The ISO 9001: 2015 certificate achieved by the Standardized Independent External Observation System (SNOIE) has been renewed. The last audit of this system was carried out in May 2019 and proved to be conclusive. This audit allows the SNOIE Coordination to retain its ISO 9001: 2015 certificate obtained a year ago (April 2018). Opportunities for improving this approach to independent external monitoring, whose development was modeled on the ISO standard, were proposed at the end of the surveillance audit. This audit was conducted by Interface NRM Ltd [1], with the financial support of the CV4C project.
This renewal of the SNOIE Quality Certificate was made possible thanks to the remarkable and professional intervention of all the partner organisations (who have adopted the SNOIE as an approach for the deployment of their external independent monitoring (IM) activity. Organisations such as PAPEL (Support Program for Breeding and Preservation of Biodiversity), CeDLA (Center for Local and Alternative Development) which are respectively responsible for the East and the Ocean, ECODEV (Ecosystem and Development) intervening in Mbam and Kim, Central Region SUHE, a community-based CSO, based in Sanaga Maritime, which contributes to the denunciations made available to MINFOF through Community Forest Monitoring in real time (STR). Transparency International-Cameroon (TI-C), the lobbying organisation of SNOIE, whose influence is ensuring that action is taken by MINFOF following denunciations transmitted.
Developed in 2015, SNOIE is a set of monitoring processes for the exploitation of natural resources based on the international standard ISO 9001 2015. This system was developed to make IM activities more effective, increasing the credibility of the denunciations that emerge from them and, above all, better guiding these denunciations towards the appropriate places (competent authorities, technical and financial partners, sector etc).
Developed by FODER, in collaboration with other civil society organisations, the administration and other stakeholders of the forestry sector, SNOIE officially obtained its Certificate of Conformity to the ISO 9001 2015 standard, April 17, 2018. Since obtaining this certificate, SNOIE has become the very first approach to monitoring natural resources by civil society, certified in Cameroon. This certification has been awarded by the certification organization Interface NRM Ltd. The SNOIE ISO 9001: 2015 certificate covers all independent monitoring processes around the management of natural resources and the environment. Since the deployment of SNOIE in Cameroon there have been 35 IM reports out of the 51 transmitted in four and a half years (2015-2019) [2] to MINFOF via SNOIE procedures, which triggered reactions from MINFOF. These actions by the administration are implemented by forest control missions of the BNC [3] and BRC [4], but also by joint control missions (BNC, BRC associating the CSOs of the SNOIE). The illegalities denounced in these reports have been proven, following the control missions of the national and regional forest control brigade.
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- National accreditation body of the United Kingdom, responsible for determining, in the public interest, the technical competence and integrity of organizations such as those providing testing, calibration and certification services. https://www.ukas.com/
- Source: SNOIE OIE Reporting Table
- BNC: National Forest and Wildlife Control Brigade
- BRC: Regional Forest and Wildlife Control Brigade
