Forest exploitation in Cameroon goes back to the pre‐colonial period when early ethnic settlers used the ‘law of status’ system to manage land and forests in the territory. With the arrival of colonial powers, beginning with the Germans in 1884, the law of status system was replaced by top‐down state‐centred management system. This top‐down management system was inherited by post‐colonial authorities and enforced until 1994 when a new forestry law was launched, based on bottom‐up management system. This paper reviews all these three systems. Communities are not benefiting from an actual bottom‐up management system. The author argues that the forests sector in Cameroon needs a new management paradigm.