Cameroon is Africa’s biggest exporter of tropical hardwood to the European market with more than 80 per cent of its sawn wood imported mostly by Spain and Italy. With over 2,300,000 cubic metres of wood produced every year from its 22.5 million hectares of forest, the timber sector contributes more than FCFA 41 billion or 6 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. This contribution could have been more important if a sizeable quantity of timber was not exploited and exported illegally to Europe and Asia. It is against this backdrop that Cameroon and other timber producing developing countries adhered to the European Union’s Forest, Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, FLEGT, licence system that seeks to stop the illegal exploitation of timber destined for Europe.
Signing the Voluntary Partnership Agreement, to implement FLEGT, the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle said the agreement, which was negotiated since November 2007, would enable Cameroon put an end to the trade in illegal wood and called on the European Union to do same to halt the consumption of products made from illegal wood. He also mentioned Cameroon’s implementation of a traceability system for wood exploitation since April 2010; the sensitisation of different stakeholders on the new dispensation; the enthusiasm of organisations involved in the operation; the imminent creation of a Joint Implementation Committee as evidence of Cameroon’s commitment to the agreement. The European Commissioner in charge of Development, Andreis Piebalgs signed on behalf of the European Union.
The FLEGT voluntary partnership agreement signed last Wednesday marks an important milestone in the European Union’s efforts to combat deforestation around the world that is promoted by illegal logging which sources say now accounts for over 20 to 40 per cent of world trade in wood. 20 per cent of this illegal wood enters the European Union from Brazil, the Congo Basin, Indonesia and Russia. The agreement provides the necessary framework to ensure that all timber imports from Cameroon into the European Union have been legally acquired, harvested, transported and exported. The new law could eliminate illegal wood and increase revenue for Cameroon and other states trading with the European Union. The FLEGT licensing system aims to issue its first FLEGT licences in 2012.
