Press Release

Contact:
 Adlai Amor, Media Director
 Tel: (+1-202) 729-7736 Email: aamor@wri.org

Report Reveals Threats to Cameroon's Growing Timber Industry

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, June 19, 2000 - A new report on Cameroon's forests reveals that the country's rapidly-expanding timber industry will continue to grow only if its forests are well-managed and monitored and its new forestry laws consistently implemented.

"The stakes are high," said Henriette Bikié (tel: +237/205 097; email: gfwc@gcnet.cm), one of the authors of the report, An Overview of Logging in Cameroon, released today by the World Resources Institute (WRI) as part of its new initiative, Global Forest Watch (GFW). "Cameroon ranks among the world's top five tropical log exporters. Timber generates more than a quarter of Cameroon's nonpetroleum export revenues, along with some US$60 million in taxes."

As the country's oil reserves dry up, timber exports are projected to constitute an increasing share of foreign exchange revenue in coming years. Timber production has increased by 35 percent since 1980.

However, Cameroon's timber industry depends mostly on five species of trees. With Asia rapidly surpassing Europe as the primary market for Cameroon's timber, the trend may be to more extensive harvesting because Asian buyers might be interested in a wider range of species than their European counterparts.

The most intact forests in the country are in southeastern Cameroon. It also has the highest logging rates and the most extensive concessions. Twenty-five logging companies and individuals control three-quarters of Cameroon's forest concessions.

Beyond the economic value of timber, Cameroon's forests contains some of the Congo Basin's most biologically diverse and most threatened forests. The Congo Basin's tropical forests, which covered more than 198 million hectares in 1995, are the second largest contiguous rain forests in the world after those of the Amazon. It runs through six Central African countries, including Cameroon.

About 76 percent or over 17 million hectares of Cameroon's forests - totaling some 22.8 million hectares -- have either been logged or are allocated as logging concessions. Less than a fifth of the country's unprotected forests, mostly in central and eastern Cameroon, remains free from logging.

Only about 6 percent or 1.4 million hectares of Cameroon's forests are protected as national parks or reserves. "However, agricultural encroachment, poaching and illegal logging threaten all these areas," said Bikié.

In 1994, Cameroon adopted a new forestry law that, if enforced, would help reduce the environmental and social costs of logging, while generating greater tax revenues. The Global Forest Watch report reveals that while it is still a long way from being implemented, it has already produced a 40 percent increase in tax revenues generated per cubic meter of wood produced.

However, the new open auction system, which awards forest concessions to the highest bidder, has slowed down because of irregularities. At least 5 of the 23 new concessions granted under the new law in 1997 violates the law and 12 others may be questionable. More than half of existing licenses, which are to be phased out in favor of the new concessions, operate in violation of the law.

Although the number of violation reports issued for illegal logging and related activity declined dramatically from 1985-1999, enforcement is still lacking. These reports often languish in administrative files or are terminated as a result of the intervention of an influential person.

"Given its economic and environmental implications, logging had to be carefully monitored if Cameroon wants to safeguard its forest resources for future generations," said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. "If managed properly, Cameroon's forests could offer long-term revenues without compromising the ecosystem's natural functions.

The report and maps for Cameroon and similar ones for Gabon represent the first time that logging across the Congo Basin is being systematically documented and monitored. Global Forest Watch (www.globalforestwatch.org), launched early this year, combines on-the-ground knowledge with digital and satellite technology to provide accurate forest information to anyone with access to the Internet. While the first two reports for Central Africa focused mostly on logging, Global Forest Watch will expand its monitoring scope to other large-scale human activities such as mining, oil extraction and hunting.

Global Forest Watch currently works with 75 partners in 7 countries. In 5 years, this international network will span 21 countries and cover 80 percent of the world's remaining intact forests. In Cameroon, Global Forest Watch is composed of the following non governmental organizations: Cameroon Environmental Watch, Centre pour l'Environnement et le Développement, and Centre International d'Etudes Forestières et Environnementales; as well as of a focal point within the government ministry in charge of forests