The Minister of Forests and Fauna has taken a recent step in the fight against illegal logging. 

In a letter dated June 13, Minister Jules Doret Ndongo instructed his staff to "step up control activities and seize all unduly harvested forest products circulating on national territory". This decision follows reports that large quantities of forest products from informal sources are circulating on Cameroonian territory with impunity.

The forest products in question come from unauthorized logging, which many players in the forestry chain are carrying out in the shadows. They use counterfeit transport documents (consignment notes, DF10 logbooks) to transport logs to the black market without having to pay forestry taxes.

According to a publication by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, September 2020), 73% of the volume of timber circulating on the domestic market is of illegal origin, while an estimated 27% comes from legal sources. These figures have been confirmed by CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research), which works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife. 

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Hence the interest in setting up a more efficient timber traceability system, which will enable the State to have a clearer view of the activities carried out by forest operators in all sectors (private companies, community forests). This system would also help to reduce the margins of rogue operators, given that SIGIF 2, which has been in place until now, has not produced satisfactory results in this respect.

Source : Investir au Cameroun

Vanessa Ntoh