Sold down the river - Salva le Foreste

54SOLD DOWN THE RIVERBOLLORÉThe Bolloré Group is a French conglomerate quoted onthe Paris Stock Exchange. Bolloré Investissement (formerlyAlbatros Investissement) is the parent company of theBolloré Group, and Vincent Bolloré is the President andDirector General of both companies. 24 The Bolloré Groupis a powerful force in Africa with wide interests, includingfreight transportation, timber, agro-industry, and theproduction and marketing of cigarettes. Through itsacquisition of strategic industries over the past ten years,the group has become the number two French-Africanconglomerate (after oil company Elf-Total) and is linked athigh levels to French political interests in the region. 25Non-timber interests in AfricaSome 65% of Bolloré’s turnover is derived fromtransportation. 26 Its principal companies in this sector areSaga and SDV (Scac Delmas Vieljeux). Both are leaders intransportation and freight handling, particularly betweenAfrica and Europe, Africa and Asia (timber is a majorcargo on these routes) 27 and within Africa itself. Bolloré’sgrip on shipping and overland transport in Africa willbecome stronger as a result of acquiring the UK companyOT Africa Line, 28 a leader in the shipping of timber fromWest and Central Africa primarily to Europe but also toEast Asia and the USA. Bolloré also owns Bolmet Inc. inthe USA. 29 Bolloré is responsible for running the railwaysin Cameroon and Congo (Brazzaville) and the railwaybetween Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. InCAR, it manages the port of Bangui. 30Bolloré’s agro-industrial interests are concentrated in itssubsidiary, Rivaud. They include palm oil, tobacco,rubber, coffee and cocoa, primarily in Africa (particularlyCameroon) and South-East Asia. Through Rivaud, whichowns French hardwood distributor GIPAT, Bolloré isinterested in buying the recently privatised Socopalm (aformer palm oil parastatal) in Cameroon.The links between transport and timberThe synergies between Bolloré’s various interests in Africa,and the opportunities afforded by a dominant presence inthe region, are exemplified by the group’s interests intransport and logging. In 1998, as part of a US$ 90million World Bank-mandated privatisation andinvestment scheme of the railway in Cameroon – the Banklent US$ 15 million – the operation of the railway wasconceded to Bolloré’s transportation subsidiary, Saga. Therailway, Camrail, derives much of its revenue from thetransport of logs. Another Bolloré subsidiary, the loggingcompany HFC (Forestière de Campo), see below, receiveda contract for supply of timber to the railway in June2000. 31 Links between the supply of timber to the railway,World Bank funding and Bolloré’s timber companies haveall been a source of concern. 32 An agreement betweenCamrail and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) toaddress the transportation of illegal bushmeat by rail hasnot yet been concluded. 33Bolloré also owns a majority share in another formerCameroonian parastatal SEPBC (Société d’Exploitationdes Parcs à Bois du Cameroun), which runs the maindockyard in Douala, through which over 90% ofCameroon’s official timber exports pass, 34 and the port inKribi, from which timber is also exported and which hasrecently been expanded to cater for an increase in timbershipments.The Bolloré group is active in the timber trade in theCAR through warehousing and transport operations,shipping timber from Bangui to Brazzaville and PointeNoire in neighbouring Congo (Brazzaville). 35The Bolloré group is involved in running the Congo-Océan railway from Brazzaville to Pointe Noire in Congo(Brazzaville), a traditional transport route for timber. 36The railway is not only the economic axis of the country,but also of immense strategic significance in the civil war. 37Through its interests in the country, the Bolloré groupsupports the camp of President Sassou Nguesso to a highlevel. 38In Gabon, one of Bolloré’s principal transportationcompanies, SDV, owns a majority in the former Gaboneseparastatal shipping line, Sonatram (Société Nationale desTransports Maritime). 39 Bolloré manages timber handlingactivities at Gabon’s four timber ports through thecompany SEPBG. 40CameroonDuring the early 1990s, Bolloré acquired subsidiarieswhich in turn owned two timber companies in Cameroon:HFC (Forestière de Campo), whose concessions are in thesouth-west, and SIBAF (Société Industrielle des BoisAfricains), whose concessions are in the south-east (seebelow). 41 Bolloré arranged for international journalists tovisit SIBAF and HFC logging sites during the 1999Yaoundé Forest Summit promoted by WWF. 42 Bolloré isdiscussing sustainable forest management with WWF andTropenbos (the Dutch tropical forest research programme)and has recently decided to pursue Forest StewardshipCouncil (FSC) certification for both HFC and SIBAFconcessions. 43 If it does obtain FSC certification, the groupwill have made considerable progress in addressing someof the serious legal, environmental and social issuesassociated with current forest management practices inCameroon.HFC (Forestière de Campo)HFC operates in the South Province and currently holds atotal of 162,790 hectares under concession in and aroundthe Réserve de Campo and Campo Ma’an protected areas.It has two concessions: UFA 09-024 (76,002 hectares),awarded in July 2000, and UFA 09-025 (86,788 hectares).HFC produced 169,000 cubic metres of logs in 1996-7of which 82,000 cubic metres were exported. 44 It has asawmill at Campo with an annual input capacity of60,000 cubic metres. 45 Its principal timber species isAzobé. According to the company, its maximum annualproduction is usually 120,000 cubic metres of logs and15,000 cubic metres of sawn timber. 46Most of the company’s exports leave from Campo baydirect and accounted for around 5% of Cameroon’sofficial timber exports in 1995-6. 47 For decades, HFC hasbeen the only concessionaire of any consequence aroundCampo and so thetown is entirelydependent onHFC’s continuedoperations for itssurvival. Therefore,unless HFC iscommitted to longtermsustainableforest managementin the area, Campo© GREENPEACE