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

Annual Cutting Permits
Under the terms of Article 72, paragraph 2 of Decree No. 2002-437, ACPs are delivered by
the DDEFs before 15 December, after a mission to verify systematic inventories (verification
of a minimum of 5% of the number of plots in the annual logging area). The purpose of the
verification mission is to determine whether the inventories done by the company were
accurate.
In this specific case, frequent granting of ACPs after the legal deadline was seen.
First, this situation involves companies’ late submission of the permit requests, after 15
October (cf. Section 1.3.1). In such cases, MEF agents usually accept the application on the
condition that they obtain the DGEF’s prior approval, with official statements of offence only
rarely being issued.
Second, it is appropriate to note that some DDEFs are constrained when conducting
verification missions. Indeed, even though the financial cost of these missions is covered by
the logging companies and can include logging site employees, the DDEFs’ insufficient
human and/or logistical resources hinders their accomplishment in the two and a half months
scheduled, particularly in areas with a large number of forest concessions.
REM recommends that the Forest Administration:
- Apply the legal and regulatory provisions by issuing an official statement of offence for
“failure to follow logging rules” when an ACP request is submitted after the deadline
without adequate reason.
- Discuss the DDEFs’ difficulties to follow the legal timeframe for ACP allocation and
assess the means needed to comply with the provisions (modifying the deadline /
appropriate resources).
Annual Cutting Permit Extension
In regard to annual cutting permit extensions 78 , two law enforcement problems were
observed:
• Allocation after the legal deadline (2 January); and
• Allocation for the entire annual felling area (plots already logged and not yet logged)
instead of for only those plots not yet logged.
For the first problem, it was noted that compliance with the legal deadline is perceived to be
difficult by certain authorities. This was discussed during the Conference of Departmental
Directors of Forest Economy in March 2008, following which recommendations were
formulated that aimed to modify the scheduled allocation date of 2 January to 31 January at
the latest, and redefine the notion of fulfilment of the ACP to include the hauling of felled
timber. This aspect was discussed during a reading committee meeting where the MEF
mentioned that the 2 January deadline was not realistic given difficulties in the field and
78 Article 74 al 2 of decree n° 2002‐437 stipulating conditions of management and use of forests
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