A Critical Examination of the Impacts of Industrial Forestry Exploitation in Cameroon
Keywords:
Critical, Examination, Impacts, Industrial Forestry, Exploitation, CameroonAbstract
There is no gainsaying that industrial forestry plays a vital role in the economy of most nations endowed with natural resources such as timber and non-timber products. Large-scale forestry companies create jobs and generate taxes, both of which are needed, especially in the cash-strapped economies of the global south, Cameroon inclusive. As the saying goes, every story has two sides. Industrial forestry has often raised concerns and sparked controversy due to its unsustainable practices. Over the years, a corpus of overwhelming evidence has surfaced, establishing a nexus between industrial logging activities on the one hand, and environmental degradation, on the other hand in Cameroon. Against this backdrop, this paper therefore, seeks to examine the impacts of industrial forestry (logging) exploitation in Cameroon. The effects of industrial forestry exploitation are both beneficial and detrimental. In tandem with the foregoing, the aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it is to analyze the negative impacts of industrial forestry, and to illustrate how these impacts could infringe upon local community rights and interests in particular and on the environment in general. The second part demonstrates the positive impacts of industrial forestry. Through a content analysis of primary and secondary data, we therefore, uphold that if industrial forestry is effectively managed and regulated, could enhance sustainability in the forestry sector of Cameroon and at large.
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forest Watch. Washington DC.
Bayol, N., et al., (2012), Forest management and the timber sector in Central Africa. In: de
Wasseige, C., et al., (Eds.), The Forests of the Congo Basin-State of the Forest 2010, Publications
Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, pp. 43-61. See also Eba’a Etyi, R., et al., (2013),
Impacts of international procurement policies on Central Africa’s forestry sector: the case of
Cameroon. Forest Policy Econom. 32 (2013), 40-48.
Malucha, W. C., (2012), Op. Cit. p. 75.
Eba’a, A. R., et al., (2013), Etude de l’importance économique et sociale du secteur forestier et
faunique au Cameroun. Rapport Final. Bogor, Indonésie. P. 315.
Ibid.
Richard Eba’a Atyi, et al., (2013), Op. Cit. P. 40-67.
Alemagi D, Kozak RA, (2010), Illegal logging in Cameroon: Causes and the path forward. Forest
Policy Econ., 12(8): 554-561. See also Alemagi D., (2010), A critical analysis of concession-
based forestry: The case of Cameroon in Central Africa. In: Frank Columbus, ed. Advances in
Environmental Research. Nova Science Publishers, New York. See also Ameriei L., (2005), Legal
compliance in the forest sector: A case study of Cameroon. Final report, FAO, Rome. Paper
available online at: http://www.fao.org/forestry/12937-3-0.pdf.
Alemagi, D., (2010), Op cit. See also Njimanted, G.F., Nkwetta , A.A., (2015), ”The impact of
timber exports on economic growth in Cameroon: An econometric investigation,” Asian Journal
Of Economic Modelling, 3(3), P. 50.
Forests Monitor (2001), La forêt prise en otage. La nécessité de controller les societies forestières
transnationales: une etude européenne. Cambridge. (Sold Down the River. The Need to Control
Transnational Forestry Corporations: A European Case Study. Henry Kam Kah. 2015. See also
Wuai, Kesiazheh, Nyengui: «History and Livelihood Challenges in a Cameroon’s Montane Forest
Reserve. Economic and Ecohistory.P.93.
Forests Monitor (2001), Op Cit. p. 8.
See Section 68 (1) of the 1994 Forestry Law.
According to Section 243 (1) of the General Tax Code of Cameroon, the amount is fixed at
/hectare/year.
According to Section 242 of 2019 Finance Law, the felling tax is a volume-based tax that must be
paid by all logging companies on the volume (cubic meters) per species of wood declared to the
administration after harvesting has taken place. The felling tax shall be calculated on the basis of
FOB value of unprocessed timber, the rate shall be 4% and this felling tax return shall include the
corresponding DF10.
According to Section 244 (a) of the General Tax Code, the rates of the regeneration tax (RGT) on
non-timber forest products and special products shall be fixed as follows: Ebony wood: CFAF
/kg; Pygeum bark: CFAF 25/kg; and other products: CFAF 10/kg.
See Section 66 (1) of the 1994 Forestry Law. Also, according to Section 244 of the 2019 Finance
Law, the rate of export surtax shall be fixed as follows: Ayous is 5000FCFA /M3
; First grade
promotion timber other than ayous is 4000 FCFA /M3
; Second grade promotion timber is 1000
FCFA/M3 and the rest shall remain unchanged.
See Law No. 2018/022 of 11 December 2018 Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the
financial year and Ordinance No. 2019/001 of 29 May 2019 to amend and supplement
certain provisions of Law No.2018/002 of 11 December 2018 on the finance law of the Republic
of Cameroon for the 2019 financial year.
Essama-Nssah, B; Gochowski, J., (2000), Cameroon Forest Sector Development in a Difficult
Political Economy. Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank. Washington DC. See also
Plouvier, D.; Sizer, N., (2000), Increased Investment and Trade by Transnational Logging
Companies in Africa; the Caribbean and the Pacific: Implications for the Sustainable Management
and Conservation of Tropical forests. WWF-Belgium, Brussels.
Republic of Cameroon, (2016), Report on the nation’s economic, social and financial situation
and prospects P.29.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Eba’a Atyi, R., (1998), Cameroon’s Logging Industry: Structure, Economic Importance and
Effects of Devaluation. CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 14, CIFOR; Tropenbos Foundation, Bogor,
Wageningen. P. 13.
Malucha W. C., (2012), International Trade in Forest Products: What Legal I implications on
Sustainable Management of Forest for Environmental Protection in Cameroon. Masters
Dissertation. FSJP. P. 68.
Ibid.
WCED, (1987), Our Common Future. Oxford University Press: Oxford. See also Dieudonne, A.,
Sustainable development in Cameroon’s forestry sector: Progress, challenges, and strategies
for improvement. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology Vol. 5(2), pp. 65-72,
February 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJEST ISSN 1996-0786X
©2011 Academic Journals P. 66-67. Last acessed 05/01/2023.
Karsenty A, Drigo GI, Piketty M., Singer B., (2008), Regulating industrial forest concessions in
Central Africa and South America. Forest Ecol. Manage., 256(7): 1498–1508.
Newing, H., (2007), Social impacts of industrial logging concessions: effects on forest user rights.
Concessions to Poverty. The Environmental, Social and Economic Impacts of Industrial Logging
Concessions in Africa’s Rainforests. The Rainforest Foundation, UK. Chapter 4, pp. 57–68. See
also Rist, L., et al., (2012), The impacts of selective logging on non-timber forest products of
livelihood importance. Ecology and Management. 268. P. 57-69.
Esther, E.N., (2019), Op. Cit. p. 719-720.
See Djeukam, R. J.-F. Gerber. S. Veuthey (2010), Op. Cit. p. 4.
Jimsmyle, C.B. and sally C., (2016), rethinking forest regulations, overcoming the challenges of
regulatory reform, RRI ISSUE BRIEF, p. 1-12.
