The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

In-Depth Analysis of Impacts 89Box 5.3No more primary forests available for loggingFifty-nine percent of the UFAs in southern Cameroon are estimated to havebeen harvested at least once (Abt and others 2002). With practically all Cameroon’sremaining primary forests protected from commercial activity, what arethe implications for the timber industry and sustainable forest management?Maps of the road network in Cameroon’s forests indicate that it probablyreaches between 1.2 million and 1.3 million hectares in southern and centralCameroon (GFW 2005) and GFW, personal communication). These roads makeit very likely that over a large share of Cameroon’s rainforest zone, timber will beharvested from secondary forests from which most high-volume trees of valuablespecies have been removed.Harvestable volume has been observed to drop progressively in secondary forests(Vincent and Binkley 1992). The magnitude of this drop depends on the selectivityof the initial harvest(s), the diversity of the forest, and the industry’s capacity toincrease the range of harvested woods—which in turn depends on companies’ abilityto market lesser-known woods and to produce attractive products from them.In Central Africa, where the initial harvests are highly selective, the drop involume is less pronounced than in Southeast Asia, where the tree population ismore homogenous from a commercial standpoint. If species such as frake (Terminaliasuperba) and tali (Erythrophleum suaveolens) are given greater considerationby industry, the volumes harvested in a second felling cycle can remainsimilar or even increase. If management plans are strictly respected, this shiftto new species can sustain the forest industry and prevent the kind of brutaldownsizing that has occurred in countries such as Indonesia.Moving toward certification. Since 2004, as increasing numbers ofmanagement plans have been approved and implemented, the reports ofindependent observers indicate that compliance with basic forest managementregulations has become the norm. This respect for Cameroon’sdemanding Forest Law and regulations has improved the prospects forforest companies to obtain third-party certification.Certification enables Delivered companies by The World to distinguish Bank e-library themselves to: in the marketplaceas trustworthy partners IP : of 192.86.100.34 forest owners (governments) and buy-The World Bankers. Certification is purely Mon, voluntary 09 Nov 2009 and 17:06:18 commonly assumed to makesense for companies only when there is a discerning market (in this case,a market in which consumers are willing to pay more for timber that is(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank