Cameroon, Mozambique press for equitable timber trade rules at forum

[Photo: Yuki Lei]

African producer nations used the Global Legal & Sustainable Timber Forum (GLSTF) in Macau to call for a rebalancing of global timber trade rules, warning that compliance costs are forcing processing businesses to close and hindering local industrial development.

Cameroon said its 20 million hectares of forest – about 40% of its territory within the Congo Basin – support rural communities and employment, but a “multiplication of regulations” in destination markets, particularly the European Union, has triggered “a deep tremor” across the wood processing industry.

“Many companies have not survived the combination of three things: the contraction of demand due to real estate activity, the brutal increase in compliance costs – audit, traceability, documentation, geolocation – and legal requirements applicable to each market,” Jules Doret Ndongo, minister of forestry and wildlife of the Republic of Cameroon, said.

The result, he added, has been business closures, thousands of jobs lost and stalled investment in local processing – “precisely what we want to encourage.”

He posed the central question to the assembly: “How can a country that is a legitimate rights-holder, selling into global markets, develop its economy, create jobs and transform locally, without its forestry sector being mired?”

Cameroon put forward five recommendations: making local processing the core of resilience, since banning raw timber exports is not the same as building efficient investment capacity; building a public service of legality, with Cameroon prepared to connect its SIGIF 2 traceability system to destination markets and responsibility founded on the legal chain of custody; channeling all resources – secondary species, residues and waste – toward panels, bioenergy, bio-based materials, non-timber forest products and plantations; mobilizing green finance, including payments for environmental services, carbon markets and new industrial funds that “must fully reach the companies that invest in legality”; and investing in human capital through vocational training, a wood culture, and the inclusion of women and youth.

Cameroon also called for “permanent dialogue between the regulators of destination markets and producer countries,” so new requirements are designed together with producing nations.

“We say to the regulators of our markets that we are ready – and we prove it every day through SIGIF 2, our legality certificates, our new forest laws, and the progressive implementation of the ban on raw timber exports,” he said. “But do not make compliance a wall that pushes our businesses into informality.”

Forests ‘do not stop at national borders’

Imede Chafim Falume, representative of the state secretary for land and environment at the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries and national director of forests and wildlife of the Republic of Mozambique, said the country’s more than 34 million hectares of forest cover support rural development, biodiversity and climate regulation – but the country loses more than 267,000 hectares annually to unsustainable agriculture, uncontrolled fires, illegal logging and limited livelihood alternatives.

“Reversing this trend is both an environmental necessity and a development priority,” he said, citing the Maputo Declaration on the Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Miombo Woodland, endorsed in August 2022, as a framework for coordinated conservation and restoration.

“For Mozambique, the message is simple: forests, watersheds, wildlife, climate risks and timber markets do not stop at national borders. No country can achieve lasting success in isolation. Our progress depends on the progress of our neighbors, just as they depend on ours.”

The representative said Mozambique is strengthening its forest information and monitoring system, promoting digital solutions for inventory and licensing, and developing a mobile application for pre-harvest forest inventory with ITTO cooperation.

“Transformation must help us move from the export of unprocessed timber to domestic processing, value addition, decent employment and fair benefits for forest-dependent communities,” he said, adding that Mozambique aims to strengthen sustainable concessions, modernize processing industries and formalize small-scale sawmilling and carpentry.

“Our mission is clear: forest products should increasingly be processed within Mozambique, creating jobs, transferring skills and generating greater value for the national economy – ensuring that everything remains legal and within sustainable limits.”

Mozambique declared itself ready to deepen cooperation with producer and consumer countries, international organizations, investors and responsible operators.

“Together, we must build transparent markets that reward legal and sustainable production, discourage illegal timber trade, and ensure that communities living in and around forests receive equitable social and economic benefits,” he said, expressing hope the Macau forum would be remembered “as an important milestone in our collective journey toward a more transparent, innovative and sustainable forest economy.”