REM Rapport Annuel No. 1 OIF Congo Brazzaville - Forests Monitor

- All official statements of offence and settlement proceedings be immediately listed in the
appropriate registers and transmitted to the other services concerned.
- Litigation follow-up be done at the central level to ensure that the litigation initiated at
DDEF level be treated according to procedure. It would be desirable that the
Inspectorate-General of Forest Economy be entrusted with this follow-up.
On Poor Naming of Infractions
Infraction nomenclature is specified in the Forest Code that also defines the penalties for
failure to comply with the rules set in legal texts.
During its missions, REM observed that numerous infractions were not correctly named,
which sometimes made it difficult to understand them. For instance, it was observed that out
of 59 infractions listed in the Kouilou Departmental Directorate’s official statement of
offence register, half were incorrectly named (Table 5). The same observation was made for
the Pointe-Noire Departmental Directorate’s official statement of offence register in which 61
out of 77 infractions also had incorrect names (Table 6).
Table 5 : List of Principal Errors in Infraction Nomenclature Identified by REM (source: DDEF‐K litigation
register – 1 January 2007 to the end of March 2008)
Descriptions Found in the
Litigation Registers
(number of cases)
Type of
Offender
Nomenclature Defined in the Forest Code
Fraudulent cutting of firewood (19) amateur logger Felling/logging without a logging permit
Detention and transportation of split
planks and stacks of timber without an amateur logger
Circulation/transportation of timber without a logging permit
(plantation harvesting permit or special permit)
administrative permit (1)
Detention and transportation of
informal chain‐saw timber (1)
amateur logger Felling/logging without a logging permit
Felling timber without a legal permit (1) amateur logger Felling/Logging without a logging permit
Transportation of illegally‐harvested
Felling/Logging without a logging permit (special permit or
amateur logger
lumber panels (2)
plantation harvesting permit)
Transportation of timber without an
administrative permit (1)
logging company Circulation/transportation of timber without a waybill
Export of timber not declared in the
Use of fraudulent manoeuvres to avoid paying taxes owed
logging company
2005 annual production report (3)
Refusal to submit field documents and
waybills for the final felling (1)
logging company Failure to transmit logging documents in a timely manner
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