The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

78 The Rainforests of CameroonCerutti and Tacconi (2006) estimated that the informal sector harvests540,000 cubic meters per year, whereas Plouvier and others (2002) suggesteda figure of about 1 million cubic meters. If one assumes that theinformal sector harvests 800,000 cubic meters and adds the Forest Administration2004 production figure of 2.2 million cubic meters, a total of 3million cubic meters of timber could have been produced in Cameroon inone year, of which as much as 25–30 percent may have been illegal, principallyissuing from the informal sector and supplying the domestic market.Such figures must be viewed with caution, given the potential for overlappingand otherwise unreliable data, yet the general trends are very clear.Much illegal timber (high-value woods such as bété, bibolo, bubinga,sapelli, and zingana) is used to make furniture. Furniture-making is avibrant segment of the informal sector. The biggest market is in Yaoundé.Local construction is also a significant consumer of illegally harvestedtimber processed into planks.Although illegal logging tends to be concentrated in the informal sectorand to be directed mostly at the growing domestic market, some potentiallyillegal timber is entering the international market. 4 In 2005, morethan 100,000 cubic meters of timber, sourced from “operators withoutconcessions,” were exported through Douala, but it is difficult to determinehow much came from companies operating more or less legallyon small titles and how much came from informal chain-saw operators.About 200,000–260,000 cubic meters of log-equivalent timber werechanneled to Sahelian and North African markets through very activenetworks in northern Cameroon, which source timber from densely forestedareas of Center and East Provinces (Koffi Yeboa 2005) (see map 4;map insert), although the proportion of illegally sourced timber in thisnorthern export flow remains largely unknown. 5Prosecution of Illegal LoggingThe credibility of a law enforcement system depends on its capacity notonly to detect fraud and crime but also to sufficiently fine or punish offenders.Since 2000, the Ministries of Forests and Finance have intensified theidentification and prosecution of illegal logging operations, with supportfrom the independent observer on forest law enforcement. As mentioned,MINFOF issues a quarterly list of illegal logging cases, 6 fines paid, and casesDelivered by The World Bank e-library to:in court. Figure 5.2 depicts the The fines World paid Bank between 2001 and 2007. Data donot, however, show the payment IP : of 192.86.100.34 damages, so they appear low (new dataMon, 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18are being provided by MINFOF and the Ministry of Finance).Several sources of concern remain. The fines whose payment has beenascertained, CFAF 2,209,364,548, or about $4.4 million, are not insignifi-(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank