Title:  Logging Industry Threatens To Destroy Rich African Forests 

Source:  The World Resources Institute

  Distributed via Africa News Online, (www.africanews.org).

Status:  Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint

Date:  August 11, 2000  

By:  Emmanuel Koro

 

Washington DC - They rapidly extracted too much timber from our

forests, only to pack their bags when there was nothing left.

 

This might be the sad story that forest-rich Cameroon and Gabon may be

forced to tell a few years from now, if they do not take urgent steps

to ensure that foreign-owned logging companies operate legally and

engage in sustainable exploitation of their forests.

 

Based on two recent reports on the forests of Cameroon and Gabon, it

appears that continued lack of direct local investment of profits made

by these companies, coupled with their unsustainable logging

activities, threatens to make the two Central African countries

financially and environmentally bankrupt.

 

"In Cameroon, the government recently made some of these companies pay

heavy penalties because they violated logging regulations," said

Henriette Bikie of Global Forest Watch Cameroon. For example, some of

them were logging in areas which were not allocated to them."

 

Forestry/2 Among the leading logging companies and their subsidiaries

in Cameroon and Gabon are predominantly European, particularly French-

owned. In Cameroon they include: Thanry (CIBC, SAB, SEBC, CFC,

Prenant), Bollore (La forestiere de Campo, SIBAF), Coron and Alpi

(Alpicam, Grumcam). In Gabon the five largest concession holders are

all foreign-owned: Rougier-Gabon, La Compagnie Forestiere du Gabon

(CFG), Leroy-Gabon, La Compagnie Equatoriale de Bois (CEB) and

Lutexfo/Soforga. "The timber extraction has been increasing rapidly

recently with little control mechanism in place," said Jean-Gael

Collomb, Global Forest Watch (GFW), Central Africa Project Manager

and one of the authors of the reports. "Little has been done to ensure

that the logging industry will benefit these countries in the long

term. What we see are short- term benefits to foreign companies and

individuals."

 

About 76 percent of Cameroon's forests have either been logged or

allocated as logging concessions. Less than a fifth of the country's

unprotected forests, mostly in central and eastern Cameroon, remains

free from logging.

 

In Gabon, fewer than 10 percent of Gabon's forests were allocated as

logging concessions in 1957. In 1997, more than half were allocated as

logging concessions. More than 90 percent of Gabon's log production is

exported.

 

Forestry/3

 

The reports produced by Global Forest Watch report say, that with

declining oil revenues in Cameroon and Gabon, the pressure to continue

exploiting the world's second largest tract of tropical rain forests

will continue to grow. Global Forest Watch, an initiative of the World

Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent network of about 75

organizations working in eight countries. It monitors and maps

logging, mining, road-building, and other developments in the world's

last great tracts of intact natural forest. It was launched by the WRI

early this year to save the world's remaining intact natural forests

found mostly in the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, Canada, Southeast

Asia and Russia.

 

In Africa, it focuses its work in the Congo Basin, particularly in

Cameroon and Gabon, which is second only to the Amazon in terms of the

size of its tropical rainforests.

 

Henriette Bikie of Global Forest Watch Cameroon said, "In the future,

Global Forest Watch will consider expanding its activities in other

African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo."

 

Forestry/4

 

The GWF's Gabon report, "A first look at logging in Gabon" and that on

Cameroon, "An overview of logging in Cameroon" were both released at

ceremonies held in Libreville and Yaounde, on separate dates last

June. During the Yaounde ceremony, the permanent secretary of the

Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MINEF), Mpoule Bala Lazare,

endorsed GFW's work in the country.

 

In Gabon, logging has rapidly expanded in area and volume and laws are

being poorly applied.

 

The GFW report on Gabon says only five out of the 200 logging

companies have a management plan. The government initiated a Forestry

Law project in 1996, following the recommendations of the National

Interministerial Industrialization Commission and pressure from the

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank who are the country's

creditors. Gabon's current Forestry Law dates back to 1982 and it is

yet to be reformed. To date, Global Forest Watch partners in Gabon

have not been informed of any changes made to the forestry reform

project. According to the report, two-thirds of Cameroon's logging

industry is foreign-owned and it is not clear that the remaining third

is owned by real Cameroonians.

 

Forestry/5

 

"Although Cameroonians have logging concessions or titles, they

subcontract established foreign companies to do the actual logging

since they cannot afford to buy the machinery to run the industry,"

said Bikie. "This results in a situation whereby the concession-holder

would ask for a very small amount compared to what the subcontracted

company would make." In 1997, 221 companies and individuals held

concessions in Gabon. Of these, only 13 companies held 50 percent of

the total area which is equivalent to almost one quarter of Gabon's

total forest cover. Although these companies are registered in Gabon,

they are controlled by European companies.

 

In 1980 there were 106 logging companies registered in Cameroon. The

number increased to 177 in 1990 and shot up to 479 in 1998. Cameroon's

forests shrunk by two million hectares between 1980 and 1995. As

logging operations continue to swell up, it is not clear by how much

its forest had shrunk by year 2000.

 

The GFW report confirms that logging companies in Cameroon continue to

violate legislation that calls for sustainable logging by felling the

wrong timber species, logging protected timber species, mislabeling

logs and cutting under-sized trees.

 

Forestry/6

 

"Many of these violations result from the low logistical capacity of

the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MINEF)," said Bikie. "In

1992, MINEF stopped hiring staff due to lack of donor funds."

 

Cameroon's political will to address forestry management problems was

highlighted by its president, Paul Biya in 1999, when he hosted the

first Heads of State Summit on Conservation and Management of

Central African Forests. The Yaounde Declaration was issued at this

meeting and five central African nations pledged to improve national

and regional forestry management. Bikie said the follow-up meeting

will be held next month.

 

In 1994, Cameroon introduced a new logging legislation which promises

to promote better stewardship of the country's forests. This

legislation was introduced after the World Bank made it a condition

for Cameroon to qualify for the Bank's funding for the country's

structural adjustment program. Praised by the World Bank as a

potential model for the Central African region, Cameroon's forest law

is not being enforced successfully since the Government's forestry

inspectors are too few and do not have transport to inspect the

operations of logging companies.

 

Forestry/7

 

Bikie said, "This is just one of the many complex reasons for non-

enforcement of the country's forest law."

 

Ironically, these inspectors ask logging operators for transport in

order to go and inspect their operations, raising questions about the

objectivity and strictness of their inspection.

 

Exposing inadequacies in Cameroon's concession-inspection and law

enforcement, the GFW report noted that in the five major forested

provinces, there was on average, one Ministry of Environment and

Forests (MINEF) field agent responsible for inspecting 5,000 hectares

of concession.

 

In the East province alone, in 1998-99, one MINEF field agent was

responsible for an average of 21,000 hectares of concession.

 

Gabon is experiencing similar concession inspection problems. On

average, a Gabonese Ministry of Water and Forests agent oversees 864

square kilometers of logging concessions.

 

Forestry/8

 

"In 1997, only 100 agents were available to monitor and inspect 332

logging concessions covering 86,000 square kilometers, an area roughly

the size of Australia," said the GFW report. "The logging industry

employs about 55,000 people in Cameroon."

 

Although Cameroon is pocketing US$60 million from annual timber export

taxes, foreign companies' profits from this booming industry remain a

closely guarded secret.

 

"It is difficult to know how much profit these companies are making,"

admits Collomb. "Cameroon and Gabon do not have laws that require

these companies to be audited, a situation that would expose their

annual profits."

 

Contact: Adlai Amor, Media Director Tel: (+1-202) 729-7736 Email:

aamor@wri.org Or Henriette Bikie, GFW - Cameroon Tel: (+237) 205 097

Email: gfwc@gcnet.cm

 

* Adlai J. Amor Media Director World Resources Institute 10 G Street,

NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA Tel: (+202) 729 7736 * Fax: (+202) 729

7707 Email: aamor@wri.org Website: http://www.wri.org