The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

86 The Rainforests of CameroonAreas harvested. As mentioned, new regulations limited the area thatcould be harvested to 1/30th of concession area each year. Total areawhere timber could be legally harvested has declined from more than400,000 hectares in 1998/99 to 200,000 hectares in 2006. The reductionin area has been accompanied by an equally important shift in the type ofmanagement models used in the areas where timber was harvested, frommostly rural areas, where logging is less regulated and more destructive,to UFAs, where regulations are applied more rigorously (figure 5.4).Volumes harvested. The volume of legally harvested timber peaked in1997/98 at 3.5 million cubic meters (figure 5.5). This level of productionwas a direct consequence of buoyant Asian demand, combined with theimpact of the 1994 devaluation of the CFAF. Since then, harvested volumehas come down and remained steady at about 2.2–2.5 million cubic meters,about 75 percent of which comes from sustainable sources (UFAs). 12Figure 5.6 highlights the origin of harvested timber: While most timberwas extracted from unregulated areas in 1998/99, since 2004, more thanthree-quarters of declared production has come from concessions. In 2006,Figure 5.4. Trends in areas open for harvesting, by type of harvesting rightAnnual productive areas(thousands of hectares)450400350300250200150100500Delivered by The World Bank e-library to:The World BankIP : 192.86.100.34YearSmall Mon, harvesting 09 Nov 2009 titles 17:06:18 Ventes de coupeLicensesConcessions/UFAs1998/99Source: SIGIF (MINFOF) unpublished data1999/20002000/012001/022002/0320042005(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank