Logging Industry Threatens To Destroy Rich African Forests
08/18/00
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
by Forests.org
Forest rich Cameroon and Gabon are undergoing a full-fledged logging boom. The type of forest management being practiced--extremely intensive industrial harvest by transnational corporations, mostly for log export--is not likely to lead to sustainability of either forest products or ecosystems. A body of enforced international law that cracks down on transnational, predatory logging, and other industrial ecosystem destruction, is critical to protect and sustain the Earth's ancient and elegant biological heritage.
g.b.
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Logging Industry Threatens To Destroy Rich African Forests
The World Resources Institute Distributed via Africa News Online, (www.africanews.org)
Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint
August 11, 2000
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.
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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"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.
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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.
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"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