diversity of species under the combination of anthropogenic actions and climatic variability. 2/3 of these sacred forests are experiencing a deterioration. The density and specific richness of the species have decreased by 60 to 80% compared to the well-preserved sacred forests. The diversity indices are only 1.36 bit for very degraded forests against 3.85 bits for those in good condition. Species such as Mytragina inermis, Daniellia oliveri and Celtis integrifolia have almost completely disappeared with a rarity index above 80%. Faced with the current socio-economic and environmental changes, actions to raise awareness and collective appropriation through land titles in favor of local populations should be undertaken by the State.

This study updates the social picture painted on forestry practices of nomadic herders in the Cameroonian Sahel. It extends the debates in the literature by Petit and Walkins on the pruning in Britain. Drawing on social and public representations, opinions on how to harvest tree foliage appear to be divergent. The skeptics believe that pastoral farming has always had negative effects on nature, unlike the convinced. Based on the documentation concerning the dendrometric measurement data taken in the Sahel and the surveys carried out between 2013-2019 in 17 agrosylvopastoral terroirs on a sample of 510 people aged 30 to over 80 years, the images designed on the pastoral activity are contradictory. If the scientific data from the measurements of the branches to be pruned and those of ethnologists and pastoralists indicate rationality in the practices, this is not always the case for ecologists and foresters for whom these practices affect the plant and therefore contribute to the desertification. From then on, a debate was put on the table at the Earth Summit in 1992 and still fuels the controversy today.