Cameroon: Rainforests continue to be logged illegally

SOURCE: World Rainforest Movement
International Secretariat
http://www.wrm.org.uy

Cameroon: Rainforests continue to be logged illegally

From October 13th to 16th the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance
ministerial meeting will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Whether this
initiative will result in any concrete actions to tackle the immense
problem of illegal and unsustainable logging operations in Africa remains
to be seen. In the meantime, illegal logging in Cameroon's forests
continues to wreak havoc on the environment, economy and local peoples'
livelihoods.

The abuse of the legal logging licences known as "ventes de coupe" to
launder illegal timber into the market place is being systematically
perpetrated in the country, including by subsidiaries of European
companies. Ventes de coupe are titles to log an area of 2,500 hectares of
the non-permanent forest estate over a three year period. Due to the
short-term nature of the title, and the lack of requirement for any
management plan, the forests are often logged in a highly destructive
manner. The titles are also frequently abused to organise illegal logging
over a much larger area.

In March 2003, researchers from Forests Monitor, together with the
Cameroonian NGO Centre pour l'Environnement et le Developpement (CED) and
Greenpeace, investigated the operations of two Dutch companies, Wijma and
Reef, in the forests of South and Southwest Provinces. This was the second
time Forests Monitor and Greenpeace had investigated the operations of
Wijma, having discovered widespread illegal logging by the company in July
2002 (see www.forestsmonitor.org). The company has been sanctioned by the
government on several occasions for logging illegally. Illegal logging by
these European-headquartered companies has caused environmental and social
damage locally, as well as robbing the Cameroonian government and
communities of legitimate timber revenues.

The Dutch logger and timber importer Wijma claims to be committed to "full
compliance with all relevant forest regulations" in Africa and "to
achieving environmental best practice throughout its activity whenever
this is practical". Despite these claims, in March 2003 investigators from
Forests Monitor, CED and Greenpeace documented further evidence of the
company's illegal activities in Cameroon. The investigations uncovered
serious abuses of the company's legally allocated logging title vente de
coupe 09-04-59, situated in the department of the Ntem valley in South
Province, which Wijma exploited in 2001. Using a GPS receiver, the NGOs
recorded two extensive road networks to the East and South of the legal
logging area, 11 log ponds and abandoned logs and stumps over an area of
about 14 km2 outside Wijma's legal boundaries. Abandoned logs with the
markings of the legal title 09-04-59 and the company's markings (GWZ) were
found in log ponds well outside their official limits, a clear method of
laundering illegal timber into the marketplace. The investigators also
found that the company had illegally logged significant amounts of timber
from an unallocated forest management unit UFA 09-022. As well as the lost
timber revenues to the government and communities, this illegal logging
operation had serious consequences for local people, with illegal road
construction and logging having destroyed agricultural crops and
small-scale plantations cultivated by the local farmers. At least 27 local
farmers in three villages were affected, with immediate consequences for
local livelihoods as both food and cash crops were destroyed.

Reef is a Dutch company specialising in the production of wood for marine
construction. It prides itself on its environmental reputation and is a
founder member of the FSC-Netherlands. However, in March 2003 Forests
Monitor, CED and Greenpeace found illegal logging operations in Reef's
ventes de coupe (VC) 11-06-12 and 11-06-13 in the Southwest province of
Cameroon. In VC 11-06-12, Reef works with the Cameroonian company SEPFCO.
Forests Monitor, CED and Greenpeace investigators found a road network
about 5 kilometres away from the legal logging area, with 6 log ponds
along the illegal roads. Logs carrying the markings of the legal title
were found in the log ponds, indicating fraudulent use well outside the
legal logging limits. In addition, numerous plantations were destroyed by
the illegal logging operation. In VC 11-06-13, the villagers of Molongo,
situated inside the vente de coupe, had erected traditional barriers to
stop logging in protest at Reef and partner PMF Wood's failure to keep
promises made: they had promised to build substantial bridges that could
be used by villagers after the logging operation had finished, but instead
had constructed temporary bridges that would last just long enough to
evacuate the logs; they had promised to build several good roads; they had
promised to provide materials for the construction of a village community
hall, church and school. The one road that the village had itself invested
in was destroyed by the logging operations, rendering it impassable by car
and even on foot in the rainy season. Local farmers' cocoa plantations had
also been destroyed by the logging operation. In addition, investigators
found a log pond outside the southern boundary of the vente de coupe
containing several logs fraudulently marked with the legal logging title.

In both the Wijma and Reef cases above, not only was there evidence of
logging outside permitted areas and the fraudulent use of legal logging
titles to launder illegally felled timber into the market place,
operations also caused severe hardship for local communities, destroying
subsistence and cash crops. To make matters worse, promises of
infrastructure developments that had been made were unfulfilled, and local
revenues had not been paid. In such cases, logging operations exacerbate
poverty amongst local communities as well as robbing the government of
Cameroon of timber revenues. The NGOs have used the evidence gathered to
press the companies to pay full and immediate compensation to all the
local farmers and communities whose livelihoods have been damaged by these
operations, with Reef having now made an initial payment into the Molongo
village fund. The NGOs have also urged the Cameroonian government to take
appropriate measures to sanction the companies.

By: Forests Monitor, e-mail: [email protected]