CRIMINAL PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT UNDER CAMEROONIAN LAW

Today the protection of the environment has come to the universal consciousness as a necessity. This protection is made on the one hand by the material criminal law of the environment which to a certain extent provides for a significant repression on the basis of incriminations and sanctions in all sectors and sub-sectors of the environment. However it can be seen that it is the environmental violations that have a direct impact on human life that are taken into account the most. This protection makes it possible to identify two types of environmental offences those of omission and those of commission. However in spite of this organization the rigorous application of substantive law is paralyzed because of the State''s need for development. On the other hand this protection is more procedural in the sense that it offers the possibility to any person whether or not a victim of the impacts of environmental offences to bring a case before the criminal courts for compensation for the damage. But to do so the dispute must still have gone beyond the administrative phase without a solution.