TYaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – The wood operation licenses of 72 companies were cancelled after they were found to be practicing illegal activities in timber extraction and processing.

The month of March did not come with too much of good news for the 72 companies who are into the business of timber extraction primarily.

Timber transporting truckers share the same narrow roads with taxis and cars

After regularly reviewing the recalcitrant comportment of these individuals cum companies, every one of which had been given wood operation licenses, they were found to be ignoring the various laws that govern the sector.

The government took immediate action against the companies and took their revenge after implementing a decision to cancel their operations.

The decision is an integral part of the implementation of the Cameroon-European Union Cooperation Voluntary Partnership Agreement of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) which is being brought into full force presently.

It comprises of taking the necessary steps to battle illegal exploitation of forest resources and to put an end to any trade practice even remotely related to the activity.

The FLEGT plan of action has given the go ahead for the inking of Voluntary Partnership Agreements with timber producing countries who have expressed their string consent for taking the necessary steps that are directed towards improving the governance, while exercising control of trade in timber products and monitoring the legal validity of the products as well as satisfying the global demand for legal timber products.

The terms dictated in the mandate are strict, precise and clear. “Economic actors in the forestry sector, holders of wood extraction authorizations and involved in activities in the course of 2010 are declared invalid and can neither be renewed nor prolonged for one reason or the other.” The decision would be valid for all licenses that were given before December 30, 2009.

Timber logging Activity in Cameroon, Africa

Even though the decision by the government does not at any point of time reveal or even vaguely indicates as to why the activities of the aforesaid companies have been stopped, it is quite evident, from previous experiences that their operations have been going against the law. Forestry companies are offered several types of licenses and each of which indicates the actions to be taken under specific conditions.

If this case is analyzed in specific, you would be able to find that those who are involved in any kind of wood extraction are expected to also add their share to some sort of development oriented projects in the areas where they fell and ship wood.

These would typically comprise of building of social amenities such as health centres, schools, road repairs, bridges and local markets or any such related activity that would contribute to the society in terms of the damage they are doing to the environment by indulging in the activity of depleting it of its resources by felling wood.

In many of the cases including that of the 72 companies who were persecuted this is hardly the story. Most of them just rush into the lush forests eager to rob Mother Nature of her resources, fell their timber and vanish into thin air without so much so even bothering about the impact that they create for the environment forget about doing something for the local population.

Though this is a practice that has been doing the rounds for ages, the government has decided that this is no longer to be accepted as the norm and feels that behavior of this type is definitely deplorable.

The suspension of the 72 companies, which in itself is an order that has to be viewed quite gravely, is a sequel to the agreement that the government had entered into with its partners of the European Union so as to ensure that only legal wood was felled in the country.

One aspect to be noted about forestry operations is that it is highly intricate and complex and it is the intricacies that are inherent to the business that makes it an easy avenue for fraud and disorder.

This is not the first case when the government has announced a decision sanctioning players in the forest sector. As per the numbers taken, of the forest area in the country that spans over 100,000 hectares which are logged each year, 40 percent are illegally felled.

Owing to partially, and mostly too, to the lack of attention provided by the administrative authorities, logging companies most often fell beyond the concessions that have been allotted to them and export as much as they can without the authorities even being aware of it.

Some of the companies overlook or ignore the terms mandated by the licenses given to them and fell timber much beyond their concessions.

A lot of times this happens with the full knowledge and agreement of the concerned authorities and administrative agents.

Most of the forestry companies, especially the local ones, do not have the adequate financial and technical backing to satisfy the conditions stipulated by their licenses and hence have to opt for subletting.

This involves giving out their licenses on lease to outsiders who have the resources to extract wood for export or sale.

Other areas of illegal operations in the sector include:

transportation mandates where companies do not even bother to check as to whether they are adhering to the requirements of the law and sales where buyers themselves blatantly deny checking if the timber or wood they are buying has gone through the mandated legal process.