Embargoed for Release until 12:01 GMT on 7CAMEROON
June 2011

AFRICA

Cameroon 46

Gabon 90

Central African Republic 55

Ghana 99

Congo 64

Liberia 112

Cote d’Ivoire 72

Nigeria 124

Democratic Republic of
the Congo 81

Togo 135

45

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Cameroonof Guinea, and the Congo Basin forests in
Cameroon’s south and southeast. The Biafran
forest, which formerly covered the entire coastal
lowland, has been largely cleared. Where it still
exists it consists of secondary forests and degradedprimary forests, characterized by species such as
Lophira alata (azobé) and Sacaglottis gabonensis(ozouga). Mangroves are found along most of the
Cameroonian coast, with a total area of about
120 000 hectares. The two largest areas are in
the Rio del Rey estuary and the Bay of Douala(Spalding et al. 2010).

Forest resources
Cameroon has a land area of 47.5 million hectares
and an estimated population in 2010 of 19.9
million people (United Nations Population
Division 2010). Cameroon is ranked 153rd out of
182 countries in UNDP’s Human Development
Index (UNDP 2009). The country stretches
between latitudes 2° and 13° north from theGulf of Guinea to Lake Chad. The coastal plain
is about 600 km long and 100–200 km wide, its
inland limit marked by slopes and steep scarps.
The southern plateau, the site of Cameroon’s major
closed-forest area, is 500–800 m in altitude and thecentral Adamaoua high plateau is generally 1000 m
or more above sea level. Estimates of forest area varyfrom 19.7 million hectares (MINFOF 2008), to21.2 million hectares (Government of Cameroon
2009, FAO 2010), to 27.2 million hectares (deWasseige et al. 2008). The latter estimate includes
the categories forest–cropland mosaic and forest–
savanna mosaic.
Forest types. Cameroon’s forests are mainly tropicalrainforests of two predominant types: lowland
evergreen (54% of total forest area), and lowland
semi-deciduous (28%).a They are particularly richin commercial species, including various species ofMeliaceae, such as Entandrophragma cylindricum(sapelli) and E. utile (sipo). The evergreen forests
can be divided into two broad categories: theBiafran forests, forming an arc around the Gulf

46

The Congo Basin forests differ from the Biafran
forests in the absence of species of Caesalpiniaceae,with the exception of Gilbertiodendron dewevrei;
another feature is the importance assumed
by Baillonella toxisperma (moabi). Inland,semi-evergreen lowland forest gives way to a mosaic
of degraded rainforest and secondary grassland.
The medium-altitude closed semi-deciduous forests
are marked by an abundance of Sterculiaceae, suchas Cola spp, Eribroma oblonga (eyong), Mansonia
altissima (bété) and Triplochiton scleroxylon(ayous). North of this is Sudanian woodland, withpredominantly Acacia wooded grassland.
Permanent forest estate. The Forest Law (1994)
divides the forest area into permanent andnon-permanent forest areas (domaine forestierpermanent et non permanent). The permanent forest
includes the categories forest reserves, protectedareas and council forests; non-permanent forest
includes community forest and private forest(ITTO 2006). The Government of Cameroon(2010) estimated that there is 12.8 million hectaresof natural-forest PFE, comprising 7.6 million
hectares of production forest and 5.2 million
hectares of protection forest (Table 1). The exact
extent of protection PFE is unclear, however: figures
vary between 3.9 million hectares and 7.2 million
hectares (Government of Cameroon 2005).

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. Cameroon’s
net deforestation rate is relatively low (0.14% –about 270 000 hectares per year; Governmentof Cameroon 2008) compared with many othertropical countries, but it is among the highest inCAMEROON

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡
†

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)13.3–23.8
19.7–21.2

19 98516 900**

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted

Total

8840
7600‡

12 75712 800

17
19

3900
5200†

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Dense humid forest, including 120 000 hectares of mangroves (de Wasseige et al. 2008).
Includes FMUs, other production forests, forest reserves and communal forests.
Includes forest protected areas in IUCN categories I–IV (4.4 million hectares) and the area of conservation FMUs (800 000 hectares).

the Congo Basin. The Government of Cameroon(2008) cited the following as the main direct
and indirect drivers of deforestation and forest
degradation: the development of agriculturalactivities – both slash-and-burn subsistence
agriculture and cash crops (e.g. cocoa); the illegal
exploitation of timber outside the PFE; theexploitation of fuelwood, particularly around majorurban centres; and the development of the mining
sector (bauxite, cobalt), which attracts workers (andhence increased hunting and other environmental
stressors) to forested areas. Population growth is afactor near towns and cities and in the coastal forest
zone, where the rate is nearly 5% per year (ibid.).

reduce the vulnerability of agriculture, and they canalso serve as a social ‘safety valve’. Forest fires appear
to have been increased in the last decade in the driernorthern part of the country and there is anecdotal
evidence that this is caused by the lengthening of
the dry season.b

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. The PFE in Cameroon belongs
to the state, although the state has transferredcertain rights to legal communes for a portion ofit (414 000 hectares of the 12.8 million hectaresof PFE; Table 3). The permanent forest in themain forest zone in the south is nearly all stateowned under the categories of timber production,
protected and protection forests. Generally, people
living in forest areas fully retain their traditionaluser rights (ITTO 2009a). In the non-PFE(domaine forestier non permanent), a process for the
allocation of tenure and user rights is under way(ibid.). Stakeholder disputes over forest ownershipand the demarcation of boundaries have beencommon in the past (ITTO 2006) and remain sotoday.aAccording to a national forest inventory conducted
in 2004, primary forests comprise about 18% anddegraded primary forest nearly 50% of total forest
cover (Table 2).
Vulnerability of forests to climate change. The
Cameroonian agricultural sector is potentiallyvulnerable to climate change, raising concerns about
future food security. According to McSweeney etal. (undated), the mean annual temperature in
the country has increased by 0.7 °C since 1960,
an average rate of increase of 0.15 °C per decade.
Mean annual rainfall per month has decreased byaround 2.9 mm (2.2%) per decade since 1960.
Cameroon experienced particularly low rainfall
between 2003 and 2006 (ibid.). Forests are a meansfor protecting soils and watersheds and can help

Criteria and indicators. Cameroon adopted the
ATO/ITTO principles, criteria and indicators(PCI) for the sustainable management of African
natural tropical forests in 2004. However, only
those companies that have been or are in a processof certification are applying the PCI as a tool

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haPrimary forest
Degraded primary forest
Secondary forest
Degraded forest land

-

-

3250
8600
4500
-

Source: Government of Cameroon (2009).

47

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 haState ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g. villages,
municipalities)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by firms, individuals,
other corporate-

12 400

414

414

652

12 8000--State forest: includes forest reserves (production and protection
forests, reforestation areas and others) and protected areas.
Forests owned by legal communes.
Only figures for PFE available.
In the non-PFE: area designated for communities andIndigenous peoples, including (in 2009) 171 community forests
with signed contracts and simple forest management plans.aPrivate forests have never been inventoried and their area is
unknown.a

Source: Government of Cameroon (2009).

for control and monitoring (ITTO 2009a). The
Government of Cameroon used the ITTO C&I in
its submission to ITTO for this report.a•

Putting in place a legal framework conducive tothe development of the private sector, based onlong-term conventions and industrialization.

Forest policy and legislation. Cameroon’s forest
policy was published in 1993 and adapted overtime. In 2005 the Forestry and Environment Policy
Letter (Government of Cameroon 2005) was signed
between the Ministry for the Environment and theProtection of Nature (MINEP) and the Ministry
for Forestry and Wildlife, setting out the basic
principles for sustainably managing Cameroon’s
forest estate (see also Topa et al. 2009). The
Forestry Code was adopted in 1994 (Law 94/01)
and the Environment Code in 1996 (Law 96/12).
Cameroon’s forest policy and strategic framework
centres on the following aspects (Government of
Cameroon 2005):•

The harmonization of the regional management
system through a zoning plan.

•

The improvement of governance throughincreased transparency and the systematic
dissemination of information to the public.

•

The sustainable management of forests, with thecreation of a PFE and the setting up of FMUs
to replace forest permits.

•

Contributing to economic growth and poverty
alleviation by ceding part of the income fromtax revenue to village councils, creating jobs andallocating community forests.

•

Participatory management through consultation
with civil society and the private sector,
increasing the understanding of rural people
about their responsibilities for forests, andpermanent dialogue with the international
community.

•

The conservation of biodiversity through anational network of protected areas.

•

Building the capacity of the public sector in theperformance of its key functions and the transfer
of productive functions to the private sector.

48

Through close collaboration with its development
partners, Cameroon has made significant
achievements in implementing its forest policy,
including the maintenance of a well-conserved
forest resource and relatively good control
over deforestation; the improvement of forest
management practices in the formal forest industry;
growing recognition of customary rights andthe contribution of forests to social welfare; andeffective collaboration between forest institutions
and civil society, which has led to improved forest
governance and transparency (Topa et al. 2009).
Outstanding needs include an improved approachto addressing the needs of Indigenous peoples;
greater attention to NTFPs; financing for forest
conservation efforts; the reshaping of community
forestry; and greater attention to small-scale forest
management and domestic forest product markets(ibid.).
At the international level, Cameroon signed
a FLEGT VPA with the European Union in
May 2010 and the first VPA-licensed products
were expected in December 2011. Cameroon
is a signatory to the Yaoundé Declaration and amember of the Commission in Charge of Forests
in Central Africa (Commission en Charge des Fôrets
d’Afrique Centrale – COMIFAC).

CAMEROON

Institutions involved in forests. In December
2004 the Ministry of Environment and Forests(MINEF) was replaced by two successor ministries,
the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (Ministère desForêts et de la Faune – MINFOF) and MINEP,
which is also responsible for the developmentof REDD+. MINFOF is primarily responsible
for forest policy, the forest legislative frameworkand the enforcement of forest laws, as well as forinternational conventions with respect to forests
and wildlife (ITTO 2009a).
Within MINFOF are three main technicaldirectorates dealing with forestry: the Directorateof Forests (Direction des Forêts), which is
responsible for forest management, inventories, law
enforcement, reforestation and community forestry;the Directorate of Promotion and Transformation,
which deals with the wood-processing industry,
NTFPs, forest statistics and timber certification;and the Directorate of Wildlife and Protected
Areas, which manages protected areas. MINFOF
is represented in all provinces and the country’s
58 divisions. It employs 101 people centrally and930 people in total, including 220 forest engineersand 25 agronomists and technical engineers.a The
National Agency for Forestry Development (Agence
Nationale de Développement des Forêts – ANAFOR)
is a parastatal technical agency whose mandate is topromote forest plantations by individual farmers,
communities and the private sector.a
Forest research is conducted by several institutions(i.e. the Institute of Agricultural Research forDevelopment – IRAD, the World Agroforestry
Centre – ICRAF, the Center for International
Forestery Research – CIFOR, and the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture – IITA) andforestry courses are offered by the universities of
Dschang and Yaoundé, the Forestry School of
Mbalmayo, the Wildlife School of Garoua andthe regional agricultural teaching centre, Centred’Enseignement Spécialisé en Agriculture (ITTO
2009a). Many national and international NGOs,
including major international conservation NGOs,
play a direct role in the forest sector throughpartnerships with governmental agencies or insupport of civil society. International donor agencies
coordinate their support for MINFOF throughthe coordination body, Cercle de Concertation desPartenaires du MINFOF.

Status of forest management
Forest for production
Law 94/01 provids a good basis for introducing
SFM. It stipulates the compulsory preparation andimplementation of long-term forest management
plans in concessions and simple forest management
plans (plan simple de gestion) in forests attributed
to communities; the introduction of provisions forconcession allocation; and the creation of forest
brigades and an inspection panel at the national
and provincial levels for forest control. Commercial
forestry is implemented in the PFE mainly
through concessions and timber-licence contracts
between the state and private entrepreneurs. FMUs
(unités forestières d’aménagement) are the basic
unit of timber harvesting. They are limited to a
maximum size of 200 000 hectares and allocatedby public tender (ITTO 2006). A forest concession
consists of one or several FMUs. A systematic
bidding, management and business concept
for the attribution and management of FMUs
was introduced between 1998 and 2007. The
procedures are described in ITTO (2006), and adetailed analysis on their effectiveness was carriedout by Topa et al. (2009). In 2005, 32 of the 72
FMUs had approved management plans (ITTO2006).
Today, the proportion of Cameroon’s production
forests covered by forest management plans ishigh compared with most tropical countries(Topa et al. 2009). In 2009, 103 FMUs had been
attributed over a total area of 6.1 million hectares,of which 74 had an approved management plan;
this corresponds to an area of just over 5 million
hectares.a Of the 74 FMUs with management plans,
41 (covering an area of 2.9 million hectares) havebeen managed under forest management plans for

Log landing in a Cameroonian concession.

49

Status of tropical forest management 2011

more than five years.a Poor logging practice, illegal
logging and encroachment that had reportedly
been common in the past (ITTO 2006) have been
reduced in these managed FMUs in the last five
years.a

Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
About 2000 hectares of new plantations werecreated between 2005 and 2009 (ITTO 2009a).
Despite the newly created ANAFOR, which aims
to support community and private investment
in forest plantations, no information is available
about private planted forests. There are extensiveagro-industrial plantations, including morethan 50 000 hectares of rubber.a Many timber
plantations were established during the 1950s,
with species such as Terminalia ivorensis, Aucoumea
klaineana, Tectona grandis, Pinus spp, various
Meliaceae and eucalypts. In addition, Gmelina
arborea was planted to produce matches. Fuelwood
plantations, and plantations to protect soil andfarmland and for other purposes, were started about
30 years ago with good results; species used include
Cassia siamea and Dalbergia sissoo (ITTO 2006).

In addition to the allocation of large tracts ofproduction forests to industrial investors throughtimber concessions, there are seven other types oftimber-harvesting contracts, including community
forest contracts and council contracts. For example,
communities can manage community forests fortimber and non-timber production (up to 5000
hectares) using simplified forest management plans.
In 2008, six council forests covering an area of
about 141 000 hectares had been allocated, fourof them with fully formulated forest management
plans, and 177 community forest contracts had
been allocated for 632 000 hectares, 143 of which(covering an area of 546 000 hectares) had simple
forest management plans (de Wasseige et al. 2008).

Forest certification. In 2005 there were no certified
forests in Cameroon (ITTO 2006), but third-party
certification has progressed rapidly in recent years.
In July 2010, five concessions (Lokoundjé – 69 000
hectares; SFIL Decolvenare – 70912 hectares; TRC– 125 500 hectares; Palissco – 341 700 hectares;
Cafeco Wijma – 71 800 hectares; and Wijma –97 000 hectares) hold valid Forest StewardshipCouncil (FSC) forest management certificates (FSC2010). An additional 1.2 million hectares of FMUs
are in the process of certification (ITTO 2009a).
Along with all other ITTO member countries inthe subregion, Cameroon has been participating,since 2005, in a regional ITTO project that is
helping to build capacity for the implementation of
the ATO/ITTO PCI at the national level in African
ITTO member countries. It aims to train at least 60
forestry staff in each country in the implementationof the PCI, develop an auditing framework for
African forests, and train at least 60 trainers in theprocedures for conducting audits based on the PCI
at the FMU level. This project has contributed tothe progress of certification in Cameroon.

Silviculture and species selection. A 1998 decreeof Law 94/01 stipulates silvicultural standards
for forest management. The felling cycle is set
at 30 years and minimum harvesting diameters
are indicated for each species (ITTO 2006). The
standards further describe a polycyclic management
regime, which includes the designation of future
crop trees, the tending of natural regeneration,
thinning, enrichment planting and refinement(Topa et al. 2009). Cameroon has over 600 tree
species, of which about 300 are fairly common
in the humid forests. Of those, fewer than 30 are
currently used in significant quantities for timberand fewer than a dozen species make up the bulk
(80%) of domestic utilization and trade (ITTO2006). Besides the five species listed in Table 4,other commonly harvested timber species are
Terminalia superba (fraké), Cylicodiscus gabunensis(okan/adoum), Distemonanthus benthamianus(movingui), Entandrophragma candollei (kossipo)
and Pterocarpus spp (red padouk) (MINFOF 2008).

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes**

Triplochiton scleroxylon (ayous)*
Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli)*
Erythrophleum ivorensis (tali)
Lophira alata (azobe, bongossi)*
Chlorophora excelsa (iroko)*

About 800 000 m3 annually (35% of total production).
About 390 000 m3 annually (17%).
About 170 000 m3 annually (7%).
About 5% of total production.
About 4% of total production.

*
**

50

Also listed in ITTO (2006).
According to MINFOF (2008); average production for 2005–07.

CAMEROON

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. A significant volumeof timber is now harvested in FMUs that are
subject to rigorous regulations (Topa et al. 2009).
The total area of FMUs that are FSC-certified is705 000 hectares (as of July 2010). About 550 000
hectares of FMUs are close to certification.b The
area of certified forest and the area of forest close
to certification comprise the estimated area ofsustainably managed forest shown in Table 5.
Timber production and trade. The total annual
roundwood production (2005–09) is estimated atabout 14 million m3, of which 9.5–12 million m3 isfuelwood.a According to ITTO (2011), the averageannual industrial roundwood production in the
period 2007–09 was 2.27 million m3, comparedwith 1.75 million m3 per year in 2004 and 2.65
million m3 in 1999. Average annual sawnwood
production in 2007–09 was about 773 000 m3,
compared with 702 000 m3 in 2004 and 600 000
m3 in 1999. Plywood production was 24 000
m3 in 2009, compared with 36 000 m3 in 2004
and a significantly higher 92 000 m3 in 1999. An
estimated 79 000 m3 of veneer were produced
in 2009, compared with 43 000 m3 in 2004 and53 000 m3 in 1999.
The ratio of domestically used timber toexported timber is 2.4:1 (ITTO 2009b). The
informal domestic market also provides timber toneighbouring Chad, Nigeria and Sudan. Cameroon
is now the tenth-largest tropical timber exporter(it was the seventh-largest in 2005) and is still thesecond-largest timber exporter among African
ITTO producer countries after Gabon. The main
export destinations are the European Union (about
60% of all timber exports) and Asia (22%).
Non-timber forest products. The NTFP sector
is expanding rapidly, but few reliable data are
available on production and trade (ITTO 2009a).
NTFPs are traded regionally, in particular with
Nigeria. Bush meat is of major significance inboth rural and urban areas. The bark and fruits ofGarcinia kola and G. lucida (onie and essok) areused as medicines and stimulants, and the leaves of
Gnetum spp are consumed as a delicious meal andtraded locally and regionally with Nigeria. Palm oil
is extracted from the nuts of Elaeis guineensis (Etonpalm) and palm wine is extracted from the upper
part of the stem. Irvingia spp (andok or wild mango)
and Ricinodendron heudelotii (ezezang) are used ascondiments and Dacryodes edulis (plum or assa) is a
popular food. The bark of Prunus africana is sold topharmaceutical companies for use in the treatmentof prostate-related disorders. The powdered barkof P. africanum (also known as pygeum or Pygeum
africanum) is also used worldwide to control urinary
disorders in men and as a herbal supplement for
benign prostatic hyperplasia. Baillonella toxisperma(moabi), a high-priced hardwood species of
the Sapotaceae family, is traditionally used byforest-dwellers for the oil from its seeds. All theseproducts, as well as extracts of Tabernante iboga,
Cinchona spp, Strophanthus spp, Voacanga africana,
Rauwofia vomitaria and Paunsinvstalia yohimbe, arecommercialized in Cameroon, generally in local
markets. There are reportedly conflicts in some forest
areas between concessionaires and local people, inparticular Pygmy communities, over the use of forest
products, in particular in the cases of moabi andEntandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli) (ibid.).
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimated
Cameroon’s national-level forest biomass carbon
stock at 3454–3721 MtC, Eggleston et al.
(2006) estimated it at 6138 MtC and FAO(2010) estimated it at 2696 MtC. Cameroon isparticipating in the Forest Carbon Partnership
Facility and submitted a readiness idea note in2008 (Government of Cameroon 2008), in which
the main potential REDD strategies were listed as
the development of integrated protected areas in
the PFE; the strengthening of sustainably managed
production forests; the fight against illegal logging;
the effective distribution of revenues; and support

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)*

Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

8840
7600

4950
6100a

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
1760
5000

Certified

0
705

500

17

PlantedWith
management
plans
-

1255

19

2

Sustainably
managed

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).

51

Status of tropical forest management 2011

for the agricultural sector to reduce pressure on
forests. Table 6 shows the estimated forest carbon
potential of the country. There is good potential
to reduce forest degradation and enhance forest
carbon sinks, in particular through restoration
and reforestation, but there is a need to strengthen
inventory and monitoring capacities.

located in the Sudanian savanna and woodlandvegetation in the north of the country), six wildlife
reserves (740 000 hectares), four wildlife sanctuaries(95 000 hectares) and 77 forest reserves covering
880 000 hectares. A further 867 000 hectares offormer production FMUs have been set aside forconservation purposes (ITTO 2006).

Forest for protection

In mid 2010, seven national parks and one wildlife
reserve had approved management plans. Twotransboundary protected areas are supported by
ITTO: the Lobéké National Park (part of thetri-national Sangha transboundary conservationarea); and the tri-national protected area of
Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM), comprising
forest in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon.

Soil and water. No estimate of the extent of
natural forest and planted forest set aside primarily
for water and soil protection was available for thisreport.
Biological diversity. Cameroon is rich inbiodiversity, accommodating more than 8300 plant
species, about 297 mammal species and 848 bird
species. Nearly half of all the bird and mammal
species of Africa are present in Cameroon’s forests(ITTO 2006).
Twenty-eight mammals, eleven birds, 50
amphibians, two reptiles, eleven arthropods and
246 plants found in forests are listed as criticallyendangered, endangered or vulnerable on the
IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN 2011).
Twenty-five plant species are listed in CITES
Appendix II, including two tree species, Pericopsis
elata (afrormosia) and Prunus africana (UNEPWCMC 2011).
Protective measures in production forests. The
forest management prescriptions have gradually
been widened since 1998 to include measures toprotect soil, biodiversity and the flow of waterin concession areas. They also include a series ofstand treatments to encourage the regeneration ofcommercial tree species in natural stands.
Extent of protected areas. An estimated 5.2
million hectares of closed and open forests are
in reserves conforming to IUCN protected-area
categories I–IV, comprising 15 national parks (2.7
million hectares, of which seven national parks are

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Although considerable
progress has been made since 2005 in the
preparation of management plans for protectedareas and in re-classifying forest protected areas,
it remains difficult to estimate the real extent offorest protected areas and in particular the areaof protection PFE that is under SFM (Table 7).
The Biosphere Reserve of Dja, which has received
continuous support since 1992 by the ECOFAC(Ecosystem Forestier d’Afrique Centrale) program of
the European Union, with a total area of 526 000
hectares, can be considered well managed, as can
the nine conservation concessions (non-allocatedFMUs) registered with MINFOF, totalling 895 000
hectares.

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Forest products are a principal
source of export income in Cameroon. The export
value of timber was about 320 billion FCFA
(US$650 million) in 2004 (ITTO 2009a), up
from US$210 million in 2001. According to theirlicence contracts, forest concession-holders mustlink their concessions with industrial processing
units, thus providing stable employment in remote

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

3454–3721

54++

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
sink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030++++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity+

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

52

CAMEROON

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)***

Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

3900
5200

2650
4400

-

2230**

1420

As reported in ITTO (2006).
MINFOF (2008).

rural communities and additional revenue flows
for the state (ITTO 2006). An economic study
in 2006 estimated the manpower engaged in thetimber industry at 16 000a; if the domestic woodsector is included, total forest-based employment
is estimated at 45 000 (ITTO 2009a). Harvestingtaxes provide an important revenue stream, whichis shared between the state (50%), communes(40%) and local communities (10%). In 2005, forexample, the total tax revenue was US$26 million(ibid.). The amount has increased steadily over theyears (Topa et al. 2009).
Livelihood values. Forests provide many local
communities with foods, medicines and locallytraded goods. Forests also have a major spiritualvalue for many ethnic groups. Forestry has been
included in the country’s poverty reduction
strategy.aSocial relations. Cameroon contains around
230 ethnic groups, many of them with a close
association with forests. The Pygmy people, who
are traditional hunters and gatherers, are the ethnic
group most threatened in their traditional wayof life by forest loss and degradation, restrictions
on forest access and a lack of basic human rights(Government of Cameroon 2008). Progress has
been made in recent years in the recognition of
local user rights in forests, in the consultation
process of opening-up new harvesting permits,
and in the system for sharing tax revenues withlocal communities. Increasingly, permits are being
granted to local communities to manage forests fortimber and NTFPs.

Sector Policy Letter defines the common
responsibility for forests between MINFOF andthe Ministry for Environment and Protection of
Nature, the latter being responsible for climatechange adaptation and mitigation and REDD+.
However, the capacity of both ministries to fully
enforce the forest law and implement forestand environmental policies is low. Cameroon isprogressing well towards SFM, in particular in someselected FMUs, but has yet to translate many of its
ambitious forest management goals into practiceand to effectively protect its PFE.

Key points•

Cameroon has an estimated 12.8 million
hectares of PFE (similar to 2005), comprising
7.60 million hectares of natural production
forests (compared with 8.84 million hectares in2005), 5.20 million hectares of protection
forests (compared with 3.90 million hectares in2005) and 19 000 hectares of industrial timber
plantations (compared with 17 000 hectares in2005).

•At least 1.25 million hectares of natural-forest
production PFE are estimated to be under SFM.
Forest management plans have been developed
for and are being implemented in 5.0 million
hectares of the production PFE (compared with
1.76 million hectares in 2005). An estimated1.42 million hectares of the protection PFE isunder SFM.

•

Despite considerable efforts in forest law
enforcement in the past five years, the integrityof the PFE is threatened by encroachment,poaching and poor logging practices, including
illegal logging, but no official data on the extent
of these are available.

•

Mining is an increasing threat to forest stability,
as is population pressure, especially in coastal
forests. Cameroon has good potential to develop
REDD+ initiatives that address these threats.

Summary
Cameroon possesses significant forest resources
and has confirmed over the past five years its
considerable potential for SFM. The policy
environment is sound and governmental
responsibility for forests is vested in a single
ministry, the Ministry of Forests and Fauna,
MINFOF. A joint 2005 Forest and Environment

53

Status of tropical forest management 2011•

Forests are the living environment of many
ethnic groups, particularly Pygmy communities.
Ensuring the rights of these ethnic groups
remains a major challenge for achieving SFM.

EndnotesaGovernment of Cameroon (2009).

ITTO (2009b). Annual Review and Assessment of the World
Timber Situation 2008. ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.
ITTO (2011, website accessed March 2011). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org ).

b 	 Personal communications with officials in the Governmentof Cameroon, 2010.

McSweeney, C., New, M. & Lizcano, G. (undated). UNDP
climate change country profiles: Cameroon (available at
http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/).

References and other sources

MINFOF (2008). Indicateurs FORAF pour le suivi de l’état desforets d’Afrique Centrale, Cameroon. Ministry of Forests
and Fauna, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.

Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.

FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Cameroon (available at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).

Topa, G., Karsenty, A., Megevand, C. & Debroux, L. (2009).
The Rainforests of Cameroon: Experience and Evidence froma Decade of Reform. The World Bank and PROFOR,
Washington DC, United States.

FSC (2010, website accessed November 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).

UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.

Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).

UNEP–WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.

Government of Cameroon (2005). Forest and environment
sector policy letter. Ministry for the Environment and theProtection of Nature and Ministry for Forestry and Wildlife,
Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Government of Cameroon (2008). Readiness plan idea note
Cameroon. Prepared by the Ministry of Environment andNature Protection (MINEP) of the Republic of Cameroon
for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (available at www.
forestcarbonpartnership.org).
Government of Cameroon (2009). Report of progress towardachieving sustainable forest management in Cameroon.
Submission to ITTO by the Ministry of Forests and Fauna,
Yaoundé, Cameroon.
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2009a). ITTO mission in support of the efforts by theGovernment of the Cameroon to achieve the ITTO 2000
Objective and sustainable forest management. Report ofthe diagnostic mission. Presented at the 45th session of theInternational Tropical Timber Council, November 2009.
ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.

54

UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed July 2011).
UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species(searchable database at available at www.cites.org/eng/
resources/species.html).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
July 2010). World population prospects: the 2008 revision(searchable database available at www.esa.un.org/unpp/
p2k0data.asp).
de Wasseige C., Devers D., de Marcken, P., Eba’a Atyi R., Nasi,
R. and Mayaux Ph. (eds) (2009). The Forests of the Congo
Basin: State of the Forest 2008. Publications Office of theEuropean Union, Luxembourg.
WRI (2007, website accessed March 2011). Atlas forestierinteractif du Cameroun (version 2.0) (available at http://
www.wri.lcotton.com/Guide/Html/guide_francais.htmlv).
World Resources Institute.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Central African Republic
Forest types. The forest types of CAR arevery diverse. The major closed forest typeis semi-deciduous rainforest, located in thesouthwestern and southeastern parts of thecountry (the southwestern massif and the Forêt
de Bangassou), the latter covering about 6.5
million hectares.a Large parts of these forests are
unexploited. The semi-deciduous forests in thesouthwest, which form part of the Congo Basinrainforests, extend over an area of about 5.2
million hectaresa; they are among the richest in
Africa, containing a high density of high-value
timber species such as Terminalia superba (limba),
Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli) andTriplochiton scleroxylon (ayous), as well as large
mammals such as gorillas, forest elephants andbongo.

Forest resources
The Central African Republic (CAR) has a landarea of 62.3 million hectares and an estimatedpopulation in 2010 of 4.5 million people (United
Nations Population Division 2010). Numerous
political crises have seriously damaged the country’ssocial and economic web and weakened economic
capacity. As a result, CAR is one of the world’s
least-developed countries, ranked 179th out of
182 countries in UNDP’s Human Development
Index (UNDP 2009). Situated in the northern
Congo Basin, this landlocked country comprises
three broad bio-geographical zones. They are, fromsouth to north, the humid Guinean zone, withannual precipitation between 1500 and 1800 mm
and covered by dense humid forest; the SudanoGuinean zone (including its drier component
to the north), containing scattered semi-humid
forests and open dry forests and savanna; andthe Sahel zone, characterized by dry savanna
and annual precipitation of less than 800 mm.
The general relief of the country is formed by aplateau with altitudes varying between 500 m and
700 m and two separate basins, the Chad Basinin the north and the Congo Basin in the south.
Estimates of forest area range from 22.7 million
hectares (FAO 2010) to more than 30 million
hectares (Government of CAR 2008; de Wasseige
et al. 2009). The larger estimates include forest–
savanna mosaic, forest–cropland mosaic and dense
deciduous (miombo) forests.

The total standing volume of timber in thesouthwestern forests was estimated in a forest
inventory conducted in 1991–93 to be more than
127 million3 (ITTO 2006). North of the closed
forest is a transition zone between forest andsavanna which stretches in an east–west direction.
Beyond this, gallery forests border large rivers.
But by far the largest forest area is the open bushy
savanna that gives way to the Sahel, covering about
17 million hectares (ibid.).
Permanent forest estate. The total PFE, as definedin the 2008 Forest Code, extends over about 5.8
million hectares and includes 5.2 million hectares of
production PFE and 520 000 hectares of protection
PFE. The PFE includes the inventoried forests inthe southwest (3.8 million hectares) and the less
known, largely unexploited forest of Bangassou in
the southeast (1.9 million hectares).a About 3.1
million hectares in the southwest has been allocatedto forest concessions and the remaining closed
forest area is protection PFE.a Countrywide 46
classified forests (forêts classées), ranging in size from
20 to 120 000 hectares and covering a total area of
633 000 hectares, were set aside between 1948 and1955 for conservation and production purposes.
Many of these classified forests are no longer
forested, however.
Table 1 shows the estimated PFE. The projected
total PFE is larger in extent than the closed
forest area determined by satellite imagery. There55

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**

‡
†

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)22.9–29.3
22.7– 30.1**4826
4600**PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted

Total

3500
5200‡

3803
5763

3
3

300
560†

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Dense humid forest, based on land cover data (de Wasseige et al. 2009). This figure is 8.69 million hectares when calculatedusing the ratio of forest with greater than 60% forest cover estimated by UNEP-WCMC (2010) and the estimated total naturalforest area according to FAO (2010).
Projected.
Only the protected areas in the humid forest zone are counted here. The total protected area, most of which is located in savanna,is estimated at 6.04 million hectares.a

is a significant area of degraded primary andsecondary forest – nearly 1 million hectares in thesouthwestern forest area, in particular in the zoneof Lobaye – that has the potential to be productive
under SFM (ITTO 2006).

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. The annual
deforestation rate in 1990–2000 was estimatedat 0.19% (de Wasseige et al. 2009). Bushfires arewidespread, particularly in the savanna and in
the transition zone from forest to savanna andit is difficult to give a conclusive figure about
the extent of deforestation (ITTO 2006). Forest
degradation is significant in the production forest
zone and in areas near urban centres that are underheavy pressure for fuelwood collection. The main
direct causes of deforestation are the expansion ofsubsistence and cash agriculture, which particularaffects gallery forests along waterways, humaninduced wildfire in the savanna, wood-gathering
around human settlements, and mining (for gold,
diamonds and uranium) (Government of CAR
2008).

Table 2 indicates forest condition in the main
southeastern forested region, based on the 1991–93
forest inventory (ITTO 2006). Due to intensive
logging activities in the last 15 years, the share ofprimary forest has diminished today and the shareof degraded and secondary forest has increased.
Vulnerability of forests to climate change. Given
its location between the humid and dry tropics,
agricultural production capacity is low in CAR andcannot satisfy the needs of the growing population,even without the effects of climate change(Government of CAR 2008). With the increases
in temperature and decreases in precipitation
projected by climate models, agricultural
productivity will decline further, exacerbating
poverty and reducing food security (ibid.). The
semi-arid climatic zone is projected to become
more arid, while in the humid zone a projected
increase in the risk of periodic drought and wildfire
will increase forest vulnerability. The forested
zones have potential for agriculture in the face ofclimate-induced food shortages, which could leadto increased deforestation. The country’s NAPA
(MEFCPE 2008) prioritizes the prevention of forest

Table 2 Forest condition*
PFE*

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of degraded primary forest
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land***Southwestern forest area only.
**
Partly savanna and raphia wetland.
Source: ITTO (2006).

56

2400
900
80
220

-

2400
900
80
220

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

degradation and the sustainable management ofexisting forests as options (among others concerning
other sectors) to help in climate-change adaptation.

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. All land belongs to the state (Table3). The non-permanent forest estate is composed ofcommunal, community and private forests.a A legal
framework specific to communal and community
forests is yet to be produced.
Criteria and indicators. In 2009 the Governmentof CAR adopted the ATO/ITTO PCI for thesustainable management of African natural tropicalforests as an instrument for monitoring progress
towards SFM. With the support of a regional ATO/
ITTO project, the CAR PCI were improved with adefinition of the means of verification and related
sources of information. The Government of CAR’s
submission to ITTO for this report was not in the
ITTO C&I reporting format.a
Forest policy and legislation. As part of its
poverty reduction strategy, the government’s
aim is to enhance the transparency of forest andwildlife resource management while creating amore attractive business environment. A process
is ongoing to replace the forest policy adopted in
1989 (see ITTO 2006) and to develop a sectoral
policy for the sustainable management of forest
resources that will rationalize their potential anduse; protect biodiversity; combat desertificationand its damaging effects; and increase the sector’s
contribution to economic growth and job creation.
The new Forest Code (Code Forestier, Law 08-022),
which supersedes a 1990 forest code (Law 90-003),
was prepared through a participatory approach thatinvolved various stakeholders and was promulgatedby the Head of State on 17 October 2008. Alsoin 2008 a new environmental code (Law 07-018)
was enacted. Several other reforms have been
undertaken, including two decrees that appointed
border control inspectors and created mobile‘forestry and wildlife’ intervention and verificationbrigades. The main purpose of these inspectors
and brigades is to control the movement of timber,secure forestry and wildlife revenues, and strengthen
monitoring and control capacities. Anotherdecree, issued in 2008, created the Forest Industry
Observatory within the Ministry of Water, Forests,
Hunting, Fishing and Environment (Ministère desEaux, Forêts, Chasses, Pêches et de l’Environnement– MEFCPE), which will support decisionmaking and supply reliable and relevant economic
information on the industry.
In 2009, two new decrees on the modalities of
the implementation of the Forest Code and theallocation of timber concessions were introduced.
Forestry and wildlife revenues are now being
deposited in a bank account opened in thecentral bank in the name of communities in theaffected areas. These revenues are supervised by atechnical committee comprising representativesof the ministries concerned (the Ministry of theInterior, the Ministry of Finance and Budget, and
MEFCPE) and it is intended that there will be
local management of these funds. The principal
task of the technical committee is to validate theemployment programs developed by municipalities
and to monitor projects financed from these funds
as part of the campaign against rural poverty incommunities in or bordering forest lands underoperating permits. Such dynamic lawmaking
activities are part of a sectoral adjustment program
under the poverty alleviation strategy.
The Government of CAR is actively involved invarious regional initiatives to promote SFM in the

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Privately owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
22 7005763

0022 700
0

5763
0

0

0

Small areas of forest plantations are privately owned or owned
by communities.

Source: Government of CAR (2010).

57

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Congo Basin, in particular through COMIFAC.
It recently requested formal discussions with
the European Union for developing a VPA. In
2008, a FLEGT working group, which includes
representatives of civil society, was set up, andformal negotiations commenced in 2009.
Institutions involved in forests. Forests areadministered by the MEFCPE. While theoverall mission of the MEFCPE has remained
the same since 1982, there is political instability
in leadership; between 2003 and 2008, forexample, there were ten different ministers.a The
MEFCPE, through the General Forestry and Water
Commission and the Wildlife and Protected Areas
Department, is responsible for forest management
and conservation as well as for the monitoring offorest resources. It enforces forest laws through its
forestry and wildlife brigades. The Department ofForest Inventory and Management Planning deals
with inventories and forest management planning.a
The total staff of the MEFCPE for forests andwildlife management, at both the central anddecentralized levels, was about 190 in 2008 (deWasseige et al. 2009).
Staff training and forestry research are undertakenby the University of Bangui and its Agronomic
Research Institute. However, both are constrainedby a lack of funds and capacity and mostprofessional and technical training is provided on
the job by forest companies (ITTO 2006). The
Higher Institute for Rural Development trains
technicians and engineers.a A number of local
NGOs, such as the Committee for the Integrated
Development of Communities, Green Pavilion,
Amis de la Nature, the Mouvement FemmesEnvironnement and the Organisation Centrafricainede Défense de la Nature, are also active in the forest
sector, although they still play only a marginal rolein forestry matters.a WWF supports staff training,
C&I development and certification efforts.a
A number of development partners, including

the African Development Bank, GTZ and theInternational Monetary Fund, also support thedevelopment of the forest sector.

Status of forest management
Forest for production
Large-scale industrial harvesting started in 1968
in the southwestern forests, following an intensive
inventory. A second forest inventory carried out in
1991–1993 estimated the standing volume of the
18 most important species at 93 million m3. Basedon a 30-year rotation, the commercial volume
harvestable per hectare was estimated at 15–20 m3
per year (ITTO 2006).
Harvesting in the PFE is carried out in largescale concessions using a permit known as a PEA(permis d’exploitation et d’aménagement). Under the2008 Forest Code, artisanal logging is allowablein production forest in areas of ten hectares or
less, although permits (permis artisanal) need tobe renewed annually. PEAs that in the past had
been awarded for the lifetime of the company(ITTO 2006) are now valid for only one harvestingrotation, generally 30 years.a They are allocatedthrough an open bidding process and subject tolong-term forest management plans, five-yearbusiness plans (plans de gestion quinquennaux) andannual operational plans.a
In early 2010, twelve timber companies had been
allocated concessions in the southwest of thecountry over a total area of 2.3 million hectares of
PEA. At least three more concessions may be leased
out, which would increase the allocated southwest
production forest area to 3.1 million hectares.a The
size of forest concessions varies between 156 000
and 475 000 hectares. One small concession of
42 000 hectares still operates under a special cutting
permit.a As of September 2010, eight companies
had finalized the preparation of their long-term
forest management plans over a total area of 2.4

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species
Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli)*
Triplochiton scleroxylon (ayous)*
Aningeria spp (aniegré-longhi)*
Entandrophragma utile (sipo)*
Chlorophora excelsa (iroko)**
Also listed in ITTO (2006).
Source: Government of CAR (2010).

58

Estimated annual log production
300 000 m3
90 000 m330 000 m3
25 000 m3
20 000 m3

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Log landing in a concession in the Central African Republic.

million hectares and management planning was
progressing for another 580 000 hectares (D.
Hubert, pers. comm., 2010).
PEAs stipulate that local people living in or
adjacent to concessions must be involved in theprocess of establishing permits (ITTO 2006). With
recent investments in a wider sector adjustment
program, the MEFCPE has increased its capacity tooversee the management of the PFE and to enforce
the lawa; its effectiveness still needs to be proven,however. Concession-holders pay rent on the area
and a flexible fee related to the volume produced
and exported.a
Silviculture and species selection. While the 1990
Forest Code made specific reference to silvicultural
management criteria, including quantitative limits
on logging to avoid creaming and favour naturalregeneration (see ITTO 2006), the 2008 Forest
Code only includes general guidance on forest
management planning. In principle, PEAs are
renewable; long-term management and harvest
planning should therefore be possible. There areabout 300 potential timber species in the closed
forest area but only 34 species are harvested.a
Table 4 lists the five species that made up 85%
of production between 2005 and 2008. Other

important species that are increasingly harvested
are Entandrophragma candollei (kossipo), Guarea
cedrata (bossé), E angolense (tiama), Pterocarpus spp(padouk) and Lovoa trichilioides (dibétou bibolo).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
Planted forests cover an estimated 1800–3000
hectares. In addition, the country’s single Hevea
brasiliensis (rubber) plantation covers about 1000
hectares. There are no reports of new plantations
established since 2005.
Various tropical hardwoods, including Tectona
grandis and Gmelina arborea, have performed quite
well in experimental trials, but these have not beenscaled up (ITTO 2006). Small community-based
fuelwood plantations of eucalypts, Acacia mangium
and Cassia siamea are important in non-forested
areas. In drier areas, trees planted outside forests
are of some importance, including neem,
Butyrospermum parkii (karité), Anacardium excelsum
and Acacia albida (ibid.).
Forest certification. As of mid 2010, no forest
had been certified as well managed in CAR(e.g. FSC 2010). ITTO (2006) referred to one
concession, Industrie Forestière de Batalimo, 186 000
hectares in size, that was in an advanced process of59

Status of tropical forest management 2011

certification, but it has not achieved certification todate. One company – OLB – operating in a forestof 195 000 hectares, has had a certificate of timber
origin and legality since 2007. The Governmentof CAR is actively engaged in the VPA process andnegotiations with the European Commission on a
VPA were expected to be reaching a conclusion inlate 2010 (Anon. 2010).
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. The objective of theGovernment of CAR is that, by 2011, all forests
are under forest management plans.a In 2009, ofthe eleven PEAs operating in the southwesternpart of the PFE, eight were operating under fullmanagement plans and three were developing their
management plans.a This indicates significant
progress towards SFM, since in 2005 only twocompanies with concessions totaling about 650 000
hectares were working under comprehensive forest
management plans (ITTO 2006). However, the
MEFCPE still lacks the know-how and capacity tomonitor the implementation of these management
plans effectively.a With finance from the African
Development Bank a major project is under way
in the southwestern forest area with the overall aimof achieving the sustainable management of forests
and woodlots by communities.a Despite these
positive developments, a lack of strong evidence ofthe extent to which management plans are being
implemented means that no forest can be classified
as under SFM (Table 5).
Timber production and trade. Total roundwood
production in 2008 was an estimated 3 million m3,
of which at least 2.5 million m3 was fuelwood.a
CAR produces relatively low volumes of mostly
high-value timbers. In 2009, total industrial timber
production amounted to an estimated 533 000 m3,
slightly more than the 509 000 m3 produced in
2004 (ITTO 2010). The country produced 95 000
m3 of sawnwood in 2009, up from 67 000 m3 in
2004. About 81 000 m3 of logs were exported in
2009, compared with 93 000 m3 in 2004. The
decline in log exports was matched by an increasein sawnwood exports, from 11 000 m3 in 2004 to
22 000 m3 in 2009 (ITTO 2010). CAR’s exports
face numerous constraints: as a land-locked country
it needs to transport its products either throughneighbouring Congo by train or by road throughCameroon. The main export destinations are China
and Hong Kong (37%), European Union countries(40%), Turkey and, increasingly, Cameroon.a60

Non-timber forest products. The forests playa fundamental role in the lives of many people
in CAR, including by providing medicinal andedible plants, fruits and fungi, game, timber andfuelwood.a Bush meat is the most economicallyimportant forest product besides fuelwood andtimber. Many foodstuffs, medicinal plants andcondiments – including Piper guineense (forest
pepper), Xylopia aethiopica and Afromomum spp –are collected in closed and savanna forests and soldlocally or exported (ITTO 2006). No quantitative
data were available on NTFP production and trade.
Forest carbon. The total carbon stock in forests
and woodlands in CAR is estimated at 5500
MtC, of which about 900 MtC are in the closed
humid forests (de Wasseige et al. 2009). Gibbs etal. (2007) estimated the national forest biomass
carbon stock at 3176–4096 MtC, Eggleston et al.
(2006) estimated it at 7405 MtC and FAO (2010)
estimated it at 2861 MtC.
The Government of CAR is participating in theForest Carbon Partnership Facility and submitted areadiness idea note in 2008 (Government of CAR
2008). Proposed REDD+ strategies include inparticular the further development and financing
of integrated protected areas; improved fuelwood
management in peri-urban areas; and improved
management of forest mosaics and savanna. Table
6 indicates the country’s forest carbon potential.
Capacity needs to be strengthened considerably
if the country is to implement REDD+. There isconsiderable potential to reduce GHG emissions
and enhance carbon sinks, in particular through the
improved control of wildfire in the savanna.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. A number of small areas totalling
about 5700 hectares has been set aside for catchment
protection purposes (mise en défense) (ITTO 2006).
Biological diversity. CAR contains more than
3600 plant species, 224 mammal species and668 bird species. Seven mammals, one bird andeight plants found in forests are listed as criticallyendangered, endangered or vulnerable on the
IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN 2011).
One non-tree plant species is listed in CITES
Appendix I and two in Appendix II (UNEPWCMC 2011).
Several other mammals are locally threatened. The
elephant population, for example, has reportedly

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

3500
5200

2920
3100

*
**

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
650
2320

CertifiedSustainably
managed

0
0**

186

3

PlantedWith
management
plans
-

0

3

0

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
A certificate of legality has been issued for 155 000 hectares of forest, however.

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopy>60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

3176–4096

38+

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
sink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030+++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning++++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

decreased to a critical level due to unabatedpoaching, especially in the north. Nevertheless, thecountry probably still has the highest densities oflowland gorillas and forest elephants in Africa (deWasseige et al. 2009).

five national parks (category II), and two special
reserves, five wildlife reserves and two biospherereserves (category IV).a These mostly comprisesavanna and dry shrub land. The Dzanga Sangha
Special Reserve, the Dzanga Ndoki National Park
(CAR’s part of a tri-national protected area between
CAR, the Republic of the Congo and Cameroon),and two smaller reserves are the only forested
protected areas, covering a total of about 560 000
hectares.a

Protective measures in production forests.
The 2008 Forest Code makes provisions forthe protection of biodiversity and to set aside
ecologically fragile zones in PEAs (articles 83 and87). Protective measures must be described in thelong-term and mid-term forest management plans.

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Few data are available
on the status of forest management in CAR’s
protection PFE. Considerable efforts have been
made to protect the 122 000-hectare DzangaN’doki National Park, which provides habitat forlarge mammals such as forest elephants, bongos
and gorillas. The Dzanga-N’doki National Park is
counted in Table 7 as under SFM.

Extent of protected areas. The first forest
conservation areas to protect the now locally extinct
white rhinoceros were created in 1925 (Réserve deZimongo and the parks of Baminigui, Bangoranand Manovo-Gonda-Saint Floris), covering morethan 1 million hectares of open savanna (ITTO2006). The total area in IUCN protected-area
categories I–IV is now about 6 million hectares,
including one integral reserve (IUCN category I),
Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)***

Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

300
560

3090
6040**

6
6

120

120

As reported in ITTO (2006).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).

61

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. The main exports of CAR are
coffee, cotton, diamonds, gold and timber, withdiamonds and timber representing almost 80% of
total export revenues (International Monetary Fund2009). Forest taxes account for about 14% of staterevenues and its contribution to GDP rose from
2.6% in 1997 to 5% in 2005.a About 4000 people
are employed directly in the formal forest sector(ITTO 2006). Rents and felling taxes on forest
harvesting are required to be distributed among
beneficiaries as follows: 30% to the Treasury, 40%
to the Forest and Tourism Development Fund, and
30% to communities (ITTO 2006). There is an
important artisanal timber sector. The bush-meatindustry has a turnover of more than 2% of GDP(de Wasseige et al. 2009).
Livelihood values. Bush meat and the gatheringof edible fruits, nuts, insects and roots are of great
importance for local communities dependent on
forests, in particular Pygmy communities. Yams
(Dioscorea spp) are a staple food of the Pygmies(ITTO 2006).
Social relations. The population of CAR is
ethnically diverse and the unifying factor is Sangö,
the national language. The 2008 Forest Coderecognizes the traditional rights of local users andmentions, in particular, the rights of Indigenous
peoples in PEAs. However, there are restrictions onforest use in protected areas (articles 14–18).

natural production forest (compared with 3.50
million hectares in 2005) and 560 000 hectaresof protection forest (compared with 300 000
hectares in 2005).
•

No part of the production PFE is considered to
be under SFM. Nevertheless there has been adramatic increase in the area of production
forest covered by forest management plans, from
650 000 hectares in 2005 to 2.32 million
hectares. An estimated 122 000 hectares ofprotection PFE is under SFM.

•

Twelve privately owned timber companies
manage a total area of 2.3 million hectares of
production PFE in the southwestern part of thecountry. Management permits (Permis
d’exploitation et d’aménagement) are now valid
for only one harvesting rotation, generally 30
years.

•

There are no community forests, but the 2008
Forest Code provides for the establishment ofcommunity and municipal forests. The ministryin charge of forests, MEFCPE, lacks capacity tooversee management of the PFE and to enforce
the law.

•

Forest production provides important export
revenue and contributes 5% or more to GDP.
The forest sector generates about 14% of staterevenues through logging activities. According
to the Forest Code, a significant share ofrevenues generated by forest taxes is to beredistributed to local communities. However,such revenues are unevenly distributed between
and within such communities.

Summary
CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Forest products play an important role in generatingstate income but also in the livelihoods of the
majority of the people. The largest proportion offorests is savanna woodland; closed humid forests
are found in the south and southwestern part ofthe country. Nearly the entire closed forest area iseither occupied by timber concessions or has someform of protected-area status. Progress has been
made in recent years to improve the quality of forest
concession management and to regulate protectedareas.

Key points•

62

CAR has an estimated 5.78 million hectares of
PFE (compared with 3.80 million hectares in2005), comprising 5.2 million hectares ofEndnoteaGovernment of CAR (2010).

References and other sources
Anon. (2010, website of the European Commission accessed
September 2010). FLEGT (available at http://ec.europa.
eu/development/policies/9interventionareas/environment/
forest/forestry_intro_en.cfm).
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Central African Republic (available at http://www.
fao.org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

FSC (2010, website accessed July 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).
Government of CAR (2008). Readiness Plan Idea Note Central
African Republic. Prepared by the Central African Republic
for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (available at www.
forestcarbonpartnership.org).
Government of CAR (2010). Rapport relatif à la progression dela gestion durable des forêts en République Centreafricaine.
Bangui, Central African Republic.
International Monetary Fund (2009). Central African Republic:
poverty reduction strategy paper. First annual progress
report. Country report No 09/240. International Monetary
Fund, Washington DC, United States.
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2010, website accessed December 2010). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).

MEFCPE (2008). République Centrafricaine: programmed’action national d’adaptation aux changements climatiques.
Ministère des Eaux, Forêts, Chasse et Pêche, Bangui,
Central African Republic.
UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March 2011).
UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species(searchable database at available at www.cites.org/eng/
resources/species.html ).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
July 2010). World population prospects: the 2008 revision(searchable database available at http://esa.un.org/UNPP).
de Wasseige C., Devers D., de Marcken, P., Eba’a Atyi R., Nasi,
R. & Mayaux Ph. (eds) (2009). The Forests of the Congo
Basin: State of the Forest 2008. Publication Office of theEuropean Union, Luxembourg.
World Resources Institute (2010, website accessed March
2011). Interactive forest atlas for Central African Republic(Atlas forestier interactif de la République Centrafricaine)(available at http://www.wri.org/publication/interactiveforest-atlas-central-african-republic).

63

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Congo
road between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire andrepeated logging. It covers less than 1 million
hectares, including extensive secondary forests(ITTO 2006). The Chaillu forest area, covering
about 3.4 million hectares, is rich in okoumé‚
Terminalia superba (limba), Pycnanthus angolensis(ilomba) and Entandrophragma utile (sipo); it has
been locally over-harvested and is increasingly
encroached upon by farmers. Together, these
two forest areas form the southern sector. The
northern forests contain redwoods, especially sipo,
Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli) and Millettia
laurentii (wengé), as well as light hardwoods (e.g.
Triplochiton scleroxylon – ayous); they cover 16.5
million hectares, about 40% of which is situatedon soils that are flooded for a large part of the year
(ITTO 2006).

Forest resources
The Congo (officially known as Republic of theCongo) has a land area of 34.2 million hectares. In
2010 it had an estimated population of 3.7 million
people (United Nations Population Division 2010).
Congo is ranked 136th out of 182 countries in
UNDP’s Human Development Index (UNDP2009). Stretching from 3° north to 5° south, it
can be divided into three broad biogeographicalzones: the southern zone, which covers the forested
Mayombe and Chaillu mountains and savanna; thecentral zone, which consists of the Bateke Plateau
highlands, wholly covered by grass or shrub savannaapart from gallery forests and scattered forest
islands; and the northern zone, located mostly
north of the equator, which consists of three heavily
forested subregions, from south to north Cuvette,
Sangha and Likouala.
The total forest area is estimated at about 22.4
million hectares (CNIAF 2008; FAO 2009). de
Wasseige et al. (2009) estimated the extent of dense
humid forests on the basis of land-cover data at
18.5 million hectares, and there was an additional
8.4 million hectares of forest–cropland mosaic,
forest–savanna mosaic and semi-deciduous miombo
forests. Congo has an estimated 1670 hectares ofmangroves (Spalding et al. 2010).
Forest types. The Mayombe forest, originallyrich in Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé), has beenheavily cleared due to colonization along the64

Permanent forest estate. The PFE includes forestsin the national forest estate, forests owned publicly,
communes and other local collectives (articles 5 and6, Law16/2000). The non-permanent forest estatecomprises non-gazetted protected forests (Article
13, Law16/2000). Since the 1960s, Congo has
divided its national forest estate into three sectors
and a variable number of forest management units(unités d’aménagement forestier – UFAs); virtually
all closed natural forest is contained within Congo’sPFE (Table 1). Some UFAs in the south and in thecentre are subdivided further into forest logging
units (unités forestières d’exploitation – UFEs). In
mid 2009, 52 forest management/forest logging
units covering an area of nearly 12 million hectares
had been established, the majority in the north. The
plan is that 15.2 million hectares will be allocatedfor production forestry. An area of about 3.2
million hectares of PFE is unallocated. UFAs can be
managed for both production and protection.

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. Congois a country with high forest cover and low
rates of deforestation and forest degradation.
The Government of Congo (2010b) estimatedthe annual deforestation rate at 0.03% (67 000
hectares per year) and the annual degradation
rate at 0.01%. Deforestation is more intense in
the south; the north is only sparsely populated

republic of the congo

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)20.3–22.1
22.4–26.9

22 00018 500**

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlantedTotal

18 40015 200‡21 30018 900

72
85

2860
3650

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Based on de Wasseige et al. (2009).
Data on the extent of the production PFE are contradictory, even within the same ministry. This figure is estimated according to
the plan for the PFE set out by MEF.

Sovereign National Conference. Theoretically, state
forest can belong to government, local councils(collectivités locales) and public bodies. Oncedeclared, any community or communal forest isregistered as the private domain of the relevantgroup. Although the principle of ownership rights
for local communities is in effect, no transfers
have been implemented. As for individuals, theregistration of customary titles remains an issue.
The presumption of ownership remains with thestate, which is still the sole owner and manager offorests (Table 3).

and to a large extent inaccessible.The main directcauses of deforestation and forest degradation
are unsustainable slash-and-burn practices;
unsustainable fuelwood production andconsumption; unsustainable and illegal logging;and urban development. These direct causes arecompounded by underlying factors such as alack of a common land-planning vision among
stakeholders; rural poverty; population growth; alack of alternative sources of energy adapted to low
incomes; inefficient charcoal production and use;
and weak forest governance (Government of Congo
2010b). Table 2 provides an estimate of forest
condition.

Criteria and indicators. Congo developed its own
set of PCI based on those of ITTO and ATO in
2007. The Government of Congo used the ITTO
C&I in its submission to ITTO for this report.a

Vulnerability of forests to climate change. Congo
has not submitted a NAPA to the UNFCCC andno information was available for this report on
the country’s strategy to adapt to climate change.
Increasing vulnerability in Congo may be expectedin peri-urban areas, particularly with regard to adwindling water supply and associated health risks.
A drying of the climate would likely increase theincidence of forest fire in the southwest and in thesavanna.

Forest policy and legislation. The legal frameworkfor government policy on forests and theenvironment mainly includes: Law 003/91 (1991),
on environmental protection; Law 20/96 (1996,
amending the 1984 law), instituting Tree Day; Law
16/2000 (2000), which sets out the Forest Code;Law 17/2000 (2000), on tenure; Law 10/2004(2004), providing for the State Estate Code; andLaw 37/2008 (2008) on fauna and protectedareas. The Forest Code, the law on fauna andprotected areas and all other laws developed after
the United Nations Conference on Environmentand Development in 1992 integrate wider concerns
to ensure the economic, environmental andSFM policy framework
Forest tenure. Under Article 35 of the Forest Code(2000) the state recognizes the ownership rights
of private forest owners, based on tenure titles orcustomary tenure rights, as recognized by the 1991
Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of degraded primary forest
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land*

7500

-

7500

15 100-15 100---Source: Government of Congo (2010a).

65

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial governments)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha22 10018 787113

113

22 200-18 900---The exact extent of the state forest area is not known.
Refers to allocated réserves communautaires.

The area of planted forest by the private sector is unknown.

Source: ITTO estimate based on Government of Congo (2010a).

social sustainability of natural resources (land,
forest, water and fauna). Under the Forest Code,development plans must be prepared for each UFA.
The Forest Code describes the bidding process forthe allocation of UFAs and, through subsequent
decrees, regulates forest management planning andmakes specific technical management directives,
including on community development. National
standards for additional studies (e.g. socioeconomicand environmental) were added by decree in 2005.
The forest policy is linked with the wider
development agenda of the country. The
National Land Planning Scheme (2005), thePoverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2008) andthe National Action Plan (2008) all include
forests as an important element in the country’s
development. Congo is a signatory to the Treaty
on the Conservation and Sustainable Managementof Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa (signed
in Brazzaville in 2005; ratified by Congo in Law
35/2006, 2006) and participates in COMIFAC.
Institutions involved in forests. The missionof the former Ministry of Forestry Economy andEnvironment (Ministère de l’Economie Forestière
et de l’Environnement) has been reassigned to
the Ministry of Forest Economy (Ministère del’Economie Forestière – MEF) and the Ministry of
Tourism and the Environment. MEF is responsible
for forest policies and strategies, the monitoringof forest management, the forest economy, thesupervision of rural forestry, the management of
wildlife resources, and training and research. The
total staff assigned for these tasks is about 750, ofwhom 350 are technicians. MEF lacks the humanand material resources to manage the country’s
large forest estate effectively. There are four stateagencies with specific tasks: the Forestry Fund

66

(Fonds Forestier); the National Reforestation Service(Service National de Reboisement); the National
Centre for the Inventory and Management ofForest and Wildlife Resources (Centre Nationald’Inventaire et d’Aménagement des Ressources
Forestières et Fauniques – CNIAF), which is incharge of developing forest management plans andthe monitoring of their implementation; and theMonitoring Service for the Export and Import ofForest and Wildlife Products (Service de Contrôledes Produits Forestiers et Fauniques à l’Exportation
et l’Importation), which has outsourced offices in
the country’s main production forest areas. Law
enforcement is carried out by MEF’s departmental
directorates.
Research and technological development fromministries and NGOs is coordinated by a specificbody, the Office for Scientific and TechnologicalResearch (Délégation Générale de la Recherche
Scientifique et Technique). There are two training
institutes, the Ecole Nationale des Eaux et Forêts in
Mosendjo and the Institut de Développement Rural.
Several international NGOs operate in Congoin close partnership with MEF, including the
Wildlife Conservation Society in protected-areamanagement, and the World Resources Institute,which supports the monitoring of commercial
forestry operations.

Status of forest management
Forest for production
Timber has been harvested commercially insouthern Congo since 1910 and in northern Congo
since the 1970s.a Today, 70% of timber production
occurs in the sparsely populated northern Congo,
which contains large areas of primary forest.
Concessions in the UFAs are allocated eitherrepublic of the congo

knowledge of, interest in or capital for forest
management, and damage is widespread.a

Forest inventory at the CIB Pokola concession.

through an industrial processing agreement(convention de transformation industrielle), a
management and processing agreement (conventiond’aménagement et de transformation) or a special
permit (permis spécial). In addition to these, Article
65 of the 2000 Forest Code specifies les permis decoupe des bois de plantations for the harvesting ofplantations. Enterprises that are candidates forthe development of a UFA are selected by tender.
Harvesting is carried out in designated areas
according to an AAC, which corresponds to the
maximum annual volume authorized by the forest
administration.
In mid 2009, 52 UFAs and UFEs covering an areaof nearly 12 million hectares had been established,about 8 million hectares of which were in thenorth as large-scale concessions and about 4
million hectares of which were in the south andon the plateau, often divided into UFEs that are,on average, about 50 000 hectares in size.a Forest
management is very different in the southern
Mayombe and Chaillu regions compared with
the northern part of Congo. Southern forests aredegraded, and current timber harvesting is often
the third or fourth re-entry into logged-over forests(ITTO 2006). In addition, the former UFAs
have been divided into smaller logging units,providing mainly national extractors with accessto the resources. Many of these logging units havebeen subcontracted to logging operators without

In northern Congo, in contrast, the integrity oflarge UFAs has been maintained and the average
size of UFAs is about 400 000 hectares. These
concessions have been allocated to large industrial
companies with an annual production capacityof over 100 000 m3, large enough to warrant
investment in wood-processing units (ITTO2006). The concessionaires already implement
or are preparing forest management plans. In
theory, these plans are to be prepared by the forest
administration in close collaboration with the forest
concession-holders, but, in practice, the concessionholders undertake most of the work (ibid.). By
mid 2009, forest management plans had been
finalized for 3.83 million hectares of concessions
and was ongoing for an additional 6.84 million
hectares. It is estimated that, by 2012, about 13.4
million hectares of production forests will be undermanagement plans (Government of Congo 2010a).
Silviculture and species selection. Congo has along tradition of forest research and education, andthere is broad scientific knowledge of silviculture
and forest dynamics in natural and planted forests.
Under the 2000 Forest Code, forest management
plans must specify the species selected for fellingand for conservation, silvicultural treatments,
including enrichment planting, and the silviculturalplanning schedule for each harvesting plot. Felling
cycles may vary between 25 and 50 years andharvestable diameters between 60 and 80 cm
according to species (ITTO 2006). Harvesting in
UFAs for which a management plan has not yet
been approved should be preceded by a fellinginventory for the specified area (ibid.).
In northern Congo, 20–25 timber species are
harvested, primarily for the export market. The
five major timber species listed in Table 4 makeup nearly 80% of total production and, with anadditional four species (Triplochiton scleroxylon–ayous, Millettia laurentii – wengé, Terminalia
superba – limba and Chlorophora excelsa –iroko),made up 90% of log production between 2006 and2009.a In the south, the production is more diverse
and involves mostly secondary forest species, suchas Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé) and Gambeya
africana (longhi).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest. The
total area of planted forests has been estimated at

67

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli)*
Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé)
Entandrophragma utile (sipo)*
Guarea cedrata (bossé)
Entandrophragma candollei (kossipo)More than 40% of total production, 100% for export.
About 23% of total production, exported mainly to Asia.
About 6%, decorative species, important for veneer.
About 4% of total production.
About 3% of total production.

*
Also listed in ITTO (2006).
Source: Government of Congo (2010a).

about 85 000 hectares.a A special unit develops
agroforestry plantations and enrichment planting
in logged-over and degraded forests; since 1996,
12 000 hectares of enrichment plantings have been
established using local hardwood species. Where
follow-up treatments are carried out (e.g. in theCongolaise Industrielle des Bois – CIB – concession),these enrichment plantings develop well.b Most
afforestation has been established in low-fertility
savannas by introducing eucalypts (e.g. in theregion of Pointe Noire).
A 40 000-hectare clonal eucalypt plantation, whichis planned to be extended to 60 000 hectares, isbeing developed by a private firm (Canadianowned Mag-Industries) in conjunction with theconstruction of a woodchip factory (de Wasseige
et al. 2009). There are also oil-palm and rubber
plantations in southern Congo but their extent is
unknown.
Forest certification. Three main concessions
in northern Congo, owned by Industrie
Forestière d’Ouesso and CIB, hold valid FSC
forest management certificates over an area of
1.91 million hectares (FSC 2010). Since June
2010, the Mokabi concession of Rougier (586 000
hectares) has received a certificate of legality
and is progressing towards forest management
certification. Congo and the European Union
signed a VPA in May 2010.

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. The three concession
areas owned by Industrie Forestière d’Ouesso and CIB
operating with FSC certification, and the Mokabi
concession of Rougier, which currently holds a
Timber Legality and Traceability Verification(TLTV) certificate, are counted here as sustainably
managed (Table 5).
Timber production and trade. Total annual
roundwood production is estimated at 2.55 million
m3, of which 1.98 million m3 was industrial
roundwood in 2009 (ITTO 2010). In 2009, nearly
80% of the entire industrial roundwood harvest wasundertaken by three Malaysian-owned and three
European-controlled firms.a
Timber companies must process at least 85% of
their production in the country or pay a surcharge
on log exports.a Sawnwood production was
369 000 m3 in 2009, up from 200 000 m3 in2004 and 109 000 m3 in 2000 (ITTO 2010). Log
exports increased from 209 000 m3 in 1999 to apeak of 844 000 m3 in 2004; in 2009, 769 000
m3 of logs were exported (ibid.). The volume ofsawnwood exports increased from 31 000 m3 in
1994 to 283 000 m3 in 2007; in 2009, 264 000
m3 of sawnwood were exported. About 8700
m3 of veneer were exported in 2009. The costof exporting timber is relatively high in Congocompared to other countries in the Congo Basin.
Timber produced in northern Congo must be

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvest

2005*
2010

18 40015 2008440
11 980***68

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
1300
8270**

Certified

0
1908

1300

72

PlantedWith
management
plans
45

2494

85

45

Sustainably
managed

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Includes the area managed under approved forest management plans and areas that have management plans in advanced
preparation.

republic of the congotransported more than 1000 km by road to the portof Douala in Cameroon, and labour costs are thesecond-highest in the region (after Gabon; ITTO
2006).
Non-timber forest products. The commercial
harvesting of NTFPs (produits accessoires) isregulated through special permits (in particular for
firewood and charcoal). Many foods, medicinal
plants and condiments are collected in closed andsavanna forests, and are mainly sold domestically.
Fibres such as raphia and rônier leaves (Borassus
aethiopum) are traded with neighbouring countries.
Mammals (especially antelopes), invertebrates,snails and fish are important sources of protein
for forest-dwelling communities. The trade inbush meat now involves many species, including
protected species such as apes and elephants innorthern Congo. Hunting for bush meat has
become a major problem since the opening-up of
the forests to commercial logging (ITTO 2006).
Forest carbon. The total forest carbon stock was
estimated by de Wasseige et al. (2009) at about
4200 MtC, of which about 3300 MtC are in closed
humid forests. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimated thenational forest biomass carbon stock at 3458–4739
MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006) estimated it at 5472
MtC and FAO (2010) estimated it at 3438 MtC.
Congo has submitted a readiness idea note to theForest Carbon Partnership Facility and prepareda draft readiness preparation plan. The country’s
proposed REDD+ strategy includes enhancing
forest-tenure security; sustainably managing forest
resources; improving agricultural production
systems; streamlining fuelwood production and use;
and addressing extra-sectoral factors that lead to
deforestation and degradation. Table 6 summarizes
Congo’s forest carbon potential. The large area of
intact forest suggests significant potential for theconservation of existing forest carbon stocks.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. In southern and central Congo,
about 3.66 million hectares of forests are managed
primarily for soil and water protection (ITTO2006). However, no maps or specific management
plans have been prepared for these forests.a
Biological diversity. Congo is host to more than
6500 plant species, 200 mammal species, more than
600 inventoried bird species, 45 reptile species,
36 amphibian species, 103 fish species and at least800 butterfly species.a Seven mammals, one birdand six plants found in forests are listed as criticallyendangered, endangered or vulnerable on the
IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN 2011).
Seven plant species are listed in CITES Appendix
II, including one hardwood timber species,
Pericopsis elata (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Protective measures in production forests. Forest
management plans prescribe measures to protect
water resources, biodiversity and soils. Withintimber concessions, areas are set aside to protect
biodiversity. In 2009, the combined area of suchprotected forests was about 600 500 hectares.a
Extent of protected areas. About 3.5 million
hectares, or nearly 11% of the country’s total area,
has been classified as protected areas. There arethree national parks: Odzala-Kokoua National Park
(126 000 hectares) dating from 1935; NouabaleNdoki National Plark (410 000 hectares), createdin 1993; and the Conkouati-Douli National
Park (505 000 hectares), created in 1999. These
three national parks and three sanctuaries haveprotected-area status equivalent to IUCN categories
I and II over a total area of 2.47 million hectares,of which about 2.07 million hectares is lowland
evergreen broadleaved rainforest. Four wildlife
reserves, two hunting reserves, one biosphere reserveand one community reserve (IUCN categories V
and VI) cover a forest and savanna area of about

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

3458–4739

68++

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
monitoringsinkcapacity
capacity to
2030
++

++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity+

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

69

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

2860
3650

2470
2470**

3660
3660

380
536

380
536‡

*
**
‡

As reported in ITTO (2006).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).
Comprises Odzala National Park and Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, as well as the protected areas within the certified UFAs in
northern Congo.

1.2 million hectares. Of the 14 protected areas,
twelve are linked by forest corridors (ITTO 2006).
The Conkouati-Douli National Park faces several
threats, notably from illegal logging and mining,road access, and a relative high population density
around the park; there is intensive poaching andcommercial bush-meat hunting.b
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. The Nouabale-Ndoki
National Park (410 000 hectares) is covered bya management plan that is being implemented
effectively; CIB is harvesting timber in the bufferzone and implementing measures to further protect
the integrity of the park. This national park istherefore considered to be under SFM. Due to its
remoteness and its 80 years of existence, the Odzala
National Park is also considered to be under SFM(Table 7).

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Forestry contributes about
6% of GDP and 3% of tax income. About
15 000 people obtain their income from forestry,
not counting the informal sector, in particularin fuelwood and charcoal production and local
carpentry. Forestry is particularly important as an
employer in northern Congo.
Livelihood values. Bush meat and the gathering ofedible fruits, nuts and roots are of great importancefor forest-dependent local communities, particularly
Pygmies in closed forest. Leaves of Gnetum spp
are widely used as vegetables. Fruits of Irvingia
gabonensis, Gambeya africana and others are also
eaten. The government’s procedures for forest
management plans contain provisions for the local
use of NTFPs (ITTO 2006).
Social relations. In northern Congo, communities
living in or near forests rely heavily on hunting for
subsistence, but this is often affected by logging
and particularly the presence of logging camps.

70

Over-hunting occurs in areas with rapid population
growth caused by the opening-up of the forest
frontier. Indeed, the bush-meat question andsocial relations between Indigenous forest-dwellers
and migrants attracted by the forest industry are
possibly the biggest constraints to SFM in northern
Congo (ITTO 2006). Local populations often
benefit from the long-term presence of forest
companies, which construct roads that can beused for the transport of goods. Such companies
also establish medical services and schools and, tosome extent, provide services that normally are theresponsibility of government (ibid.).

Summary
Congo has a large forest resource, supportive
government policies and considerable technical andfinancial support from international development
partners. There is little population pressure inits main forest area, and a growing number ofconcessionaires are advancing along the path
to SFM. The stage therefore seems set for theforest sector to expand the area of forest under
SFM, provided that issues related to Indigenous
communities and the commercial over-huntingof certain mammal species can be addressed.
Most progress towards high standards of forest
management is occurring in the northern part ofthe country; a major challenge is to extend this tothe forests in the south.

Key points•

Congo has an estimated PFE of 18.9 million
hectares (compared with 21.3 million hectares
in 2005), comprising 15.2 million hectares of
production forest (compared with 18.4 million
hectares in 2005), 3.65 million hectares ofprotection PFE (compared with 2.86 million
hectares in 2005) and about 85 000 hectares ofplanted forests.

republic of the congo

•

•

•

Management plans exist or are at an advanced
stage of development for about 8.27 million
hectares of production PFE. An estimated 2.49
million hectares of the natural production PFE
and an estimated 536 000 hectares of protection
forests are under SFM.
The over-hunting of bush meat withinconcessions, and social relations between
Indigenous forest-dwellers and migrants, arepossibly the biggest constraints to SFM in
northern Congo.
There is potential for carbon conservation innatural forests and sequestration in planted
forests under REDD+.

Endnotes

Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).
Government of Congo (2010a). Rapport sur les progrès
accomplis par la République du Congo vers la réalisation
de l’aménagement forestier durable et de l’Objectif 2000
de l’OIBT. Submission to ITTO by the Ministère del’Economie Forestière du Congo, Brazzaville, Congo.
Government of Congo (2010b). Readiness preparation
proposal. Ministry of Sustainable Development, Forest
Economy and Environment (MDDEFE) (available at www.
forestcarbonpartnership.org).
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2010, website accessed December 2010). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).

aGovernment of Congo (2010a).

IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at http://
www.redlist.org).

b

Personal communications with officials and resource persons
at Brazzaville, 2010.

Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.

References and other sources
CNIAF (2008, website accessed October 2010). Website of theCentre National d’Inventaire et d’Aménagement des Ressources
Forestières et Fauniques (available at www.observatoirecomifac.net/indicators.php?lvl=cntr&country=COG&tab=2).
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Republic of the Congo (available at http://www.fao.
org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).
FSC (2010, website accessed November 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).

UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March
2011). UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed
species (searchable database at available at www.cites.org/
eng/resources/species.html).
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
July 2010). World population prospects: The 2008 revision(searchable database available at www.esa.un.org/unpp/
p2k0data.asp).
de Wasseige C., Devers D., de Marcken, P., Eba’a Atyi R., Nasi,
R. & Mayaux Ph. (eds) (2009). The Forests of the Congo
Basin: State of the Forest 2008. Publication Office of theEuropean Union, Luxembourg.

71

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Côte d’Ivoire
10.4 million hectares (32% of the land area), which
is a slight increase over the estimate for 1990.

Forest resources
Côte d’Ivoire, which is situated in the Gulf ofGuinea, has a total land area of 32.2 million
hectares and an estimated population in 2010 of
21.5 million people (United Nations Population
Division 2010). It is ranked 163 out of 182
countries in UNDP’s Human Development
Index (UNDP 2009). The tropical moist forest
belt (commonly called the zone forestière) extends
inland from the coast for more than 250 km (toabout 8° north), beyond which there is extensive
savanna (domaine soudanais). The western part ofthe country is in the Guinea highlands, where thehighest summits rise to more than 1500 m above
sea level. With the exception of small areas ofremaining primary forests (e.g. in the Taï reserveand the western mountains), forests are heavily
degraded. FAO (2010a) estimated forest cover at

Forest types. Two main forest types can be
distinguished in the south: wet evergreen, andsemi-deciduous. The former is poorly stocked incommercial timber, although it contains species
such as Uapaca spp, Guarea cedrata (bossé),Tieghemella heckelii (makoré), Tarrietia utilis(niangon) and Triplochiton scleroxylon (samba). The
semi-deciduous forests, occurring in the central
and northern parts of the zone forestière, was oncerich in valuable timber species, including samba,
Mansonia altissima (beté), Nesogordonia papaverifera(kotibé) and Khaya ivorensis (acajou). Outside asmall number of effectively protected areas, mostforests of both forest types are heavily degraded orare at an early stage of secondary growth.a In thedomaine soudanais there are some dry forests andgallery forest containing species such as Daniellaoliveri, Isoberlinia doka and Afzelia africana. There
are about 10 000 hectares of mangrove forests,
characterized by Rhizophora racemosa and Avicennia
germinans (Spalding et al. 2010).
Permanent forest estate. The PFE officiallycomprises the 231 classified forests (forêts classées)
zoned for production and protection, which coveran area of 4.2 million hectares. However, only
about 1.95 million hectares of these are still forested(Table 1).a There are nearly 2.1 million hectaresof forest in protected areas. Outside the PFE, inthe rural forest domain (domaine forestier rural)
there were 385 forest harvesting areas (périmètres
d’exploitation forestière – PEFs) in 2008; 80–90% of
the entire timber production of the country comesfrom these areas (ITTO 2008).

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡
†

72

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)7.1–11.7
7.52–10.4**

3248
1760‡

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted

Total

3400
1950†

4301
4220

167
180

734
2090

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Area of public forests and dense forests in domaine forestier rural estimated at 7.52 million hectares.
Calculated using the ratio of forest with greater than 60% forest cover estimated by UNEP-WCMC (2010) (16.9%) and the total
natural forest area estimated by FAO (2010a).
Estimated actual forested area in the forêts classées. The large decrease compared with 2005 is based on a 2008 assessment of theextent of forest in the forêts classées (Government of Côte d’Ivoire 2009).

Côte d’Ivoire

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. According
to FAO (2010b), the deforestation rate in Côte
d’Ivoire was insignificant in the period 2005–10
but was 15 000 hectares per year in 2000–05.
Deforestation is caused mainly by land-use change
to agriculture: 7.5 million hectares of former forest
land are used today for swidden agriculture, andabout 3.3 million hectares of former forest land areused for the production of commercial crops suchas coffee, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and pineapple.a
Timber theft and illegal logging are widespread
and are the primary reasons for the degradation ofnatural forests in the forêts classées and the domaine
forestier rural (ITTO 2006). Bushfire is common
in Côte d’Ivoire’s savanna and transitional forest–
savanna. Fire in the zone forestière, mainly humaninduced, affects more than 25 000 hectares annually(ITTO 2008). Table 2 summarizes forest condition;
more than 90% of remaining forests in Côte
d’Ivoire are secondary or degraded primary forests.b
Vulnerability of forests to climate change. Côte
d’Ivoire has prepared a detailed national reporton climate change. As in other countries in West
Africa, rainfall in Côte d’Ivoire depends on the
monsoon system associated with the inter-tropicalconvergence zone. The surface temperatures in
the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as the El

Niño phenomenon, will be significant drivers ofWest Africa’s future climate. The mean annual
temperature in Africa is projected to increaseover the next 60 years by 3–4°C (IPCC 2007).
There may also be an increased frequency of heavy
rainstorms and drought, which could lead to an
expansion of agricultural areas to the detriment offorests and increases in migration, uncontrolled fireand conflict over access to forest land.

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. There are two main categories ofnatural-forest ownership:•

Public (state-owned) forests, which are divided
into two kinds of land use: the permanent forest
domain (domaine forestier permanent), which
includes the reserved forest area and protectedareas; and the domaine forestier rural, which
includes PEFs and forests reserved for
agricultural purposes.

•

Community forests, which are based on
traditional customary rights recognized in allforest areas in the country. There are 6705
registered sacred forests (forêts sacrées) covering a
total area of 36 435 hectares; these are under thefull jurisdiction of local communities.a Many
more forests may have cultural or spiritual value
but are not registered.

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of secondary forest/degraded primary forest
Area of degraded forest land

625
3260
-

10
6110
-

630
9380
-

Source: Government of Côte d’Ivoire (2009) and FAO (2010a).

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
6125

-

-

-

6125
-

-

12

-

4.2 million hectares in 231 forêts classées and 1.9 million
hectares in 13 protected areas.

Privately owned forest plantations (mainly teak).

Source: Government of Côte d’Ivoire (2009).

73

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Criteria and indicators. ITTO’s C&I are usedin Côte d’Ivoire as an instrument for forest
management planning. The Government of Côte
d’Ivoire used the ITTO C&I in its submission
to ITTO for this report.a Côte d’Ivoire finalized
its set of ATO/ITTO PCI in 2006. The trainingof 25 Ivoirians in the use of the ATO/ITTO PCI
was organized by a regional ITTO project on the
promotion of SFM in Africa. The Governmentof Côte d’Ivoire extended this training to 30
additional senior forest officers.
Forest policy and legislation. The Forest Code(Law 65/425) dates from 1965. Since then, allmajor decisions on land use, forest management,
the organization of the forest service and thecommercialization of forest products have been
made through decrees or ministerial orders (arrêtés),
including Decree 78/231 (1978), which prescribes
the management of the PFE, and Decree 94/385(1994), which sets out forest-harvesting reforms.
A process to revise the Forest Code began in 2002
with support from FAO and was finalized in 2005.
Since then, a series of stakeholder workshops havebeen held and a process to finalize the new forest
code is under way prior to its introduction to the
National Assembly for adoption.a
The main law on wildlife protection and hunting
also dates from 1965 (Law 65/255). Additional
elements relating to the financing and managementof national parks and other protected areas are
specified in Law 102/02 (2002).a
A forest master plan (plan directeur forestier) was
formulated in 1988 for a span of 25 years. This wasevaluated in 1998 and the Framework Program on
Forest Management (Programme Cadre de Gestion
des Forêts) was developed in 1999, valid for 14
years (ITTO 2006). Systematic improvements
in forest management were hindered up to 2008
by severe socio-political crises and the divisionof the country into two parts. After the signingof the Ouagadougou Peace Accord in 2007 thecountry gradually re-formulated its state policies
and re-organized its institutions. The forest policy
was revised in 2010 and a strategic plan for its
implementation in 2010–15 approved. This plan
includes, among other things, the creation of aforest development fund (Fonds de Développement
Forestier), the continuation of the revision of theforest code, a new direction for reforestation andnew prescriptions for the management of the74

domaine forestière rural.a The impact of the mostrecent political crisis on forest policy is unclear but
is unlikely to have been positive.
Institutions involved in forests. Under Decree
06/310 (2006), the Ministry for Environment,
Water and Forests (Ministère de l’Environnement,
des Eaux et Forêts – MINEEF) is responsible for the
management of the forest estate. To manage theforests of the domaine forestière rural, MINEEF is
supported by the Directorate for Water and Forests,
which has four central divisions, ten regional
directorates, 54 forest offices (cantonnements deseaux et forêts) and 70 forest posts (postes des eauxet forêts). MINEEF also oversees four specialist
institutions, including the Forest Development
Agency (Société de Développement des Forêts –SODEFOR) and the National Office for National
Parks and Nature Reserves (Office Ivoirien des Parcset Réserves Naturelles – OIPR) for the managementof protected areas.
SODEFOR was created in 1966 and is entrusted
today with the management of the 231 forêts classées
and with technical advisory functions for planted
forests and social forestry. MINEEF has a staff
of about 1600 people, of whom nearly 700 are
employed by SODEFOR and 250 by OIPR.
In 2008, a specialized agency for forest development(Agence Nationale de Développement des Forêts) was
created with the task of improving the managementof remaining forests in the domaine forestier rural.
Previously, forest harvesting in the domaine forestierrural was conducted exclusively by the private
sector.
The forest industry is organized in syndicates and isquite effective in defending its interests. A numberof national and international NGOs are engaged
in forest conservation and village development,
including reforestation and agroforestry.
Civil society is not actively involved in forest
management (ITTO 2006).

Status of forest management
Forest for production
Two forest management systems are employed. In
production forests, the management of forêts classées
is carried out by SODEFOR, while in the domaine
forestier rural it is carried out by private concessionholders. In the past, timber was harvested mainly inreserved forest areas, but excessive extraction over

Côte d’Ivoire

Ceiba pentandra logs await processing in an Ivoirian plywood mill.

the past 35 years has led to their depletion. Today,
nearly 90% of timber is extracted from the domaine
forestier rural (ITTO 2008).
Until 2002 forest harvesting in the domaine forestierrural was based on a licence system called thePTE (permis de transformation et d’exploitation),
which allocated areas of up to 2500 hectares toa large number of concessionaires. With a policy
revision in 2004, the PTE system was abolished andreplaced by a system based on PEFs. By law, a PEF
is at least 25 000 hectares in size and is allocated for
15–20 years; it can be renewed if management by
the concession-holder is satisfactory. Concessionholders are obliged to present a forest management
plan that includes a reforestation scheme andsocial investments in rural communities in or
adjacent to the PEF. Management plans must also
include prescriptions for sustained-yield harvesting
and the silvicultural treatment of harvested
forests, and measures against wildfire. However,few management plans have been prepared andharvesting is still based mainly on high-grading theremaining high-value timber.c
As of 2007, 373 PEFs had been attributed to 112
concessions, covering a total area of about 1.4
million hectares of productive forest.a In the pastten years the average timber harvest was 1.6 million
m3 per year.a
SODEFOR prepares and implements forest
management plans for the forêts classées. Since 2005

it has been possible for such forests to be managed
by private concession-holders in partnership with
SODEFOR. A total of 40 forêts classées, covering
more than 1.2 million hectares, are so managed.a
Limited information about the quality of thismanagement is available. Forest management plans
have been or are being prepared for 89 of the 231
existing forêts classées (in 2002, 25 forest reserves
had an approved management plan and 1.5 million
hectares were being managed). The size of the units
varies, the smallest (Semien) being 3381 hectares
and the largest (Rapids-Grah) 315 000 hectares.
Forest reserves are to be managed in perpetuity(ITTO 2006). In a process to clarify the extent
of forest, shifting cultivation and commercial
agricultural crops within the forêts classées, in 2008
SODEFOR determined that only 1.947 million
hectares of such forest remained.a
Despites the scarce forest resources, some large
international timber companies of French, Italianand Lebanese origin still operate in Côte d’Ivoire.
Due to the earlier log export ban and the growing
scarcity of the resource, these companies haveinvested in downstream wood-processing. The
French company, Inprobois, for example, holds
seven PEFs totalling 366 000 hectares and manages
forêts classées of 22 000 hectares in partnershipwith SODEFOR. The company is pursuing FSC
certification for this forest, which benefits from amanagement plan prepared by SODEFOR. Almost
all the company’s production, which specializes in75

Status of tropical forest management 2011

plywood and veneer, is for export. Other foreigncompanies possess several PEFs that add up tolarge areas. For example, SNG has licences to
480 000 hectares of forest, CIB has licences to
628 000 hectares and SIFCI has licences to 505 000
hectares.c
Silviculture and species selection. Silviculturalprescriptions were developed in the 1990s and havebeen fully applied in some forêts classées (e.g. Irobo,
Tene and Mopri), but not yet in the entire PFE. To
date, no silvicultural directives have been appliedin the domaine forestier rural. The forests of Côte
d’Ivoire contain more than 700 hardwood species,
about fifty of which are commonly used. Besides
those listed in Table 4, the most valuable species
are Terminalia ivorensis (framiré), Entandrophragma
candollei (kossipo), beté, Entandrophragma angolense(tiama), Lovoa trichilioides (dibetou), bossé,
kotibé, Pterygota macrocarpa (koto), Canarium
schweinfurthii (aiélé), makoré, Pycnanthus kombo(ilomba), Afzelia africana (lingué), Lophira alata(azobé), niangon and planted teak. Côte d’Ivoire
has made efforts to explore the silvicultural
behaviour of and to market lesser-known species
such as Copaifera salikounda (etimoé) andChrysophyllum spp (aniégré).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest. The
planted forest area has been estimated at 180 000
hectares (ITTO 2008) and 212 000 hectaresa; thelatter is an estimate of forest plantations in the forêts
classées and domaine forestier rural. Outside forests,
the most important non-forest tree plantations areoil palm (about 160 000 hectares), rubber (70 000
hectares) and coconut (30 000 hectares). The
National Reforestation Programme (Programme
National de Reboisement), created in 2005, is themain policy instrument for promoting reforestationin the forêts classées and by communities.

Plantation development started in 1926 withenrichment plantings of hardwood species such as
acajou, fraké, niangon, sipo and later teak, bossé
and other species. By 1945 about 8000 hectares had
been established. Between 1966 and 1988, 20 000
hectares of mainly teak plantations were developed
and another 90 000 hectares were planted
between 1990 and 2007 (ITTO 2008). Due to arequirement since 1995 that PEF-holders invest
in forest plantations, most planted forests (about
70 000 hectares) are located in the domaine forestierrural. There is, however, insufficient control and alack of data to assess the state and quality of theseplantations.
More than 35 species have been planted in the forêts
classées. Today the most widely planted species isteak, with a total area of about 67 000 hectares in2007.a Other important species are fraké, 25 800
hectares; framiré, 14 000 hectares; Cedrela odorata,
10 100 hectares; Gmelina arborea, 8000 hectares;
samba, 3600 hectares; acajou, 2900 hectares; sipo,
over 2200 hectares; and niangon, 7800 hectares.a
About 27 000 hectares are registered as mixed
hardwood plantations. Of the estimated 60 000
hectares or more of planted forest in the domaine
forestier rural, about 15 000 hectares have beencreated as community forests, often to produce
firewood.
Forest certification. There is no forest certification
scheme nor any certified forests in Côte d’Ivoire(e.g. FSC 2010). One company, Inprobois, ispursuing FSC certification for the management of
22 000 hectares in a forêt classées, in partnershipwith SODEFOR.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. In the domaine forestierrural, where the majority of timber is cut, there isvirtually no management and the already degraded
forests are being further depleted. The situation is

Table 4 Commonly harvested timber species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Ceiba pentandra (fromager)*

Often off-reserve harvesting; more than 360 000 m3 harvested in
2008.
White wood, also planted; 170 000 m3 harvested in 2008.
More than 70 000 m3 harvested in 2008.
Nearly 70 000 m3 harvested in 2008.
About 63 000 m3 harvested in 2008.

Triplochiton scleroxylon (samba, ayous)*
Terminalia superba (fraké)*
Chlorophora excelsa and C. regia (iroko)
Khaya ivorensis and K. anthotheca*
Also listed in ITTO (2006).
Source: Government of Côte d’Ivoire (2009).

76

Côte d’Ivoire

neighbouring countries (ITTO 2008). Since 1994
there has been a ban on the export of logs of several
high-value timber species obtained from naturalforests.

better in the forêts classées, which are managed by
SODEFOR, but even in forests where the necessary
elements of good forest management appear tobe present, law enforcement is poor and illegal
logging and deforestation widespread.c As of 2008,
management plans had been prepared in 89 out of
the 231 forest reserves, 26 of which, covering an
area of 1.36 million hectares, had been approved.
About 200 000 hectares are considered to be wellmanaged (Table 5), comprising the forêts classées ofCavally, Besso, Bossematié and Haut-Sassandra.

Non-timber forest products. MINEEF taxes
commercial collectors for the harvest of 44 NTFPs.a
Many more NTFPs are traded locally and used
for subsistence. Among the most important arebamboo, Laccosperma spp (rattan) and Raphia spp(raphia palm) for basketry, furniture and housing,and the leaves and fruits of Thaumatococcus danielli(feuille d’attiéké) for medicinal purposes and as asweetener.

Timber production and trade. The forest industry
is composed of several hundred small processing
units and there are 18 enterprises with a processing
capacity of more than 10 000 m3 per year; 70%of the industry is foreign-owned (ITTO 2008).
Total annual roundwood production per year in
the period 2004–08 was estimated at about 21.5
million m3, of which nearly 20 million m3 was forfuelwood and charcoal.a

Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimatedthe national-level forest biomass carbon stock at
750–1238 MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006) estimatedit at 3355 MtC and FAO (2010a) estimated it at1842 MtC. Despite the absence of Côte d’Ivoire
in REDD+ readiness programs (e.g. the Forest
Carbon Partnership Facility and UN-REDD), thecountry’s engagement in the UNFCCC is high;it has conducted its first GHG inventory and has
considerable capacity for monitoring forest-areachange. The proportion of intact forests is relatively
low, as well as the proportion of tree cover over
60% (an estimated 16.9% of the total forest area;
UNEP-WCMC 2010). There is potential toenhance carbon stocks through forest restoration
and reforestation in heavily degraded forêts classées.
Table 6 summarizes Côte d’Ivoire’s forest carbon
potential.

Industrial log production in Côte d’Ivoire fell
from 5.3 million m3 in 1977 to 3.3 million m3 in
1985, 1.9 million m3 in 2003, 1.5 million m3 in2007 (ITTO 2008) and 1.47 million m3 in 2009
(ITTO 2010). Total sawnwood production was
about 471 000 m3 in 2009, veneer production was
396 000 m3 and plywood production was 81 000
m3 (ITTO 2010). In 2009 an estimated 125 000
m3 of logs were exported, as were 252 000 m3 ofsawnwood, 103 000 m3 of veneer and 11 000 m3of plywood (ibid.). Exports went mainly to Europe(80%), the United States, Japan, the Maghreb andTable 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)*

Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

3400
1950

1870
1950

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
1110
1360

Certified

277

167

PlantedWith
management
plans
120

200

180

133

Sustainably
managed

0
0

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

750–1238

17+

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
monitoringsinkcapacity
capacity to
2030
++

+

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity++

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

77

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Forest for protection

land area. Of the protection PFE, two nationalparks (Comoé, 1.15 million hectares; and Taï,457 000 hectares) account for more than 60% of
the area. Comoé, created in 1983, is one of thelargest protected areas in West Africa. Taï, created asa forêt classées in 1926, was designated as a nationalpark in 1972 and added to the list of Natural World
Heritage Sites in 1982; it contains one of the last
major remnants of primary tropical forest in West
Africa. There are also two transboundary protectedareas, one on the border with Guinea and Sierra
Leone and the other in the Tano River Basin on theborder with Ghana.

Soil and water. A total area of 374 000 hectares
is set aside for the protection of soil and water inthe 26 forêts classées that are managed according toforest management plans prepared by SODEFOR.a
A number of small forêts classées in the vicinity of
Abidjan, such as Angédédou (5600 hectares), andthe National Park of Banco (3400 hectares), havespecific functions in catchment protection.a
Biological diversity. Côte d’Ivoire has a very
high level of biodiversity, with over 12 000
forest-dependent species, including 1265 animal
species (232 mammals, 712 birds, 134 reptiles,
76 amphibians and 111 fish) and 8200 plant
species, including over 3500 tree species.a Eighteen
mammals, ten birds, twelve amphibians, two
reptiles and eight plants found in forests are listed
as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable
on the IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN
2011). Seven plant species are listed in CITES
Appendix II, including one hardwood timber
species, Pericopsis elata (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Thirty tree species, including iroko and acajou, areconsidered vulnerable.a

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Poaching and otherillegal activities are thought to be a significant
problem in many forested reservesc, due largely toa lack of sufficient financial resources for field-level
enforcement (ITTO 2006). About 840 000 hectaresof protection PFE are covered by management
plans that are being implemented effectively. This
comprises forests managed for soil and water
conservation in forêts classées administered by
SODEFOR (374 000 hectares), the Taï National
Park (457 000 hectares), a number of small
protected areas managed primarily for water andsoil conservation, and the reserve at Mount Nimba(9000 hectares). This constitutes the estimate ofprotection PFE under SFM shown in Table 7.

Protective measures in production forests.
Timber harvesting is limited in swampy areas, on
steep slopes and along streams (for the latter, a stripof between 100 m and 1 km in width, dependingon the size of the stream, is excluded fromharvesting). Detailed prescriptions for biodiversity
conservation are applied in the 26 forêts classées
managed by SODEFOR.

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Until about 1985, timber was
Côte d’Ivoire’s third most important export byvalue, but the industry has declined as the forests
have been logged and depleted of commerciallyvaluable trees. In 2006 the economic contributionof the formal forest sector was estimated at 1.9% ofGDP.a The total annual value of wood production(timber and fuelwood) is estimated at US$323
million.a,b No assessment has been carried out on

Extent of protected areas. Côte d’Ivoire has eightnational parks and six nature reserves, one wildlife
reserve and 17 botanic reserves. In addition, partsof 26 forêts classées totaling 374 000 hectares
are managed for soil and water conservation.
Combined, the protection PFE is estimated to be
2.09 million hectares, which is 6% of the country’s
Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

734
2090

734
2090

195
374**

345
840

150
840

*
**

78

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Technically this area is part of the production PFE because it is within forêts classées.

Côte d’Ivoire

the economic value of NTFPs, carbon, water orbiodiversity.
Livelihood values. Forests are important forsustaining the livelihoods of many people inCôte d’Ivoire. Edible and medicinal plants arecollected in great quantities. Bush meat remains
a major source of protein in rural areas, eventhough hunting regulations are very restrictive; theharvested volume is estimated at more than 120
tonnes per year.a The consumption of fuelwood,
including charcoal, is estimated at more than 20
million m3 per year (ITTO 2008, Government ofCôte d’Ivoire 2009).
Social relations. The 1965 Forest Code, which isstill in force, does not specify the direct involvementof local people in forest management, althougharticles 16 and 20 set forth rights for riverine
populations within forêts classées. Nevertheless, local
people may collect wood and NTFPs in all forests.
Social considerations have been taken into accountin various recent governmental decrees concerning
forests. Relationships between concession-holders
and local people are often strained. In some areas,
local communities help protect forêts classées fromencroachment and bushfire. Local cooperatives andvillages also often engage in reforestation activities.

Summary
Deforestation and forest degradation are major
problems in Côte d’Ivoire, and most naturalforest is considered degraded or secondary. The
country’s 231 state-owned forêts classées have been
over-harvested and have become depleted of timber;natural forests in the domaine forestier rural andplanted forests are providing an increasing partof the timber supply. The level of enforcementof existing laws and decrees appears to be low inmuch of the PFE. Forest management plans areunder preparation or have been prepared for theforêts classées, but few have been prepared for thedomaine forestier rural. While the recorded area ofwell-managed protection forest has increased, thisis most likely due to improved information rather
than a general improvement in forest management.
Systematic improvements in forest management
have been hindered in recent years by socio-politicalcrises and a lack of political will. Illegal logging isthought to be widespread.

Key points•

Côte d’Ivoire has an estimated PFE of 4.22
million hectares (compared with 4.30 million
hectares in 2005), comprising 1.95 million
hectares of natural production forest (comparedwith 3.40 million hectares in 2005), 2.09
million hectares of protection forest (comparedwith 734 000 hectares in 2005) and 180 000
hectares of planted forest (compared with
167 000 hectares in 2005).

•

An estimated 200 000 hectares of the
production PFE is under SFM, no forest iscertified, and an estimated 840 000 hectares ofprotection PFE is under SFM.

•

Forest administration is currently the
responsibility of the Ministry for Environment,
Water and Forests (MINEEF), which operates
under the 1965 Forest Code and subsequent
decrees. A process to revise the Forest Code has
been under way for many years but has not yet
resulted in a new legislative framework. The
implementation capacity of MINEEF is low.

•

There is a discrepancy between the standards
applied in the forest reserves of the PFE and in
the domaine forestier rural, where mostharvesting takes place.

•

There is conflict between communities andharvesting operators over the use of forests.
Poaching and timber theft are significant
problems.

EndnotesaGovernment of Côte d’Ivoire (2009).

b

ITTO estimate.

cPersonal communications with various officials of theGovernment of Côte d’Ivoire, 2010.

References and other sources
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010a). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Côte d’Ivoire (available at http://www.fao.org/
forestry/fra/67090/en/).
FAO (2010b). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 Full
Report. FAO, Rome, Italy.

79

Status of tropical forest management 2011

FSC (2010, website accessed July 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).

IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).

Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).

Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.

Government of Côte d’Ivoire (2009). Rapport sur les progrès
accomplis par la République du Côte d’Ivoire vers laréalisation de l’aménagement forestier durable et del’Objectif 2000 de l’OIBT. Submission to ITTO by
the Ministère de l’Environnement, des Eaux et Forêts,Libreville, Côte d’Ivoire.
IPCC (2007). Climate Change: Forth Assessment Report. Working
Group ii report: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva,
Switzerland (available at http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_
and_data/publications_and_data.shtml).
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2008). Mission d’appui au Gouvernement de laCôte d’Ivoire en vue d’atteindre l’Objectif de l’OIBT etl’aménagement forestier durable. Report of the diagnostic
mission. ITTC (XLIV/11). ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.
ITTO (2010, website accessed August 2010). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).

80

UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March 2011).
UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species(searchable database at available at www.cites.org/eng/
resources/species.html).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
December 2010). World population prospects: the 2008
revision (searchable database available at www.esa.un.org/
unpp/p2k0data.asp).

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Democratic Republic of
the Congo
demeusei, Entandrophragma palustre and Garcinia
spp. DRC has one of the world’s largest contiguousareas of swamp forest.
Permanently flooded swamp areas host almost
monospecific stands of Raphia palm. The total areaof dense humid forests (lowland and montane) is
about 98 million hectares (forest types 1–4 in Box
1). Open forests, including miombo woodland,
cover about 56 million hectares (forest types
5–6 in Box 1). They also include montane andsubmontane sclerophyllous forests of Grewia spp,
Carissa edulis and Euphorbia spp, which cover theeastern part of the country.
Box 1 Forest area, by forest type, DRC
Forest typeArea (’000ha)

Lowland humid tropical forest(forêt dense de basse altitude)
Submontane forest (900–1500 m)(forêt sub-montagnarde)
Mountain forest (>1500 m)(forêt de montagne)
Swamp forest(forêt marécageuse)
Forest–savanna mosaic(mosaïque forêt–savane)
Semi-deciduous dry forest(miombo)

83 700% offorest
area
54

6000

4

1000

1

8200

5

28 60018

28 00017

Forest resources
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
has a land area of 233 million hectares and, in
2010, an estimated population of 66 million people(United Nations Population Division 2010). DRC
is ranked 176th out of 182 countries in UNDP’s
Human Development Index (UNDP 2009). It
lies entirely within the Congo Basin, with only 42
km of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, and mostly
comprises plateaux that are 600–800 m above sea
level in the north and 1000–2000 m in the south.
The highest peaks reach 4500 m in the Virunga
volcanic massif on the border with Rwanda andexceed 5000 m in the Ruwenzori Mountains on theborder with Uganda. About 77% of the country
is above 1000 m above sea level. Estimates of total
forest cover include 112 million hectaresa and 154
million hectares (FAO 2010a).
Forest types. Lowland evergreen andsemi-deciduous forests occupy much of DRC’s
central and western regions, with moist evergreen
forests accounting for about one-third of thecountry’s forests. Submontane and montane
closed forests include about 7 million hectares ofmontane rainforests. Swamp forests extend overabout 9 million hectares of the central basin andare characterized by species such as Guibourtia

1
2
3
4
5
6

Source: Based on De Wasseige et al. (2009).

Although DRC has only 42 km of coastline, thelarge estuary of the Congo River is lined with
mangroves, covering a total area of about 193 000
hectares (Spalding et al. 2010).
Permanent forest estate. DRC does not have anofficially adopted land-use plan, which impedes aproper classification of the forest estate.a The state
forest area (domaine forestier de l'Etat) comprises
three forest-use categories:•

Classified forests, which are subject to legal
restrictions regarding user and harvesting rights.
They generally include reserves and protectedareas.

81

Status of tropical forest management 2011•

Protected forests, which have a less restrictive legal
regime than classified forests. They include
community forests, small-scale concession
contracts and forest–subsistence-farming
mosaics.

•

Permanent production forests, which include
previously allocated forest concessions andnewly identified production forests (allocatedand unallocated concessions). These forests arereserved for industrial-scale logging under an
SFM regime.

(0.2%) per year, similar to the rate reported by theGovernment of DRC for the period 2005–10 of
320 000 hectares per year.a Deforestation and forest
degradation are not distributed homogeneously
over the country: deforestation hot spots occur
near large cities in the savanna belt, the Basinand the Albertin Rift zone (Government of DRC
2010). Countrywide, slash-and-burn agriculture
and fuelwood-harvesting are the most importantdrivers of deforestation. Commercial logging
and mining cause forest degradation and also
facilitate migration into forest areas. For example,
the road network developed for commercial
logging constitutes 38% of all roads in the Congo
Basin (Government of DRC 2010). Table 2
indicates forest condition based on satellite image
interpretation in 2008.a

Table 1 shows the estimated PFE. It comprises
those permanent production forests that had valid
concession agreements in 2009, and the area ofclassified forests. There is potential to classify muchlarger areas as PFE – up to 87 million hectares –mainly in the provinces of Équateur, Orientale,
Bandundu and Maniema.a However, the processneeds to be harmonized with overall land-use
planning in the newly decentralized governanceregime.b

Vulnerability of forests to climate change. The
Government of DRC submitted a NAPA to the
UNFCCC in 2007. Subsistence rain-fed farming
and non-timber forest activities support 70% of the
population. Extreme weather is already the causeof regular humanitarian alerts as households havelittle adaptive capacity. Assuming similar changes
in climate to those projected for Cameroon and
Gabon, climate change will affect food production
and water regimes. Forests and trees in agroforestry

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. FAO(2010b) reported the deforestation rate in DRC
in the period 1990–2010 at 311 000 hectares
Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)128–135
112–154

126 200
87 800**

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlantedTotal

20 50022 500‡,a

47 50048 30055
67a

27 00025 800As reported in ITTO (2006).
Calculated using the ratio of forest with greater than 60% forest cover estimated by UNEP-WCMC (2010) (65.5%) and the total
natural forest area estimated by FAO (2010a).

Allocated production forest area covers 12.3 million hectares. Ten million hectares of potential production PFE remain
unallocated and are still under review.b

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of degraded primary forest
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land
Source: Government of DRC (2009).

82

-

-

79 00017 000
13 0003000

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

systems will undoubtedly play an important role
in reducing vulnerability to the negative effects ofclimate change.

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. According to Law 021/1973, thestate is the sole owner of land, and this is confirmed
by Law 11/2002 (the ‘Forest Code’) (Table 3).
Although the state owns the forests, the law details
different procedures for its use by local people
and concessionaires (de Wasseige et al. 2009).
Local users may collect forest products within theframework of user rights. In protected forests they
may also practice shifting cultivation, althougha permit issued by the provincial governor isrequired to clear an area of more than two hectares(de Wasseige et al. 2009). Communities andmunicipalities have customary rights over the forests
within their jurisdictions and are able to become
long-term concession-holders of such forests. The
state can also allocate forests to local communities
as community forests, although there are no clear
examples of this having occurred.b
Criteria and indicators. In December 2010,
DRC, with the support of WWF and ITTO,
completed a process to develop PCI based on the
ATO/ITTO PCI for the sustainable managementof African natural tropical forests as an instrument
for monitoring progress towards SFM. An ITTO
C&I workshop was held in August 2010. The
Government of DRC used the ITTO C&I in its
submission to ITTO for this report.a
Forest policy and legislation. The 2002 Forest
Code, which succeeded colonial legislation datingfrom 1949, became law in August 2002. DRC’s
new Constitution (2006) reorganized the country’s

administrative structure. Twenty-five provinces andthe town of Kinshasa are provided with legal status
and are able to exercise local authority. Designingforest-sector activities of national interest (e.g.
forest conservation) remains the responsibility of
the national government, but the design of natural
resource programs, including forestry, agriculture
and mining, are now the responsibility of theprovinces. Given that the Forest Code was approved
prior to the approval of the Constitution, the effectof the new decentralized entities, or of planned
future decentralized entities (sectors and chiefdoms
in the forest sector), on governance in the forest
sector is unclear. The extent to which these entities
are able to represent local interests will be crucial forthe implementation of SFM (Government of DRC
2010).
The Forest Code describes the institutions andresponsibilities regarding forest management andlays down prescriptions for national forest planningand forest management. For example, it devotes anentire chapter to forest management and another tolocal community rights. It alludes to the concept ofcommunity forests, but there are no procedures to
put this into effect. A difficulty with the applicationof the Forest Code is the fact that customary rights
are exercised by local people who do not know its
provisions; this results in frequent conflicts between
concessionaires and local stakeholders.b
Institutions involved in forests. The Ministry ofEnvironment, Nature Conservation and Tourism(Ministère de l’Environnement, Conservation de la
Nature et du Tourisme – MECNT) is in charge offorests and employs about 840 people. Structuralreform undertaken in 2009 reduced the number oftechnical services from 24 to twelve.a They include

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g. villages,
municipalities)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
112 000

38 200--112 000-

38 200--8

According to the 2002 Forest Code, all forests belong to thestate.
The law makes provision for community and municipal forests,
but no data are available.

Some small forest plantations – e.g. the CDM-fundedplantation in Batéké.

Source: Government of DRC (2009).

83Status of tropical forest management 2011

the Directorate of Forest Management (Direction
de la Gestion Forestière), which is responsible formonitoring forest management and harvesting,the Direction des Inventaires et de l’Aménagement
Forestier, which is responsible for forest inventories
and the formulation of management norms, andthe Direction de la Conservation de la Nature,
which is responsible for biodiversity conservationand international conventions.a Also under
the MECNT is the Congolese Institute for theConservation of Nature (Institut Congolais pourla Conservation de la Nature – ICCN), which
has the overall task of ensuring the protection of
wildlife and flora in natural reserves and nationalparks; ICCN employs more than 2000 people.a
Nevertheless, the lack of trained and motivatedstaff to manage and regulate forests is a crucial
bottleneck in building an effective institutionalframework for SFM.a
The main training institutions with forestry
curricula are the University of Kisangani, l’Institut
Supérieur d’Etudes Agronomiques (in Bengamissa)
and the University of Kinshasa. There is a
research institute for forest research, l’Institut pourl’Etude et la Recherche Agronomique, which wasestablished in 1948. Today, several hundred NGOs
and associations are involved in forest-related
activities. The forest-management reform process
is particularly supported by DRC’s development
partners, such as the European Union, a numberof European states, the African Development
Bank, the Global Environment Facility, theUnited Nations Development Programme and
UNEP-WCMC. Some multinational NGOs,
including Conservation International, the Wildlife
Conservation Society and WWF, have also
been engaged in the process, as well as in forest
conservation. The National Forest and Nature
Conservation Programme was launched in 2009 bya coalition of development partners, including theWorld Bank, to increase the capacity of governmentand other stakeholders to manage forests sustainably
and equitably. The SGS (formerly, Société Générale
de Surveillance) Forestry Monitoring Programme
signed a five-year contract with MECNT in early2010 to develop an integrated forest control system
for monitoring and verifying logging, chain-ofcustody and forest product exports.

84

Status of forest management
Forest for production
Being relatively accessible, the western forests havebeen logged heavily since colonial times. Morerecently, harvesting has moved into the central
basin, where subsistence agriculture accompanies
the opening up of forests. Farther inland, outside
concession areas, forest harvesting mainly consistsof the often illegal removal of trees of the mostprofitable species. According to the 2002 Forest
Code, industrial forest concessions are awarded
by tender (Article 83) or sometimes by mutual
agreement (Article 86). Concessions may beallocated for 25 years and are renewable. The
maximum area of a forest concession is 500 000
hectares. One requirement of the Forest Code is
the preparation of forest management plans. For
these, technical standards on inventories, mapping,
low impact logging, silviculture and consultation,
among others, have been and are being preparedthrough ordinances and decrees, with the technicaland financial support of development partners.
In 2003 about 20 million hectares of the 22.5
million hectares of production PFE were allocatedto commercial forest operations and there wereplans that this area would be extended to 50
million hectares (ITTO 2006). In 2004, however,the Government of DRC issued a moratorium on
new logging concessions and announced a reviewof the status of existing concessions in order toapply the environmental, forest management andsocial requirements that had been defined in theForest Code. Between 2005 and 2009 a multistakeholder forest title conversion process andlegal review was undertaken in order to convert
old logging titles into new forest concessions. In
2009, of the initial 156 titles for which a request
for conversion had been submitted to the DRC
government, only 65 had been declared convertible
by the Interministerial Commission, covering a
total area of about 10 million hectares out of the 20
million hectares under review.b The remaining titles
were deemed illegal and subject to cancellation.b
This conversion process has set the groundworkfor transparency, accountability and SFM in
the DRC forest sector. Today, for the first time,complete information on logging titles is available
publicly. Information on the progress, constraints,
limitations and results of the entire forest titlingprocess is also available in reports and on websites.b

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

In mid 2010, 65 companies were operating withtimber licences in an area of about 9.1 million
hectares, the smallest concession covering 19 200
hectares and the largest 293 000 hectares.b In 2009,46 FMUs covering about 6.6 million hectares werepreparing fully fledged management plans (deWasseige et al. 2009). Nearly all timber exports areproduced by only ten companies; two Swiss-based
holdings (Danzer and North-South Timber Group)
are responsible for two-thirds of production.
Silviculture and species selection. The only
silvicultural prescriptions contained in the Forest
Code (2002) are the determination of a minimum
harvesting diameter by species, and specificrequirements for certain timber species, including
the preservation of seed trees. DRC’s forests havean enormous diversity of tree species. The total
number of commercial tree species is more than200, of which about 25 are sold internationally.
The five most important commercial timbers
over the past few years are shown in Table 4.
Other important species include Chlorophora
excelsa (kambala, iroko), Gambeya africana(longhi), Entandrophragma angolense (tiama),
Entandrophragma candollei (kossipo), Guarea cedrata(bossé), Guibourtia spp (benge), Lovoa trichilioides(dibetou), Brachystegia spp (bomanga), Canarium
schweinfurthii (aiele), Terminalia superba (limba)
and Nauclea diderrichii (bilinga).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
Planted forests have been established to produce
both timber and fuelwood and to protect
land from erosion. The Government of DRC
estimated the area of planted forest at 67 000
hectares, including about 8000 hectares of Acacia
auriculiformis established in the late 1980s.a
Terminalia superba (limba) was once the main
species used in plantations, the first of which were
established in 1905. Agroforestry plantations(taungya) were introduced in the 1940s and are stillwidespread. Other species planted for industrial

wood production before the 1960s include Ceiba
pentandra, Bombax flammeum, Entandrophragma
spp, Lovoa trichilioides, Eucalyptus spp, Grevillea
robusta, Casuarina equisetifolia and Cupressus spp.
More recent plantations comprise fast-growing
Eucalyptus and Acacia species. A new plantation area
is being established under the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) and under community
forestry regimes. About 2500 hectares have been
established under these schemes in the past three
years; the objective is to establish 8000 hectares ofcommunity forest plantations by the end of 2012.a
Given the size of the country and its huge naturalforest resource, the development of planted forests
is a low priority.
Forest certification. No forests have been certified
in DRC (e.g. FSC 2010), but some foreigncompanies are undertaking baseline studies forcertification. One company (SIFORCO) obtained
a certificate of legality in 2007. Another company,
Sodefor, recently went through an FSC pre-audit
process. The Government of DRC participated in
an ATO working group on an African certification
scheme, and DRC is a candidate country for a VPA
with the European Union.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. While some progress has
been made towards SFM, no forest concession can
yet be classified as sustainably managed. The statusof three forest sites dedicated to forest research andeducation (totaling 284 000 hectares) and listed assustainably managed in 2005 could not be verified
in 2010 (Table 5).
Timber production and trade. Total estimatedannual roundwood production is about 80
million m3 (FAO 2010a), the vast majority of
it fuelwood. The timber resources of DRC are
generally considered to be of low quality. Most
forests are difficult to access and thus productivity
is low relative to neighbouring Congo and Gabon.

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Entandrophragma cylindricum (sapelli)*
Millettia laurentii (wengé)*
Pericopsis elata (afrormosia)
Entandrophragma utile (sipo, lifaki)
Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum (tola)*

About 20% of total production (2006–08).
Around 50 000 m3 per year; about 15% of the total production.
About 10% of total production.
About 10% of total production.
About 8% of total production.

*

Also listed in ITTO (2006).

85

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

20 50022 50015 500
9100*

*
**
‡

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
1080
6590**

Sustainably
managed

0
0

284

55

PlantedWith
management
plans
40

0

67

43

Total

Certified02‡

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Management plans in advanced stage of preparation.
CDM-certified (Batéké).

Average industrial timber production, produced
by eleven concession-holders in the past three
years, was approximately 300 000 m3 per year (upfrom 90 000 m3 in 2003); artisanal permits add
another 25 000 m3 per year (de Wasseige et al.
2009). Timber produced by the informal sector
for the local market and neighbouring countries issubstantial, probably exceeding 2 million m3 peryear.b In 2009 DRC exported about 226 000 m3 oflogs, compared with 101 000 m3 in 2004 (ITTO2010). DRC produced 92 000 m3 of sawnwood in2009 (of which 62 000 m3 were exported), up from70 000 m3 in 2004. The European Union remains
the main international timber market. The Asianmarket is increasing but still small.

Ayous in lowland forest, DRC.

86

Certified

Non-timber forest products. No statistics are kept
on NTFP production and trade, with the exceptionof the collection of the bark of Prunus africana.
NTFPs derived from closed forests are a cornerstoneof the informal sector. Of particular importanceis the production of charcoal and firewood andthe collection of NTFPs for food (e.g. honey),
medicinal use and as stimulants (e.g. cola).a It isestimated that 90% of the population in DRC
regularly uses one or more of the 500 medicinal
plants growing in the forests of the Congo Basin.a
NTFPs are also used for construction (e.g. rattan,
Raphia spp, Elaeis guineensis) and the wrapping offood (using Afromomum leaves). Bush meat is amajor source of protein.
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimatedthe national-level forest biomass carbon stockat 20 416–24 020 MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006)
estimated it at 36 670 MtC and FAO (2010a)
estimated it at 19 639 MtC. The total forest
carbon stock, including all five forest carbon
pools, has been estimated at 27 200–36 700 MtC(UN-REDD 2010). The REDD+ potential to 2030
has been estimated at about 20 MtCO2e (about
5.4 MtC) for all forest-related activities (Aquino
et al. 2010). The Government of DRC is actively
engaged in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
and UN-REDD processes and has benefited from
ITTO assistance in this regard. In 2010 began
implementing a national REDD+ strategy througha readiness preparation proposal. DRC has also
been chosen by the Forest Investment Program
as a pilot country for REDD+ investment. The
country’s REDD+ strategy includes activities withlow opportunity costs, such as afforestation andreforestation, reducing demand for fuelwood,and improving subsistence farming (Aquino et al.
2010). A CDM community-based reforestation
project is being implemented over an area of more

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

than 4000 hectares and an agreement for the sale of
2.4 MtCO2 (0.6 MtC) over the next 30 years has
been signed (Government of DRC 2010). Table 6
summarizes DRC’s overall forest carbon potential.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. No specific measures to promotesoil and water conservation in closed forest are inplace, although the 2002 Forest Code cites the needto protect, among others, springs and streams andto conserve soils. Soil and water conservation isregulated by a 1958 decree. Some small plantations
have been established for erosion control in the last
30 years (ITTO 2006).
Biological diversity. DRC has great biodiversity, atboth the ecosystem (e.g. according to de Wasseige etal. 2009 there are 19 ecosystem types) and species
levels. Of the more than 10 500 known species ofplant in DRC, at least 1337 are considered endemic(de Wasseige et al. 2009). Forest inventories suggestthat tree species number more than 700, and there
are an estimated 415 mammal species and 1086
bird species (ITTO 2006). Twenty-three mammals,
20 birds, 14 amphibians, one reptile, twoarthropods and 17 plants found in forests are listed
as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable
on the IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN
2011). Although the country is large, poachingplaces enormous pressure on wildlife. Bush meatis in demand in rural and urban markets. The
elephant population in the forest zone (numbering
about 300 000 before 1980) had been reduced
to less than 50 000 by 2000 (ITTO 2006). Eightplant species are listed in CITES Appendix I and 35
in Appendix II, including the tree species Pericopsis
elata and Prunus africana (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Protective measures in production forests. Article
48 of the 2002 Forest Code prohibits logging along
streams and within 50 m of riverbanks and 100 mof springs. Measures have been described in new
standards for forest management planning, which

include setting aside biodiversity conservation zones
within forest concessions.b
Extent of protected areas. The national objective
is to reserve 15% of the national territory (about
35 million hectares) in protected areas.a In 2010
the country had 14 integral nature reserves (IUCN
category I), 14 national parks (IUCN categoryII) and 22 hunting reserves (IUCN category VI),
totalling about 26.3 million hectares.a Another 30%of the land area has high protective potential or
potential as biological corridors.a
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Protected areas
are generally without effective control, andencroachment, hunting for trophies and bush
meat, and timber theft are widespread (ITTO2006). None of the protected areas has an officiallyadopted management plana, with the exceptionof the Kahuzi-Biega park (600 000 hectares),where a management plan is being finalized.
This park is located in eastern DRC and is oneof the last refuges of the eastern lowland gorilla.
Despite management efforts, it is likely that recent
fighting in DRC has moved within the boundariesof the park, causing looting and forest fire.b A
management plan also exists for the Luki Biosphere
Reserve (33 000 hectares), located 120 km fromthe Atlantic coast. However, this reserve is underheavy human pressure. None of the protection PFE,
therefore, can be classified as sustainably managed(Table 7).

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Recently the contribution of
the forest sector to GDP has been about 1.4% or
US$100 million per year.a Officially about 15 000
people derive their income from the forest sector.
However, given the very large informal sector,
the overall contribution of the forest sector to
the national economy is likely much higher thansuggested by official figures. The forest sector

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)
20 416–24 020% forest Deforestation/ Enhancement Forest area Forest/ Importance Engagementinof forest
GHG
changeof carbon
degradation
withinternationalfire/sink capacity monitoring inventory
potential to
canopyREDD+biomass
capacity
capacity
to 20302030
cover >60%
processes
burning
66

++

++

+

+

++

+++

+++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

87

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

27 00025 8009320
16 300

-

630

0
0

*

As reported in ITTO (2006).

could become a pillar of economic development in
DRC given a stable political and macroeconomic
environment.b
Livelihood values. Seventy percent of the people
live in rural areas, the great majority of them on lessthan US$1 per day (Aquino et al. 2010). Naturalforests play a major role in the livelihoods of many
people, in particular as a source of food and energy(ITTO 2006).
Social relations. The 2002 Forest Code (articles
111–113) requires that the local population be
consulted before any area is awarded as a concession
or given protected status. The local population also
has the right to be compensated through specificarrangements with concession-holders (througha cahier de charge).a However, the Code does notaddress local rights governing the use of forest
resources. There is widespread frustration among
rural communities because forest concessions
generally only benefit local leaders, who often do
not share the benefits with the wider community(ITTO 2006). On the other hand, in remote areasin particular, forest concessions are sometimes the
only providers of primary-school education andhealth care, and forest roads have improved accessto many remote villages (ITTO 2006).

forests in the production and protection PFE.
DRC has become engaged in the development of anational REDD+ mechanism.

Key points•

DRC has more than 112 million hectares ofclosed tropical forests and a relatively low levelof conversion of forest to other uses. The forest
sector, however, is in disarray as the country
emerges from civil conflicts. Structural andsocial adjustment is ongoing, with considerable
effects on the development of the forest sector.

•

DRC has an estimated 48.3 million hectares of
PFE, comprising 22.5 million hectares of
production PFE (compared with 20.5 million
hectares in 2005) and 25.8 million hectares ofprotection PFE (compared with 27.0 million
hectares in 2005). The PFE could besubstantially increased once land-use planning isundertaken in the various provinces.

•

None of the natural-forest production PFE isbeing managed sustainably, although some
progress has been made in the establishment offorest management plans. Of the 9.1 million
hectares of allocated forest concessions in 2010,
about 6.59 million hectares have been subject todetailed forest management planning. No
protection PFE is considered to be under SFM.

•

Although not under formal management, large
areas of DRC’s forests are currently under nothreat from deforestation or other significant
human-induced disturbance due to theirremoteness.

•

The increased engagement of the international
community and of civil society in the country
has improved transparency and accountability
and also brought knowledge and monitoring
technology to the forest sector. The difficulty istranslating reform proposals in the field due to alack of capacity and an effective decentralized
governance structure.

Summary
DRC has the potential to develop its forest
economy, both through a timber industry basedon a sustainable resource base and throughconservation. Although notable progress has been
made in recent years, civil conflicts make it difficult
to realize this potential. The institutional reform
process is in its early stages and the legal framework– including the decentralization process – needs
to be further developed and harmonized. Despite
its large forest resource and considerable humanresources, DRC is the smallest timber exporter inthe region and the country has limited capacity to
add value to its enormous forest resources. SFM
has not yet been achieved on the ground, althoughmanagement plans have been developed for some88

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO•

The volume of timber harvested in DRC is only
a tiny fraction of the potential sustainable yield,
even accounting for likely significant levels ofillegal logging.

EndnotesaGovernment of DRC (2009).

b

Information derived from the report of, and discussions
with participants at, a training workshop on ITTO criteria
and indicators, held 15-19 August 2010, Kinshasa, attended
by representatives of government, civil society and theprivate sector.

References and other sources
Aquino, A. (2010). Democratic Republic of Congo and reduced
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation-plus(REDD+): challenges and opportunities. World Bank
internal report.
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010a). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Democratic Republic of the Congo (available at
http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).
FAO (2010b). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 Full
Report. FAO, Rome, Italy.
FSC (2010, website accessed July 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).
Government of DRC (2009). Rapport sur la progression de lagestion durable des forêts en République Démocratiquedu Congo et l’avancement vers l’Objectif 2000 de l’OIBT.
Submission to ITTO by the Ministère de l’Environnement,
Conservation de la Nature et Tourisme, Kinshasa, DRC.

Government of DRC (2010). Readiness preparation proposal.
Prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation of
Nature and Tourism, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Kinshasa (available at www.forestcarbonpartnership.org).
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2010, website accessed August 2010). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2010, website accessed November 2010). IUCN red listof threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).
Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.
UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010. UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March 2011).
UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species(searchable database at available at www.cites.org/eng/
resources/species.html ).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
July 2010). World population prospects: the 2008 revision(searchable database available at www.esa.un.org/unpp/
p2k0data.asp ).
de Wasseige C., Devers D., de Marcken, P., Eba’a Atyi R., Nasi,
R. & Mayaux Ph. (eds) (2009). The Forests of the Congo
Basin: State of the Forest 2008. Publication Office of theEuropean Union, Luxembourg.
World Resources Institute (2010, website accessed March
2011). Interactive forest atlas for Democratic Republicof the Congo (Atlas forestier interactif de la République
Démocratique du Congo) (available at http://www.wri.org/
publication/interactive-forest-atlas-democratic-republic-ofcongo).

89

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Gabon
it at about 24.6 million hectares. Gabon has an
estimated 160 000 hectares of mangroves (Spalding
et al. 2010).

Forest resources
Gabon has a land area of 26.8 million hectares andan estimated population in 2010 of 1.5 million
people (United Nations Population Division 2010).
It is ranked 103rd out of 182 countries in UNDP’s
Human Development Index (UNDP 2009). The
country is in the western part of the Congo Basinand is characterized by three biogeographic regions:a coastal sedimentary basin containing forest andsavanna; a medium-altitude Precambrian plateau(averaging 600 m above sea level), which covers
about two-thirds of the country and is largely
forested apart from savanna in the east; and almost
entirely forested granite massifs in the north andsouth – Cristal Mountains, Mayombe and Chaillu –where altitudes range between 800 m and 1000 m.
FAO (2010) estimated Gabon’s total forest area at
21.7 million hectares, which is nearly 85% of theland area, and de Wasseige et al. (2009) estimatedForest types. There are three major forest types:
evergreen rainforest in the west, which has beenheavily harvested, degraded and in some areas
reduced to secondary forest characterized by anabundance of Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé) andDacryodes buettneri (ozigo); the central Gabonese
forest, covering most of the country, which isvery similar to the closed humid forest foundelsewhere in the Congo Basin and also in Liberia,with many of the same tree species (e.g. Canarium
schweinfurthii – aiélé, Lophira alata – azobé,
Entandrophragma spp, Khaya spp and Triplochiton
scleroxylon – ayous); and a semi-deciduous
forest type in the northeast, characterized by a
predominance of Maranthaceae in the sub-layer andtrees such as Terminalia superba (limba), Millettia
laurentii (wengé) and ayous.
Permanent forest estate. The PFE is estimated at
13.5 million hectares (Table 1).a

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. With alow overall population density and 60% of the
population living in urban areas, there is little
anthropogenic pressure on Gabon’s forests. The
Government of Gabon (2008) indicated an averageannual deforestation rate of 0.12% (about 10 000
hectares per year) and an average degradation rateof 0.09%, based on satellite coverage between 1990
and 2000. Most of the forest estate is still composedof primary forest (Table 2). The main causes ofdeforestation are small-scale agriculture established

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*

90

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)

25.8
21.8–24.6

21 80018 700As reported in ITTO (2006).

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlantedTotal

10 60010 600a

13 325
13 525

25
25a

2700
2900

GABON

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of secondary forest and degraded primary forest
Area of degraded forest land*--

20 4004200-

Source: ITTO estimate.

along the roadways and urban development. The
main causes of forest degradation are industrial
mining and illegal logging in opened-up areas.
Vulnerability of forests to climate change. Given
its low population density and large forest area,
Gabon is less vulnerable to climate change thanmany other countries in Africa. The mean annual
temperature has increased by 0.6 °C since 1960,
an average rate of 0.14 °C per decade. Model
projections all indicate increases in the frequency of‘hot’ days and nights (McSweeney et al. undated).
Mean annual rainfall has decreased at an averagerate of 3.8 mm per month (2.6%) per decade since1960. All models indicate a considerable decrease in
rainfall over the next 50 years (ibid.).

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. All forest is owned by the state(Table 3). The 2001 Forest Code divides forests
into two distinct categories. The first includes the
production PFE managed by private concessionaires
and the protection PFE managed directly by thestate. The second, the non-PFE, known as thedomaine rural, includes open-access forests for
hunting, agriculture, mining and the gathering of
NTFPs; sacred forests; and community protectedareas (generally land and forest for which usage
rights are limited to local communities). Rural
communities and forest-dwellers are free to exercise

their customary rights in the domaine rural,
provided they respect all conditions imposed by
the forest administration. The production PFE is
exclusively owned and administered by the state.
Criteria and indicators. Gabon finalized its own
set of PCI in 2006 on the basis of the ATO/ITTO
PCI for the sustainable management of African
natural tropical forests. Since then Gabon has
worked to develop a country-wide certification
system and has harmonized its PCI with thestandards set by the Program for Endorsementof Forest Certification schemes (PEFC). The
orientation of the timber sector towards export
markets, particularly environmentally sensitive
European markets, helps to explain interest incertification.
Forest policy and legislation. Forest and wildlife
management are governed by the Forest Code (Law
16/01), which was enacted in December 2001.
The Code contains two major elements: SFM,
and forest industry development (including theallocation of forest concessions and fiscal aspects). It
also provides for the creation of community forests(Article 156). A 2008 decree (011/PR08) modified
certain elements of the Forest Code, including theabolishment of the monopoly of the state-owned
Société Nationale des Bois du Gabon (SNBG), thecommercialization of okoumé and ozigo and theprocess for the allocation of forest permits. Other

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
13 50013 5008300

021 800-13 500---

Production and protection PFE.
Area owned by the state, but with extended user rights(non-PFE, domaine rural).
Could include sacred forests, but their extent is unknown.
Some small plantations, community or privately owned, but nodata are available on their extent.

Source: Government of Gabon (2009).

91

Status of tropical forest management 2011

important legal texts are the 1993 Environment
Law (Law 16/93), the Mining Code (Law 05/2000)
and the land-ownership regime, which dates backto 1963 (Law 15/63). A law approved in 2007 (Law003/2007) governs the management of nationalparks.
Gabon’s forest policy was adopted in May 1996. It
focuses on maximizing the economic contributionof forests while ensuring a lasting resource basethrough the implementation of forest management
programs and national capacity-building. Phase
1 of the policy (1998–2002) focused on the
preparation of forest management plans and theestablishment of sustainable management standards.
Phase 2 (2002–10) focuses on the nationwide
implementation of the plans. The initial aim tohave 4 million hectares under management plansby 2010 was almost achieved; there is a further aim
that 5 million hectares will be under SFM by 2025.
Under the forest policy the government also plans
to have a total of 200 000 hectares of private-sector
and state-managed plantations by 2025.
Institutions involved in forests. The Ministryof Water and Forests (Ministère des Eaux etForêts – MEF) was created in January 2011
with a mission to develop and implement the
government’s policy on fisheries, forests, wildlife
and protected areas (excluding national parks,
which are managed by a separate agency). The
ministry in charge of forests has changed several
times in the last three years, from the Ministry for
Forest Economy, Inland Waters and Fisheries in
Charge of the Environment and National Parks(Ministère de l’Économie Forestière, des Eaux, dela Pêche, Chargé de l’Environnement et des Parc
Nationale), to the Ministry for Forest Economy,
Inland Waters, Fisheries and Aquaculture (Ministèrede l’Economie Forestière, des Eaux, de la Pêche et del’Aquaculture), to the Ministry of Inland Waters,
Forests, Environment and Sustainable Development(Ministère des Eaux et Forêts, de l’Environnement etdu Devéloppement Durable).
MEF has four technical directorates: the General
Directorate of Forestry (Direction Générale desForêts); the General Directorate for Wildlife andProtected Areas (Direction Générale de la Faune
et des Aires Protégées); the General Directorate
for Aquatic Ecosystems (Direction Générale desEcosystèmes Aquatiques); and the General Directorateof Forest Industries, Timber Trade and Value
Addition of Forest Products (Direction Générale des92

Industries, du Commerce du Bois et de la Valorisation
des Produits Forestiers). At time of publication the
Cabinet was considering a restructure of the MEF,
including a possible reduction in the number of
directorates to three.
The Ministry of Environment, Sustainable
Development and Nature Protection, Prevention
and Management of Natural Disasters (Ministèrede l’Environnement, du Développement Durable
et de la Protection de la Nature, Prévention etGestion des Calamités Naturelles) is in charge ofthe development of REDD+. In 2007 the Agency
for National Parks (Agence Nacionale des Parcs
Nationaux – ANPN) was created to manage
protected areas under the Ministry of Tourism andNational Parks.
Besides the technical agencies, a number of otheractors are involved in the development of SFM,
including the state timber enterprise, SNBG, which
is now under MEF and which, until recently, had amonopoly over the export of logs of the two main
species, okoumé and ozigo. There are five research
institutions dealing with forest-related issues andone forest training institute, Ecole Nationale desEaux et Forêt; the later operates under the auspicesof MEF. International development partners (theEuropean Union, the French Development Agency– Agence Française de Développement, and USAID)
are strong supporters of Gabon’s forest reform
agenda, as are international environmental NGOs
such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF
and the World Resources Institute, and national
civil-society organizations such as Brainforest andCroissance Saine. The Government of Gabon isan active member of COMIFAC; it also has anagreement with Global Forest Watch to support themonitoring of illegal logging in the country.a

Status of forest management
Forest for production
In the production PFE, all concessionaires must,within three years of allocation, submit a forest
management plan that includes timber and wildlife
management and socioeconomic studies. It mustalso include consultation between concessionaires,the forest administration and local people. Twotypes of management permits are issued:•

Forest concession under SFM (concession
forestière sous aménagement durable – CFAD),GABON

which has a minimum size of 50 000 hectares
and a maximum size of 600 000 hectares. A
CFAD must have a forest management plan andan industrialization plan and is awarded throughauction.
•

Associated forest permit (permis forestier associé –PFA), which is also awarded by auction but isreserved exclusively for Gabonese nationals. A
PFA can be integrated into an existing CFAD ormanaged on its own as a concession. The
minimum size is 15 000 hectares and the
maximum size is 50 000 hectares.

Under the 2001 Forest Code, forest in the domainrural (non-PFE) may be set aside as community
forests. Community forests should be managed
for timber and NTFPs according to a simplified
forest management plan developed with support
from the DGF. The community must prepare
supply contracts with local processing companies(de Wasseige et al. 2009). Cutting permits are alsoavailable to Gabonese nationals in the non-PFE for
up to 50 trees.
The forest area open to timber harvesting has
been divided into three zones. The first comprises
the coastal plains and is rich in okoumé andcharacterized by relatively easy transport. Mostof this zone has been harvested 1–3 times since
the end of the 19th century (ITTO 2006). The
second zone is less rich in okoumé and access ismore difficult. It has now been almost completely
harvested for the first time (ibid.), facilitated by theestablishment of the Transgabonais, the railway thathas granted access to a large part of the centre andeast of the country. Still less okoumé is found in theforests of the third zone, where the species reaches
the limits of its distribution.
There has been a significant increase in the areaof forest allocated for production since 2005,
including apparently outside the PFE. In March
2009, 48 concession areas were leased over a total
area of 10.3 million hectares and another 212
other permits were also active over an area of about
3 million hectares.a In 2010 an estimated 6.27
million hectares of production forests were active as
industrial timber production areasa, up from 4.55
million hectares in 2002 (ITTO 2006). In 2002
about 1.46 million hectares of forest were coveredby forest management plans (ibid.) but, in March
2009, 4.14 million hectares had been inventoried
and about 3.45 million hectares had fully developed

An example of limba in production forest, Gabon.

and approved management plans.a As of 2009, ten
foreign operators had the lion share of industrial
concessions in Gabon – they were from Europe(France, Italy and Portugal), Asia (China, India andMalaysia) and Lebanon. World Resources Institute(2009) contains a detailed analysis of the forest
concessions in Gabon.
Silviculture and species selection. Timber
harvesting is selective and focuses on high-value
species. At present, only 4–5 m3 is extracted,
on average, per hectare. In the first and second
harvesting zones this is due to previous overcuttingof okoumé; in the third, high transport costs mean
it is only economically viable to harvest the mostvaluable tree species. Table 4 shows the five mostharvested species in the past few years. Ayous,
Testulea gabonensis (izombe), Guibourtia demeusei(kevazingo), Piptadeniastrum africanum (dabéma)and Baillonella toxiperma (moabi) are among a
number of species that are being harvested inincreasingly large volumes. It is anticipated thatthe number of species acceptable to international
markets will continue to increase from the current
20 or so to 35–40 species in coming years.a
The gross standing volume of trees with diameter at
breast height (dbh) greater than 10 cm is estimatedat 250 m3 per hectare in unexploited forest and93

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé)*
Triplochiton scleroxylon (ayous)
Cyclodiscus gabunensis (okan)Distemonanthus benthamianus (movingui)
Dacryodes buettneri (ozigo)*

Average annual production of about 939 000 m3 (2006–08).
Up to 40 000 m3 produced annually on average (2006–08).
More than 20 000 m3 produced annually.
Nearly 20 000 m3 produced annually.
Production is declining, to less than 15 000 m3 annually.

Also listed in ITTO (2006).
*
Source: Government of Gabon (2009).

220 m3 per hectare in logged-over forest (ITTO2006). The commercial standing volumes are 55 m3
per hectare and 42 m3 per hectare, respectively.
Generally, forest resources can be divided into
two main categories: forests with okoumé andozigo, which regenerate well, and forests without
large amounts of those two species. In its range,
okoumé is the predominant species, with an average
standing volume of about 10 m3 per hectare. A
specific silvicultural system is applied in okoumé
forests, the méthode okoumé, based on favouring
natural regeneration and continuous thinning
until there are 80 stems per hectare with a dbh ofover 70 cm. Gabonese forests regenerate well and,if management prescriptions are followed, they
will maintain their productive value over several
rotations (Drouineau & Nasi 1999).
While the number of hardwood species being
used by industry is increasing, to a large extent
the financial viability of SFM is based on the highquantity and quality of okoumé. The appropriate
silvicultural management of okoumé forest istherefore important for ensuring the continued
abundance of this species because it is the backbone
of Gabon’s forest development. There are signs,
however, that silvicultural treatments are not being
conducted to the full extent needed (de Wasseige etal. 2009).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
Planted forests cover about 25 000–30 000 hectares(Government of Gabon 2009; de Wasseige et al.
2009). The government plans to increase the areaof planted state forest to 100 000 hectares and topromote the establishment of an additional 100 000
hectares of private plantations, but planting rates
are presently minimal.a Agro-industrial plantations
include about 11 000 hectares of rubber and somesmall plots of oil palm and coconut (ITTO 2006).
Reforestation and enrichment planting are generally
not undertaken in logged-over forests due to the94

relative ease of natural regeneration (ibid.). Existing
plantations are mainly on former natural-forest sites
and consist primarily of okoumé and, to a limited
extent, Terminalia superba (limba). There are also
some plantations of pines and clonal eucalypts(ibid.).
Forest certification. After more than five years ofintensive work, the Gabonese Pan African Forest
Certification Scheme (Système Panafricain deCertification Forestière) was endorsed for a periodof three years by the PEFC Council in April 2009.
This first-ever approved African national standard
provides buyers with evidence that the timber they
buy was harvested in well-managed forests. In
addition to this overall national approach to forest
certification, as of June 2010 six forest concessions,covering a total area of 1.874 million hectares, werecertified under the FSC (some of them also had
ISO 14001 and Keurhout certificates). A FLEGT
process is under way in Gabon and the Governmentof Gabon has shown interest in developing a VPA
with the European Union.a
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. The entire FSC-certified
forest area of 1.8 million hectares and two
additional forest concessions that are in a process
of forest management certification and have TLTV
certificates covering an area of about 622 000
hectares (de Wasseige et al. 2009) are counted inTable 5 as under SFM.
Timber production and trade. The total standing
timber volume (dbh >10 cm) is estimated at 2.60
billion m3 and the possible sustainable annual
yield of potentially marketable timber species isan estimated 12–15 million m3 (ITTO 2006). An
estimated 3.4 million m3 of industrial logs were
harvested in 2009, similar to the 3.5 million m3
estimated to have been produced in 2004 (ITTO2010). Note that okoumé accounted for nearly
30% of total production.

GABON

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

10 60010 6006923
10 300***NaturalWithmanagement
plans
2310
3450**,aCertified

1480

25

PlantedWith
management
plans
10

2420

25

10

Sustainably
managed

1480
1870

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Comprising only areas with approved management plans in March 2009.

An estimated 1.87 million m3 of logs were exported
in 2009, up from 1.51 million m3 in 2004;
157 000 m3 (roundwood equivalent) were exported
as sawnwood in 2009, up from 124 000 m3 in
2004. The log market for okoumé and ozinga ismainly oriented towards Asia, while dark hardwood
species are often exported to Europe. In 2009
Gabon was the second-largest exporter of tropical
hardwood logs (after Malaysia), Central Africa’s
largest timber producer and the world’s largest
supplier of okoumé. However, the Governmentof Gabon issued a ban on unprocessed timber
exports in January 2010 to encourage value-adding
to timber products. In mid 2008, Gabon had 48
operating sawmill facilities, nine peeling units
and three plywood plants with a potential annual
processing capacity of about 1.7 million m3 oflogs (de Wasseige et al. 2009), about half of total
production.
Non-timber forest products. As in the othercountries of the Congo Basin, many foodstuffs,
including bush meat, roots, fruits, leaves and nuts,
as well as medicinal plants and condiments, arecollected in forests. They are an integral part ofthe subsistence of local people and some, such as
the fruits of Irvingia, lianas of Gnetum, and plants
and nuts of Garcinia species, are also marketedat the national level. Bamboo and fibres such as
Marantaceae (rattan), raphia and the leaves ofBorassus aethiopum (rônier) are important productsthat are also traded regionally. Trade data on NTFPs
were unavailable for this report. Charcoal-making
supplies a small but efficient informal market(ITTO 2006). NTFPs are mentioned in the 2001
Forest Code and forest management plans must
include information on the potential of NTFPs inconcession areas.
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimatedthe national-level forest biomass carbon stock at3063–4114 MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006) estimatedit at 4742 MtC and FAO (2010) estimated it at2710 MtC. de Wasseige et al. (2009), taking into
account all five carbon pools, estimated the forest
carbon stock at about 4300 MtC. Gabon was oneof the founding members of the Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility and submitted a readinessidea note in 2008; by mid 2010, however, there
had been no progress on a readiness preparation
proposal. As laid out in Government of Gabon(2008), the government’s REDD strategy includes
the pursuit of sound land-use management andintensive agricultural production, including
agroforestry; the strengthening of sustainably
managed production forests; and the conservationof forests through effective protective-areamanagement. The country’s REDD+ potential
lies particularly in the sustainable management of
production and protection forests and conservationof the existing forest carbon stocks. Table 6
summarizes Gabon’s forest carbon potential.

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

3063–4114

87+

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
sink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030++++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity++

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

95

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Forest for protection

categories I–IV, compared with 570 000 hectares in2005. ITTO and WWF continue their joint workwith the government to manage the Minkébé Forest
Reserve, which together with the Minkébé National
Park makes up an ITTO-supported transboundary
conservation area linked to the Mengame protectedarea in Cameroon.

Soil and water. No forests are set aside specificallyto be managed primarily for the protection of soil
and water.aBiological diversity. Gabon contains more than
6500 plant species, 320 mammal species and 617
bird species. Ten mammals, two birds, one reptile,
three amphibians and 47 plants found in forests
are listed as critically endangered, endangered orvulnerable on the IUCN red list of threatened
species (IUCN 2011). Seven plant species arelisted in CITES Appendix II, none of which is a
hardwood timber species (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Although Gabon is sparsely populated, some fauna
species are under pressure in some areas due to anincreasing demand for bush meat (ITTO 2006).

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. The total protection PFE
under SFM is estimated at at least 1.23 million
hectares (Table 7), comprising the ITTO-supported
Minkébé National Park (750 000 hectares) andthe Lopé National Park (484 000 hectares, part ofwhich is savanna). These areas (which were alsoclassified as sustainably managed in 2005) areconsidered to be managed and protected effectively,
although poachers continue to be a threat to theseand other protected areas.

Protective measures in production forests. Underthe 2001 Forest Code, forest management plans
must include measures to protect soil, biodiversity
and water resources in forest concession areas.
Provisions designed to protect wildlife specify thezones where hunting is permitted and the lengthand dates of the hunting season. However, hunting
is a major problem within and in the vicinity offorest concessions.a

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. National resource use,
including oil extraction, timber harvesting andmining, is the cornerstone of Gabon’s economy (deWasseige et al. 2009). Oil alone generates 42% ofGDP, followed by timber (about 6% of GDPa). The
forest sector is the primary employer in the private
sector with about 13 000 employees, not counting
the informal sector.a The forest service itself
employs about 600 officers and support staff.aExtent of protected areas. Gabon has 13
national parks and a special presidential park,
two hunting zones and wildlife reserves – mostof them forested – covering about 2.9 million
hectares.a In mid 2009, four parks (PlateauxBatéké, Minkébé, Lopé and Moukalaba-Doudou)
had provisional management plans.a A National
Biodiversity Observation Board was createdin 2000 to support the implementation of the
GEF-assisted National Strategy and Action Plan for
Biodiversity (ITTO 2006). With the creation of
the ANPN, the national park network has clearly
been strengthened. More than 2.1 million hectaresof forest are now in reserves classified in IUCN

Livelihood values. Forests are the main sourceof subsistence for Indigenous peoples living in
the forests of Gabon. The law stipulates that local
people have free access to all forests as long as they
possess appropriate customary rights and do notjeopardize the sustainability of the forest products
they collect. Industrial forest management requires
the consent of the local population.a Bush meat andedible fruits such as aiéle, leaves of Gnetum species,and nuts and roots (igname) are of great importancefor forest-dependent local communities, particularly

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

2700
2900

570
2191**

0
0

491
1230‡

1090
1230†

*
**
‡
†

96

As reported in ITTO (2006).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).
Provisional management plans.
Pertains to the same two national parks considered under SFM in 2005, but new data (World Resources Institute 2009) suggest aslightly larger park area.

GABON

Pygmies. Bush-meat availability may be threatened
locally because of over-hunting.
Social relations. The community forests allowed
under the 2001 Forest Code replace the former‘family logging’ rights. The Forest Code specifies
that there should be a zone around each production
forest to accommodate the customary rights ofsurrounding communities. While a memorandum(lettre de politique) of forest policy published by thegovernment in May 2004 indicated an intention toincrease the future role of local users in community
forest management, little progress has been madein the last five years to introduce community forest
management.

Summary
Undeniable progress has been made in Gabon
towards SFM. The government continues toimprove its legal and institutional framework toregulate and monitor production forests and toeffectively manage protected areas. The 2001 Forest
Code is complemented by additional regulations
and field-based actions, including an improved
forest monitoring system. Principles, criteria andindicators have been formulated and adapted tothe conditions in Gabon and voluntary forestmanagement certification is well-developed.
Forestry will remain one of the pillars of Gabon’s
economic and social development. Based on
clear policy measures from the government, theprivate sector is a major driver of industrial forest
development and the export of semi-finishedforest products. The government has introduceda system to institutionalize community forestry
as a way of meeting local needs for timber andother forest products, although this system is yet
to be implemented. The country is engaged in
REDD+ processes, and it has a low deforestation
rate. Problems remain, mainly in governance;
for example, there is little civil advocacy and few
participatory processes in the forest sector.

Key points•

Gabon has a large forest resource with arelatively low risk of conversion to other uses.

•

Gabon has an estimated PFE of 13.5 million
hectares (compared with 13.3 million hectares
in 2005), comprising 10.6 million hectares ofnatural production forest (the same as in 2005),
2.90 million hectares of protection forest(compared with 2.70 million hectares in 2005)
and 25 000 hectares of planted forest (the sameas in 2005).
•

An estimated 2.42 million hectares of thenatural production PFE is under SFM,
including 1.87 million hectares of certified
forest. An estimated 1.23 million hectares ofprotection PFE is under SFM.

•

Forest management plans are fully developed in
3.45 million hectares of forest in concessions andwere under preparation for another 6 million
hectares of forest in concessions. High standards
for concession management have been developedon paper, but still need to be fully introduced on
the ground.

•

Gabon has the largest area of certified naturalforests in Africa.

•

The new national park network has great
potential and an increased focus will need to begiven to developing and implementing
long-term management plans.

•Community forests may be created in thedomain rural, but their development has been
insignificant to date.

•

Management for bush meat and other NTFPs isstill largely uncontrolled, even though theseissues must be addressed in forest management
plans.

EndnoteaGovernment of Gabon (2009).

References and other sources
Drouineau, S. & Nasi, R. (1999). L’Aménagement Forestierdu Gabon: Historique, Bilan, Perspectives. CIRAD-Forêt,Montpellier, France.
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010
country report: Gabon (available at http://www.fao.org/
forestry/62318/en/).
FSC (2010, website accessed June 2010). FSC Certification
Database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.
org/PublicCertificateSearch).
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).

97

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Government of Gabon (2008). Readiness plan idea note.
Prepared by the Republic of Gabon for the Forest
Carbon Partnership Facility (available at www.
forestcarbonpartnership.org).

UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed April 2011).
UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed species(searchable database at available at www.cites.org/eng/
resources/species.html).

Government of Gabon (2009). Report of progress towardachieving sustainable forest management in Gabon.
Submission to ITTO by the Nsitou Mabiala, Libreville,
Gabon.

UNEP–WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.

ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2010, website accessed December 2010). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2011, website accessed April 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).
McSweeney, C., New, M. & Lizcano, G. (undated). UNDP
climate change country profiles: Gabon (available at http://
country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/).
Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.
UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.

98

United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
July 2010). World population prospects: the 2008 revision(searchable database available at www.esa.un.org/unpp/
p2k0data.asp).
de Wasseige C., Devers D., de Marcken, P., Eba’a Atyi R., Nasi,
R. & Mayaux Ph. (eds) (2009). The Forests of the Congo
Basin: State of the Forest 2008. Publication Office of theEuropean Union, Luxembourg.
World Resources Institute (2010, website accessed March 2011).
Interactive forest atlas for Gabon (Atlas Forestier Interactif
de la Gabon) (available at http://www.wri.org/publication/interactive-forestry-atlas-gabon).

GHANA

Ghana
natural forest in 2010, which is about 20% of theland area. Spalding et al. (2010) estimated the total
area of (mostly degraded) mangroves at 13 700
hectares.

Forest resources
Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa,
bordered by Togo in the east, Côte d’Ivoire in thewest, Burkina Faso in the north and the Atlantic
Ocean in the south. It has a land area of 23.9
million hectares and in 2010 it had an estimatedpopulation of 24.3 million people (United Nations
Population Division 2010). The country is ranked
152nd out of 182 countries in UNDP’s Human
Development Index (UNDP 2009).
Ecologically Ghana is divided into a high-forest
zone in the south, accounting for about one-thirdof the land area (8 million hectares), a savanna zone
(14.7 million hectares), mostly in the north, and atransition zone (1.1 million hectares). FAO (2010)
estimated that Ghana had 4.68 million hectares ofForest types. The high forest zone is divided
into nine forest types: wet evergreen; moist
evergreen; moist semi-deciduous (southeast); moistsemi-deciduous (northwest); dry semi-deciduous(inner zone); dry semi-deciduous fire zone; uplandevergreen; southern marginal; and southern
outlier.a The semi-deciduous and evergreen forests
constitute the main timber-producing areas. The
main species in the semi-deciduous forests are
Triplochiton scleroxylon (wawa), Mansonia altissima(mansonia), Nesogordonia papaverifera (danta)
and Khaya ivorensis (mahogany); in the evergreen
forests the main species are Guarea cedrata (guarea),
Tieghemella heckelii (makore), Tarrietia utilis(niangon) and Uapaca spp (assam) (ITTO 2006).
Box 1 shows Ghana’s vegetation zones.
Permanent forest estate. Ghana’s forests are
divided into forest reserves and ‘off-reserve’ areas:of the 266 forest (production) reserves, 216 occur
in the high-forest, timber-producing zone, and theremainder occur in the savanna. Forest reserves
were originally established by the state to promoteecological stability while seeking to guarantee
the flow of goods and services for socioeconomic
development (Bird et al. 2006).
Ghana’s PFE is estimated at 1.43 million hectares,
which is the area of forest in forest reserves plus
the area of planted forests and the area of forest
in protected areas (Table 1). The total is 170 000
hectares less than that reported in 2005.

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting
year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡

Estimatedtotal naturalforest area,
range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)2.72–6.34
4.68

1634
838**

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted
1150
774a

97
164‡

353
396a

Total

1600
1334

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Calculated using the ratio of forest with greater than 60% forest cover estimated by UNEP-WCMC (2010) (18%) and theestimated total natural forest area.

FAO (2010) estimated the total planted forest estate at 260 000 hectares.

99

Status of tropical forest management 2011

The area of protection PFE reported for 2010is about 43 000 hectares more than the figure
reported in 2005. With recent activities to revise
and write new management plans for globallysignificant biodiversity areas (see below), some areasthat were previously not demarcated or measured
have now been demarcated, which might explainsome of the increase.b

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. The
condition of Ghana‘s forests has been in decline
for many years, particularly since the 1970s. Many
forest reserves are heavily encroached and degraded,
and the off-reserve stocks are being rapidly
depleted. Immediate drivers include forest industry
over-capacity; policy/market failures in the timber
sector; burgeoning populations in both rural andurban areas; increasing local demand for agriculturaland wood products; high demand for wood andforest products on the international market; heavy
dependence on charcoal and woodfuel for ruraland urban energy; and limited technologicaldevelopment in farming systems and continued
reliance on cyclical slash-and-burn methods tomaintain soil fertility (Forestry Commission 2010).
Deforestation in Ghana usually commences with thedegradation of well-stocked forests by excessive (often
illegal) logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, mining
and quarrying, and fuelwood collection. Degraded
forests are then often completely deforested
by wildfire, illegal occupation and/or land-use
changes. These destructive forces are influenced
by population pressure and poverty and also by
infrastructure and economic development programs.
Road construction near or within forest reserves
facilitates encroachment. Internal migration to thewestern forests for cash-crop cultivation accounts
for the high rate of degradation in those forests.
An estimated 395 000 hectares of primary forest
remain in Ghana, but no estimates were availableof the area of degraded primary forest, secondary
forest or degraded forest land (Table 2). Almost

all forests have suffered depletion, creating eroded
hillsides in some cases and destroying genetic
diversity in others (ITTO 2006). FAO (2010)
reported a change in natural forest area of 677 000
hectares between 2005 and 2010, an annual averageloss of 135 000 hectares. An estimated 66 500
hectares of wet evergreen, moist evergreen andmoist semi-deciduous forest (in the southwest) in
the PFE were formally converted to agriculture in
the most recent five-year reporting period.a
Forest fires affect an estimated 500 000 hectaresof forest per year, the majority (80%) of which
are unplanned (FAO 2010). Excessive logging canmake the forests more vulnerable to fire by causing
the accumulation of residues, which become
readily flammable when dry. Illegal forest activities,
including the use of portable chainsaw mills, arewidespread in the high-forest zone, particularly
in off-reserve areas. The invasion of woody weeds
affects an estimated 50 000 hectares.
Vulnerability of forests to climate change.
According to McSweeney et al. (undated), theaverage annual temperature in Ghana has increasedby 1.0 °C since 1960, an average rate of 0.21 °C
per decade; daily temperature data indicate thatthe frequency of ‘hot’ days has also increased
significantly. The mean annual temperature is
projected to increase by 1–3 °C by 2060 and by
1.5–5.2 °C by 2090. Rainfall trends are difficult
to identify; rainfall was high in the 1960s but
decreased to particularly low levels in the late1970s and early 1980s, resulting in an overall
decreasing trend (ibid.). According to the second
communication to the UNFCCC (in preparation),
two sectors are particularly vulnerable to theeffects of climate change in Ghana: health, due
to an increase in tropical diseases; and land
management, due to reduced crop production,
including cocoa and root crops, decreasing soil
fertility and moisture, particularly in savanna areas,decreased freshwater availability, biodiversity loss,
and coastal erosion. In the forest zone, a species’
shift is occurring through a process of competitive

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of degraded primary forest
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land

100

395a
-

0
-

395
4285a
-

GHANA

1997, the 1998 Timber Resources Management
Regulations, and the Forestry Commission Act,
1999 (Act 571). The Timber Resource Management(Amendment) Act, 2002 (Act 617), also recognizes
private tree ownership rights.

displacement, which, with increased warming,
deforestation and degradation, could be dramatic(Dixon et al. 1996).

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. Land-tenure systems varysignificantly from area to area in Ghana, withmajor regional differences between the north andsouth and between the Akan and related peoples ofsouth and southwest Ghana and the neighbouring
Ewe-speaking populations in the southeast. The
territories of the Akan people largely coincidewith the high-forest zone. Nearly all their land isunder some form of ownership, and most landsin the Akan areas are under the authority of thechieftaincy (the ‘stool’). This is a titular authority,
conferring the right to tribute and, in appropriate
instances, a share of land-based revenues. It is nota full proprietary interest (Government of Ghana2008). Such lands may be managed directly by thestool, or by sub-chiefs and other ‘captains’ who,
either by themselves or via their ancestors, haveobtained a claim over particular blocks of land
within their natal chieftaincies (ibid.). Some areas,
including forest reserves, have been acquired by
the government, though ultimately ‘owned’ by thechieftaincy; these are referred to as ‘vested lands’.

Criteria and indicators. The Governmentof Ghana (2010) used the ITTO C&I in its
submission to ITTO for this report. In September
2010, with the support of a regional ATO/ITTO
project, Ghana finalized the harmonization processof its SFM standards according to the ATO/ITTO
PCI for the sustainable management of African
natural tropical forests. The ITTO C&I and the
ATO/ITTO PCI are incorporated in the Forestry
Commission’s various forest-management manuals
and guidelines, providing a cornerstone for naturalforest management.

Thus, in Ghana, forests are owned by communities
vested in traditional authorities, held in trust
for them by the state, and logged by private
contractors; traditionally owned forest lands are
known variously as ‘stool land’ or ‘skin land’.
However, both Government of Ghana (2010)
and FAO (2010) report that forests are entirely inpublic ownership (Table 3), since they are ‘held in
trust’ by the state. Ownership arrangements are also
reflected in the Timber Resource Management Act,Two laws have been enacted recently by Parliament
with potential implications for forests. These arethe:Forest policy and legislation. The first forest
policy was established in 1947; this was revised
in line with Ghana’s 1992 Constitution andapproved in 1994 as the Forest and Wildlife Policy.
No significant changes have been made to forest
laws, policies or regulations since the last report.
However, the government is in a consultative
process to review the Forest and Wildlife Policy andthe 1996 Forestry Development Master Plan (whichspans 1996–2020).

•

Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703),
which may have a bearing on national objectives
for forests and on the control of illegal activities
in forests.

•

Lands Commission Act, 2008 (Act 767), which
established the Lands Commission to integrate,

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Privately owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
0

0

4680

1430

4680
0

1430
0

0

0

Forests are owned by communities vested in traditional
authorities, held in trust for them by the state. They may belogged by private contractors.

Source: Government of Ghana (2010), FAO (2010).

101

Status of tropical forest management 2011subject to the Constitution, the operations ofpublic-service land institutions under theCommission in order to secure effective andefficient land administration and to provide forrelated matters. This Act may have implications
for national forest objectives, forest tenure andproperty rights, and the control of illegal
activities in forests.
The Government of Ghana listed 28 forest-related
acts and decrees and 24 forest-related regulations,some of which overlap, duplicate or contradict.a
The fines for breaches of forest-related laws andregulations have not been reviewed for many years
and are outdated. A single, consolidated forest
law would be desirable, and the governance andcontrol system needs to be reformed to improve
its efficiency and effectiveness. There is a need forenabling legislation to provide for the voluntaryestablishment of dedicated off-reserve forests and topromote private-sector plantations.a
Institutions involved in forests. The main
institution in charge of forests is the Ministryof Lands and Forestry (MLF) supported by the
Forestry Commission, which was established in
1980, and the Forestry Commission divisionsof Forest Services, Wildlife, Timber Industry
Development, Wood Industries Training Centre
and Resource Management Support Centre. The
Forestry Commission, which employs about 550
professional and technical forestry personnel, is
responsible for coordinating, implementing andenforcing policies, laws and regulations for thedevelopment, management and regulation of theuse of forest and wildlife resources.a
The main institutions involved in forestry research
are the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana(FORIG) under the Ministry of Environment,
Science and Technology; the Renewable Natural
Resources Institute of Ghana; and the University of
Ghana. FORIG employs about 90 people.a Overall,an estimated 3576 people were employed in publicforest-related institutions in 2008, 51 of whom had
university degrees, including 19 with doctorates(FAO 2010).
Community participation in forestry is being
facilitated through community forest committees:
the Forestry Commission aims to create 100
such committees.a Active NGOs include
Friends of the Earth Ghana (15 employees), theGhana Association for the Conservation of Nature

102(three employees), Green Earth (19 employees),
and Tropenbos International (twelve employees).a
The Timber and Wood Workers Union of the Trade
Union Congress of Ghana is also an important
stakeholder. However, there are often problems of
coordination between the trade union, NGOs andgovernment forestry agencies (ITTO 2006).

Status of forest management
Forest for production
The 1994 Forests and Wildlife Policy abolishedthe existing concession system and replaced itwith a new system intended to promote efficiency,transparency and accountability. Under the system
there are two types of permits: competitive bidding
and administrative permits.
•

Competitive bidding: the allocation of forest
resources through competitive-price bidding fortimber rights is a fundamental feature of the1994 Forest and Wildlife Policy, which calls forthe “award of timber rights on the basis ofcompetitive bidding and periodic audit of forest
utilization operations to ensure compliance with
forest management specifications andenvironmental protection standards”. The
regulations governing competitive bidding fortimber rights in the form of timber utilization
contracts (TUCs) are outlined in the Timber
Resource Management Act, 1997 (Act 547), as
well as the accompanying Timber Resources
Management Regulations (1998; LI 1649).
Competitive bidding is mandatory in theawarding of all timber rights in the form ofTUCs on both reserve and off-reserve areas.
Under the competitive bidding framework, theallocation of TUCs is made on the basis of
public bidding for rights to harvest timber ineach area on the basis of an annual timber rights
fee. TUCs for forest reserves have a term of 40
years, while TUCs for other lands have a termof five years.
All applications for the granting of timber rights
are evaluated by the Timber Rights Evaluation
Committee (TREC) to determine those entities
that are pre-qualified for the granting of timberrights. All TUCs require parliamentary
ratification and timber rights acquired under a
TUC cannot be transferred without the writtenconsent of the minister. All applications for suchtransfer should be evaluated by TREC.

GHANA•

Administrative permits: there are two types ofadministrative permit––

Timber utilization permits: timber may
be allocated through timber utilization
permits (TUPs; LI 1649). Based on
an application by a district assembly,
town committee, any rural community
group or an NGO and subject to suchconditions as the Forestry Commission
may determine, the Forestry Commission
may issue a TUP exclusively for harvestinga specified number of trees in an area ofland not subject to a TUC. Any timber
harvested or converted to lumber under
a TUP may be used only for social orcommunity purposes and may not be soldor exchanged. Thus, any timber harvested
for commercial purposes that was allocatedunder a TUP does not qualify as legal
timber.
Salvage felling permits: permits may be
issued for the salvage of trees from an areaof land undergoing development such as
road construction, the expansion of humansettlement or the cultivation of farms. No
such permit is issued in respect of land
under a TUC. Salvage felling permits are
subject to corruption and other forms ofabuse: since timber from TUPs cannot be
distinguished from other timber in thecommercial market, a major challenge is toprevent timber harvested under TUPs fromentering the commercial market.a

Timber harvesting is used as both a silviculturaland a management tool. National forest inventories
were undertaken in forest reserves in 1985–1992
and 2002, and the data from these have been used
for, among other things, setting the AAC. Forest
protection strategies have been incorporated anddescribed in the 1995 Manual of Procedures for
Stock Survey and Yield Allocation and backed by
the 1998 Logging Manual.
The Manual of Procedures for Stock Survey andYield Allocation documents the steps to be taken
and operations to be carried out to ensure thattrees in production forest reserves are felled ona sustained-yield basis. The Logging Manualprescribes the code of timber-harvesting practiceand technology that all holders of timber utilizationrights are required to adhere to. The manual isFuelwood-gathering in western Ghana.

written primarily to guide timber contractors
on planning and operational aspects of timber
harvesting and provides basic information for acode of good working practice. To ensure thatharvesting meets the required forest management
standards, the following criteria have been set:•

Each TUC area in a forest reserve should have aharvesting schedule.

•

Permanently and temporarily protected areas aswell as conversion and research areas should be
excluded from the schedule.

•

The period of the schedule should be 40 years.

•

The duration of each felling coupe should notexceed five years.

•

Each five-year coupe should be allocatedone-eighth (± 10%) of the area of allcompartments in the TUC area.

•

The harvesting schedule should be practical.

A compartment is not released for logging if it does
not appear in the harvesting schedule.
The Forest Services Division of the Forestry
Commission is responsible for supervising andmonitoring TUCs. The Division’s district forest
manager and regional staff are responsible for
ensuring that contractors follow the guidelinesof the Logging Manual and fully adhere to thetimber operational specifications and the social
responsibility agreement specified in contracts.
In particular the field staff must ensure thatcompartment plans are followed, that theconditions for forest protection are adhered to, andthat payments are made in accordance with contract
agreements.

103

Status of tropical forest management 2011

The Forestry Commission also uses the 1998 Manualof Procedures for Forest Resource Management
Planning in the High-forest Zone, under which
logging plans are prepared by the contractor and theforest reserves are divided into compartments of 128
hectares each (1600 m x 800 m). The 2002 Law on
Timber Resource Auctioning establishes that timberrights will be awarded by tender. The Forestry
Commission allocates the volumes to be harvested
annually based on an ‘interim yield formula’, which
depends on the size of the TUC. One hundred
percent of the boundaries of forest reserves havebeen demarcated.a
A national AAC of 500 000 m3 has been set forforest reserves using results of inventories and aharvesting rotation of 40 years. This AAC is applied
to 64 economic species, grouped in accordance with
their level of harvesting in relation to their total
stocks: 18 Scarlet Star species, comprising the main
traditional commercial timbers now under threatof economic extinction, where the level of cut isgreater than 200% of the sustainable level; 16 Red
Star species, for which the level of cut is 50–200%
the level considered to be sustainable and which will
eventually become economically extinct withouta major reduction in harvest; and 30 Pink Star
species, some of which are being exploited but not
at a rate to cause concern – i.e. less than 50% of thesustainable cut.a
The estimated total AAC of 683 100 m³(comprising 115 900 m3 of Scarlet Star species,
208 700 m3 of Red Star species and 358 500 m3 of
Pink Star species – see Table 4) was rounded down
to 500 000 m³ because many Pink Star species are
currently regarded as unsaleable. The AAC has been
set at 1.5 million m³ for off-reserve forests, giving a
total national AAC of 2 million m3.a
The AAC in forest reserves (500 000 m3) has been
criticized as being unsustainable, partly because“the timber industry has failed to heed repeatedwarnings to shift exploitation from [traditional,
high-value] species to lesser-used species” (Bird etal. 2006). Outside the forest reserves, the annual
production of timber by illegal chainsaw milling isreported to be as high as 2.5 million m3, five times
the total AAC in the formal sector (Marfo 2010).
In the past, forest management plans have notbeen very successful in protecting the forest fromdegradation and over-exploitation. In line withnew thinking about forest management, new104

management plans are being prepared. Twenty-one
plans have been developed covering an area ofjust over 400 000 hectares of the PFE, and theirimplementation was scheduled to begin in January
2010. If the implementation of these initial 21plans is successful, a second phase will involvethe development of plans for the remaining
production forest reserves. The introduction of low
impact logging techniques is under consideration.
Constraints to SFM encountered in the past include
inadequate funding; institutional weaknesses; a lackof adequate equipment; the poor implementationof management plans; increasing demand for forest
resource use, sometimes resulting in conflicts; andencroachment and unapproved harvesting.a
A range of measures has been put in place tohelp reduce the impact of fire, including wildfire
management plans, the establishment of a green firebelt, incentive schemes for fighting fires (volunteer
schemes), education and awareness creation, andarrests and prosecutions. Such measures havehelped to reduce the incidence of wildfire in somefire-prone communities.a
The management of many forest reserves is thought
to be quite good. In others, however, inadequate
control of TUCs has allowed over-harvesting.
Repeated re-entries take place depending on
demand for logs, often facilitated through salvage
permits. There is inadequate surveillance tosafeguard the integrity and ensure the security of
the PFE. There are also inadequacies in survey
records, maps and boundary maintenance (ITTO2006).
The formal timber industry has traditionallyconcentrated on exports. Domestic supplies,
therefore, are supplemented by illegal logging:according to one estimate, 84% of domestic timber(about 497 000 m3) is supplied by illegal chainsaw
milling operations, and an additional 260 000
m3 of timber from such operations is exported toneighbouring countries (Marfo 2010). Most of thelogs are obtained from off-reserve sources (including
in concessions, at the expense of concessionholders), although there is anecdotal evidence that
forest reserves are increasingly being raided (ibid.).
Measures have been put in place to reduce illegal
forest activities, including the formation of amilitary task force, which patrols the forest;
increased arrests and prosecutions; a ban on thesale of chainsaw lumber; and the development of aGHANA

VPA with the European Union (see below). Suchmeasures have enhanced the Forestry Commission’s
capacity to control legal and illegal forest activities.a
Another potential measure is a new timber-tracking
system, which is currently being piloted. Thissystem is designed to monitor the movement oftimber from standing trees in forests (including
in forest reserves, off-reserve forests, and timber
plantations) to processing facilities, or from pointof-import to processing facility, and to local sales
outlets or export facilities. The system will enable
the tracking of individual logs and consignments
of processed products, and will include productlabelling, physical inspections and documentary
checks. It will have four main components:•

The identification and tagging of individual
products or consignments using bar-codedlabels or radio frequency identification devices(usually known as RFIDs).

•

The incorporation of these tag numbers onto
the statutory forms used for declarations,inspections and other relevant records andreports.

•

The use of electronic technology for datacollection and transmission.

•

The development of a database to receive,
analyse and report all wood production andmovement.

The system will provide the full traceability oftimber from both the PFE and the non-PFE
and certify the origin and legal and regulatorycompliance of all timber products. Initially thescope will be limited to information on forest andtimber operations and will include:•

log production•

log movements from forest to mill•

mill inputs and outputs•

processed timber production and transport•

processed timber exports•

log and processed timber imports.

Silviculture and species selection. The silvicultural
system used in natural forests is a polycyclic
selection felling system using a cutting cycle of 40
years. The AAC in the natural forests is decided on
the basis of stock surveys and size limits prescribed

for the different commercial species by the Forest
Services Division of the Forestry Commission.
Only 20% of the trees above the diameter limit are
to be harvested (around three trees per hectare),with the rest retained for the next entry in 40
years. Post-logging silvicultural operations are alsoprescribed to promote growth and sustainability.
There are many hardwood timber species, but themore commercially valuable are becoming scarce.
Table 4 shows the three groupings of species, andthe harvesting volumes in each.
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
The National Forest Plantation Development
Programme, which was launched in early
2010, aims to encourage the development of asustainable forest resource base that will satisfy
future demand for industrial timber and enhanceenvironmental quality. The program is being
implemented under three main strategies. The firstof these, the modified taungya system, involves theestablishment of plantations by the Forest Services
Division in partnership with farmers. The Forest
Services Division provides technical direction
and demarcates degraded forest reserve lands andsupplies pegs and seedlings, while the farmers
provide all the labour involved in site-clearing,
pegging, planting, maintenance and fire protection.
Farmers are permitted to cultivate their food crops,
which are inter-planted with tree crops. In addition
to the food crops they harvest, farmers earn a 40%
share of the returns on investment. The government
also receives a 40% share and the landowner andcommunity earn a 15% and 5% share, respectively.
The second strategy uses hired labour and contract
supervisors to establish industrial plantations.
Plantation workers are hired and paid a monthly
allowance to establish and maintain plantations,while plantation supervisors are given one-year
renewable contract employment to supervise
and offer technical direction. The Forestry
Commission’s Plantation Department exercises
general oversight and monitors field activities
to ensure compliance with quality standards forplantation establishment. This strategy is employedby the Government Plantation Development
Programme, which is funded through the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries initiative. The plantations
developed under this scheme are owned bygovernment and those landowners who are entitled
to royalty payments.

105

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species grouping

Notes

Scarlet Star*

An estimated 115 900 m3 are harvested each year in forest
reserves, and 100 185 m3 are harvested off-reserve.
An estimated 208 700 m3 are harvested each year in forest
reserves, and 41 778 m3 are harvested off-reserve.
An estimated 358 500 m3 are harvested each year in forest
reserves, and 360 916 m3 are harvested off-reserve.

Red Star**
Pink Star‡*

Scarlet-star species comprise the main traditional timbers now under imminent threat of extinction: Albizia ferruginea, Aningeria
altissima/robusta (also listed in ITTO 2006), Daniella ogea/thurifera, Entandrophragma angolense, E. cycylindricum, E. utile,
Guibourtia ehie, Khaya anthotheca/grandifolia, Khaya ivorensis, Milicia excels/regia, Nauclea diderrichii, Pericopsis elata,
Pterygota macrocarpa and Tieghemella heckelii.
**
Red-star species comprise other traditional timbers for which current rates of exploitation present a significant danger of extinction:
Afzelia africana/bellea, Canarium schweinfurthii, Distemonanthus benthamianus, Rhodognaphalon/Bombax brevicuspe, Antiaris
toxicaria, Antrocaryon micraster, Ceiba pentandra (also listed in ITTO 2006), Chrysophyllum spp, Entandrophragma candollei,
Guarea spp, Heritiera utilis, Lophira alata, Lovoa trichilioides, Mansonia altissima, Piptadenisatrum africanum and Terminalia
ivorensis,‡
Pink-star species comprise the following lesser-used species: Albizia adianthifolia, Anopyxis klaineana, Berlinia spp, Cynometra
anatana, Erytrophleum sauaveolens, Hallea spp/Mitragyna spp, Holoptelea grandis, Lannea welwitschii, Petersianthus
macrocarpus, Strombosia glaucescens, Trichilia tessmannii, Albizia zygia, Alstonia boonei, Amphimas perocarpoides, Berlinia
confusa, Celtis midbraedii/zenkeri, Coryanthe pachyceras, Cylicodiscus gabonensis, Dialium aubrevillei, Klaindoxa gabonensis,
Mammea africana, Morus mesozygia, Ongokea gore, Parinari excelsa, Parkia bicolor, Pycnanthus angolensis, Rhodognaphalon/
Bombax buonopozense, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Sterculia rhinopetala, Terminalia superba (also listed in ITTO 2006), Trilepisium
madagascariense and Triplochiton scleroxylon (also listed in ITTO 2006).
Source: Government of Ghana (2010).

The third strategy involves the release of degraded
forest reserve lands by the Forestry Commission
to private entities after vetting and endorsing theirreforestation and business plans. The operations ofthese private developers are then monitored throughperiodic field visits by the Plantation Department
to ensure compliance with the approved
reforestation plans. The private investor earns 90%of the total proceeds from the plantation while theForestry Commission, landowner and community
earn 2%, 6% and 2%, respectively.
The estimated area of planted forest in 2010 was
about 260 000 hectares (FAO 2010). Ghana beganplanting Tectona grandis (teak) in the Volta regionin 1875, and teak is the most dominant species
in today’s plantation estate. Teak yields average
8–10 m3 per hectare per year on a 25-year cycle,
and there is a ready demand for teak timber, bothin domestic and export markets. The indigenous
species planted are mainly Mansonia altissima,
Terminalia superba, T. ivorensis, Entandrophragma
angolense, Khaya ivorensis, Ceiba pentandra, Heritiera
utilis and Triplochiton scleroxylon. Other than teak,the exotic species are predominantly Cedrela odorata
and Eucalyptus camaldulensis.b
A total of 68 558 hectares of plantation were
established in the period 2005–08.b As of the endof 2008, 9095 hectares of plantation were covered106

by management plans and a further 15 031 hectares
were confirmed to be covered by reforestation plans.
For the remaining areas, a validated figure could not
be readily obtained.b
Forest certification. Ghana has been engaged in
the development of forest certification for morethan a decade. There is interest in developing anational scheme partly because FSC-accredited
certification bodies, using their generic standards,
have been unable to certify significant areas offorests in Ghana because existing TUPs andcontracts might be in conflict with recent laws.
Another reason is that management plans writtenby the Forestry Commission are at various stagesof consultation (i.e. drafts) and are unapproved(Purbawiyatna & Simula 2008). As of February
2011 a small area of teak plantation and about
150 000 hectares of natural forest was certified by
the FSC (FSC 2011).
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. On the basis of
information supplied by the Government of Ghana,
FAO (2010) reported that 1.38 million hectaresof forest was under sustainable management.
ITTO (2006) estimated that 270 000 hectaresof natural forest was being managed in a mannerconsistent with sustainability, including theoperation of Samartex, a Ghana company with FSC

GHANA

controlled-wood certification for 150 308 hectaresof natural forest in Samreboi. Controlled-woodcertification certifies that the wood supply does
not include wood that is illegally harvested;
harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights;
harvested in forest management units in which highconservation values are threatened by management
activities; harvested in areas in which forests arebeing converted to plantations or non-forest use;or harvested from forests in which geneticallymodified trees are planted. This area, and the area
contained in the Bobiri Forest Reserve, are includedin the estimated area of forest under SFM presented
in Table 5.
Timber production and trade. Total industrial
roundwood production in 2009 was 1.32 million
m3, little changed from the 1.37 million m3
recorded in 2004 (ITTO 2011). Sawnwood
production was 532 000 m3 in 2009, comparedwith 490 000 m3 in 2004 and 454 000 m3 in 1999.
About 191 000 m3 of plywood was produced in
2009, compared with 140 000 m3 in 2004 and
75 000 m3 in 1999; 274 000 m3 of veneer was
produced in 2009, compared with 301 000 m3 in2004 and 150 000 m3 in 1999 (ITTO 2011). The
estimated export value of primary timber products
was US$207 million in 2009, comprising logs
(US$17.3 million – presumably teak and otherplantation logs), sawnwood (US$70.0 million),
veneer (US$63.4 million) and plywood (US$56.0
million) (ITTO 2011).
The export of round and square logs (other thanplantation teak) has been banned since 1997 andlevies imposed on exports of air-dried timber ofnine important species. In 2008 Ghana reported
exports of 191 000 m3 of sawnwood (including
20 700 m3 to the United States, 18 700 m3 toGermany, and 13 800 m3 to Italy) and 69 700 m3

of veneer (including 21 400 m3 to the United States
and 9450 m3 to Italy) (ITTO 2010). In that year
it exported 8220 m3 of teak logs to India; the totalexport volume of teak lots was 87 100 m3 but thedestination of most of these was unreported (ibid.).
Non-timber forest products. An estimated
380 000 tonnes of bush meat are consumed
annually, mainly from forests, at an estimatedvalue of about US$350 million.a Animal and plant
products used in traditional medicine and cultural
practices have an estimated value of about
US$13 million.a Over 600 000 women in northern
Ghana collect about 130 000 tonnes of nuts yearly,
about 40% of which is exported. This contributes
about US$30 million annually to the national
economy (Osei-Tutu et al. 2010).
Efforts are being made to market, internationally, atleast two Ghanaian NTFPs: thaumatin, a sweetenerfrom seeds of Thaumatococus danielli, which is
reputed to be easy to cultivate under plantation
trees; and novella, an oil/margarine from seeds ofAllanblackia parviflora. A small-scale processing
facility for thaumatin production is being
established; the value of exports of this productin 2004 was reportedly $430 million (Okeke
2009). The contribution of ecotourism, including
in forests, to Ghanaian GDP is 12%.a
Forest carbon. Ghana is developing acomprehensive low-carbon growth plan that willaddress climate change as part of a national andsectoral development strategy and set REDD+
in a wider development context (Anon. 2010).
Estimates of national-level forest biomass carbon
stocks vary from 381 MtC (FAO 2010) to 610–890
MtC (Gibbs et al. 2007), to 2100 MtC (Eggleston
et al. 2006). There is no recent estimate of the net
emissions of GHGs caused by deforestation and

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

1150
774

1035
1124*****‡†NaturalWithmanagement
plans
1150
774‡,aCertified

0
150

270

97

PlantedWith
management
plans
97

155†

164

24

Sustainably
managed

Total

Certified0
1.8

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Assumed to be the area classified as ‘production’ in FAO (2010).
Total area under ‘old’ management plans. Recently, new forest management plans have been developed for 408 000 hectares of
the PFE and are in the early stages of implementation.
Comprising the certified forest area and the Bobiri Forest Reserve, where a management plan and a TUC operational plan arebeing implemented effectively.b107

Status of tropical forest management 2011degradation; estimates made in 1994 suggest that
40% of the country‘s emissions may come fromdeforestation (Government of Ghana 2008). Ghana
is actively engaged in the Forest Carbon Partnership
Facility and is developing a national REDD+
strategy. It has also been chosen as a pilot countryof the Forest Investment Program for up-scaled
REDD+ investment. The initial REDD+ strategy
comprises two broad and overlapping thematic
areas:

Protective measures in production forests.
About 100 000 hectares of the production PFE are
considered environmentally sensitive (i.e. on steep
slopes or erodible soils, or in streamside buffers).a
Measures exist to minimize damage in such areas:for example, no logging operation is permitted
within buffer strips (25 m on either side of streams,
and 50 m either side of rivers). No felling into
buffer strips is permitted, and any tree or debris that
falls within watercourses must be removed.

•

Timber policy and supply – approaches will
focus on traditional timber-sector operations,processes, policies and laws and on the potential
for broadening public participation.

•

Wider aspects of forest policy, including
agroforestry and other carbon-conserving
activities.

Extent of protected areas. The estimated areaof protection PFE is 396 000 hectares. The
Government of Ghana (2010) reported 31
protected areas in IUCN categories I and II
covering a total area of 1.10 million hectares, mostof which is (non-forest) grass savanna, as well
as 7000 hectares in IUCN categories III and IV
and 3.69 million hectares in IUCN category V.
According to UNEP-WCMC (2010), 973 000
hectares of forest are in protected areas conforming
to IUCN protected-area categories I–IV (including
about 97 000 hectares of closed-canopy forest).
The large difference between this and the estimatedprotection PFE may be caused partly by the
inclusion, in the UNEP-WCMC estimate, of areasof savanna not included in the estimate of theprotection PFE.

Table 6 summarizes Ghana’s overall forest-basedcarbon capture and storage potential.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. The Government of Ghana (2010)
reported that the country’s entire protection PFE(350 000 hectares) is managed exclusively for theprotection of soil and water.
Biological diversity. At least 674 tree species,
225 mammal species, 728 bird species, 340
butterfly species, 221 amphibian species, 157
fish species and four reptile species are found inforests.a Twelve mammals, six birds, two reptiles,
eleven amphibians, one arthropod and nine plants
found in forests are listed as critically endangered,endangered or vulnerable on the IUCN red list of
threatened species (IUCN 2011). One plant species
is listed in CITES Appendix I and 18 are listed inAppendix II (UNEP-WCMC 2011).

A national biodiversity strategy has beenformulated that seeks to ensure the development
and implementation of a well-coordinatedbiodiversity policy for the in situ and ex situ
conservation of the nation’s biological resources.
The document contains a strategic framework
for biodiversity conservation and managementin Ghana. In addition, management plans for 30‘globally significant biodiversity areas’ covering
230 000 hectares have been developed (including
through flora and fauna surveys) and are being
implemented.a

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% intact
forest/tree
canopycover >
60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

610–89018++

Enhancement Forest areaof carbonchangesink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030++++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity++

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning++++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

108

GHANA

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)***‡

Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

353
396

174
174**

353

230‡

108
230

As reported in ITTO (2006).
In the absence of reliable updated information, the 2005 estimate is repeated here.
For globally significant biodiversity areas.

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Table 7 shows theestimated area of protection PFE under SFM.

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Forests accounted for 6%
of GDP in 2004 (US$520 million), and exportsof timber products were worth an estimated
US$186 million in 2008.a The formal forest sector
employs about 120 000 people, including about
50 000 in the wood-products industry. About 70
companies are involved in timber harvesting, 70 are
involved in primary processing, 127 are involved
in secondary processing, and 1650 are involvedin tertiary processing.a According to Mayers et al.
(2008) about 30 000 small-scale carpenter firms
employ an estimated 200 000 people, and there areabout 5000 woodcarvers and 1500 canoe carvers.
Chainsaw milling, although illegal, provides jobs
for about 130 000 Ghanaians and livelihood
support for about 650 000 people (Marfo 2010);
5000–6000 people are estimated to be employed in
the bush-meat industry.a The extent of overlap inthese various estimates is unclear.
The VPA between Ghana and the European
Union, which was signed in November 2009,
could have significant economic repercussions for
Ghana. An assessment of its potential impact onforest governance and economics by Mayers et al.
(2008) compared a business-as-usual scenario witha ‘legitimate-timber’ scenario (such as might occur
under the VPA) and a ‘sector-reform’ scenario. The
main components of the legitimate-timber scenario
were a national legality standard; chain-of-custodysystem (timber-tracking); a verification-of-legality
system (licensing by a new timber-validation
entity); the piloting of the legal assurance system;
and independent monitoring. The sector-reform
scenario would involve a broader set of fiscal,
regulatory, trade and tenure improvements. The
assessment predicted that, under the legitimate-timber scenario, the national timber harvest would
drop by about 20% by 2012 and still further (morethan 50% compared to the present level) by 2020,
although this would still be above the sustainablelevel predicted under the sector-reform scenario.
The first VPA-licensed products were anticipatedin December 2010.
Livelihood values. An estimated 2 million
people depend on forests for subsistence uses andtraditional and customary lifestyles.a Forest-adjacentcommunities undertake a wide range of forestrelated activities, including fuelwood and charcoal
production, wood-carving, canoe-carving, rattan
production and chewstick-gathering.
Social relations. The Constitution provides forthe sharing of royalties between government andtraditional owners as follows: 40% to stools and
60% to the state in reserve forests; and 60% tostools and 40% to the state in off-reserve forests.
Social-responsibility agreements are reached
between TUC-holders and the communities wheretimber extraction takes place for the provision ofagreed social services and amenities; a process of
consultation is also undertaken.
The following benefit-sharing arrangement forthe modified taungya system and commercial
plantation developers is in place: farmers and theForestry Commission should each receive 40% of
benefits accruing based on their inputs; landowners
should receive 15% (comprising traditional
authorities 7% and tribal landowners 8%); andforest-adjacent communities should receive 5%.

Summary
A number of factors is driving the depletion of
Ghana’s forests, particularly off-reserve forests
but also forest reserves. Forest-related laws
are sometimes contradictory or overlapping.
Nevertheless, steps are being taken to increase
community participation in forest management.
Ghana has a strong Forestry Commission, a long109

Status of tropical forest management 2011

history of forest management, and capacity forforest research. The forest industries are a large
employer, much of it in the informal sector. The
Forestry Commission has an established approach
to forest management in forest reserves and has
set an annual allowable cut of 500 000 m3, which
has been criticized as unsustainable. Outside forest
reserves there is little control of harvesting andthe annual production is reportedly much higher
than the allowable cut in forest reserves. A rangeof measures has been put in place to reduce theincidence of wildfire, and these appear to havebeen at least partially effective. Measures havebeen put in place to reduce illegal logging (whichis reportedly high), including a timber-tracking
system. A national forest plantation development
program has been launched with the aim ofdeveloping a sustainable forest resource base. Ghana
has been chosen as a pilot country for up-scaled
REDD+ investment through the Forest Investment
Program.

Key points•••

The PFE is an estimated 1.33 million hectares(down from 1.6 million hectares in 2005),
comprising 774 000 hectares of natural-forest
production PFE (down from 1.15 million
hectares in 2005), 396 000 hectares ofprotection PFE (up from 353 000 hectares in2005) and 164 000 hectares of plantations (upfrom 97 000 hectares in 2005).
At least 155 000 hectares of natural-forest
production PFE are under SFM, down fromabout 270 000 hectares in 2005; an estimated
230 000 hectares of protection PFE are somanaged, up from 108 000 hectares in 2005.
There are manuals for production, management
and planning, which set out the obligations oflogging contractors.

EndnotesaGovernment of Ghana (2010).

b

Personal communications with officials in the Governmentof Ghana, 2010.

References and other sources
Anon. (2010). Recommendations for pilots under the FIP.
Report of the expert group to the FIP subcommittee, March
2010. Forest Investment Program (available at http://www.
climateinvestmentfunds.org/cif/node/5)
Bird, N., Fometé, T. & Birikorang, G. (2006). Ghana’s Experiencein Timber Verification System Design. Verifor Country Case
Study 1. Overseas Development Institute, Oxford, UK.
Dixon, R., Perry, J., Vanderklein, E. & Hiol, F. (1996).
Vulnerability of forest resources to global climate change:case study of Cameroon and Ghana. Climate Research
6:127–133.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Ghana (available at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).
Forestry Commission (2010). Readiness preparation proposal.
Prepared by the Government of Ghana. Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility.
FSC (2011, website accessed February 2011). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters No. 2 (available at
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).
Government of Ghana (2008). Readiness preparation
information note. Submitted to the Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility. October 2008.
Government of Ghana (2010). Report of progress towardachieving sustainable forest management in Ghana.
Submission to ITTO by the Ghana Forestry Commission,
Ministry of Lands and Forestry, Accra, Ghana.
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005. ITTO,
Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).

•

Ghana is strongly engaged in REDD+.

ITTO (2010). Annual Review and Assessment of the World Timber
Situation 2009. ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.

•

As many as 800 000 people may be employed inforest industries, including an estimated
650 000 in the informal sector.

ITTO (2011, website accessed March 2011). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).
Marfo, E. (2010). Chainsaw Milling in Ghana: Context, Drivers
and Impacts. Tropenbos International, Wageningen, theNetherlands.

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Mayers, J., Birikorang, G., Danso, E.Y., Nketiah K.S. &Richards, M. (2008). Assessment of potential impacts in
Ghana of a voluntary partnership agreement with the EC on
forest governance. Final report. IIED, London, UK.
McSweeney, C., New, M. & Lizcano, G. (undated). UNDP
climate change country profiles: Ghana (available at http://
country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/).
Okeke, N. (2009). Boosting export with thaumatin. The
Guardian, 30 December 2009 (available at http://www.
ngrguardiannews.com/industry/article02//indexn3_html?
pdate=301209&ptitle=Boosting%20export%20with%20
Thaumatin&cpdate=010110).
Osei-Tutu, P., Nketiah, K., Kyereh, B., Owusu-Ansah, M. andFaniyan, J. (2010). Hidden Forestry Revealed: Characteristics,
Constraints and Opportunities for Small and Medium Forest
Enterprises in Ghana. IIED Small and Medium Forest
Enterprise Series No. 27. Tropenbos International andInternational Institute for Environment and Development,
London, UK.

Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.
UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Data prepared for ITTO, July 2010.
UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March
2011). UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed
species (searchable database at available at www.cites.org/
eng/resources/species.html).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
March 2010). World population prospects: the 2008
revision (searchable database available at http://esa.un.org/
unpp/p2k0data.asp).

Purbawiyatna, A. & Simula, M. (2008). Developing Certification:
Towards Increasing the Comparability and Acceptance of Forest
Certification Schemes Worldwide. ITTO Technical Series 29.
ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.

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Liberia
Sacoglottis gabonensis, while Meliaceae (one of themost important timber families in West Africa) isrepresented by only two species: Lovoa trichilioides
and Guarea cedrata (bossé). The semi-deciduous
forests cover the northern half of the country
and contain a higher representation of Meliaceae,
the characteristic species being Nesogordonia
papaverifera (danta) and Aningeria robusta.
Common shade-intolerant species are Albizia
spp, Fagara spp, Terminalia spp and Pycnanthus
angolensis. Liberia has an estimated 10 900 hectaresof mangroves, concentrated around coastal lagoons
and along estuaries; Rhizophora racemosa is thedominant mangrove species, along with Avicennia
germinans and Acrostichum aureum (Spalding et al.
2010).

Forest resources
Liberia has a land area of 11.1 million hectares andan estimated population in 2010 of 4.1 million
people (United Nations Population Division 2010).
The country is ranked 169th out of 182 countries
in UNDP’s Human Development Index (UNDP2009). It is bounded by Sierra Leone to the west,
Côte d’Ivoire to the east, Guinea to the northand the Atlantic Ocean to the south. FAO (2010)
estimated Liberia’s total forest area at 4.329 million
hectares, which is 39% of the total land area.
A 2004 analysis of GIS and satellite image data
estimated that Liberia had 4.39 million hectares offorest.a Liberia has large areas of secondary forests
on abandoned agricultural land (J. Blaser, pers.
comm., 2010).
Forest types. The three main categories ofvegetation cover in Liberia are mangrove swamps
and beaches along the coast; wooded hills andsemi-deciduous shrublands in the middle belt; anddense tropical forests and plateaux in the interior.
The bulk of the forest is concentrated in two large
blocks: evergreen lowland forests in the southeast,and the semi-deciduous mountain forests in thenorthwest. There are ten national forests and twonational parks. Counties that have significant
forested land are Gbarpolu, Grand Gedeh, Rivercess
Sinoe and River Gee.a
Characteristic species of the moist evergreen
forests are Lophira alata, Heritiera utilis and112

Permanent forest estate. The natural PFE isestimated at 2.72 million hectares, comprising
1.7 million hectares of production forest (consistingof 1.36 million hectares in ten ‘national’ forests1
and 340 000 million hectares in other forests, suchas state forests and also forests that are under thecontrol of traditional authorities) and 194 000
hectares of protection PFE, which comprises the
180 000-hectare Sapo National Park and the
13 600-hectare East Nimba Strict Nature Reserve(Table 1).

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. A studyof remote sensing data indicates that deforestation
increased from 0.2% in 1986–2000 to 0.35%
in 2000–2006 (Government of Liberia 2008).
Shearman (2009), however, suggested that
this might be a substantial underestimate due
to methodological problems and that recent
deforestation could have been as high as 1%.
Almost all clearing is in the form of numerous
small (<10 hectare) clearings around towns andalong roads near towns for shifting cultivationand conversion to single-crop plantations. The
country’s long-running civil conflicts, which forced

1 Officially Liberia has eleven national forests. The ‘Small Gbe’ in Nimba
County is partially degraded from encroachment by farmers and has
been classified in land-use suitability studies as a salvage area, which
effectively means that its merchantable timber can be removed without
the need to fulfil the requirements of SFM. Therefore, this national
forest has not been included in the PFE (W. Topor, pers. comm., 2010).

LIBERIA

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)3.48–5.66
4.33–9.60

4124
2420a

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted

Total

1310
1700

1411
1904

9.7

101
194**

*
As reported in ITTO (2006).
**
An expansion of the protected-area estate has been proposed, to a total of 1.02 million hectares.
Source: Blaser (2008), ITTO estimate, FAO (2010), UNEP-WCMC (2010).

In 2004 Liberia had an estimated 2.42 million
hectares of closed dense forest.a The open dense
forest (forest logged in the ten years or so prior
to 2004) was estimated at 1.02 million hectares,
while there were 0.95 million hectares of forestthat had been subject to extensive use by local
people and were in varying states of degradation,from moderate to severe (Table 2). An additional
1.28 million hectares of forest was classified as
mixed agriculture and forest.a None of the forest in
agricultural landscapes (i.e. 0.95 million hectares +1.28 million hectares) is included in the estimateof total forest area given above, mainly becauseof its highly fragmented nature, although it may
constitute an important resource at the local level.
FAO (2010) estimated that Liberia had only
175 000 hectares of primary forest.

many people to leave the countryside and moveto the capital and elsewhere, was one reason why
deforestation rates were low historically comparedto elsewhere in the region. Now that peace has
been restored, there is a general return of the
population to rural areas, assisted by the repair
of infrastructure such as road and bridges. These
factors, coupled with expanding global markets
for tropical agricultural products, biofuels andtimber, are exerting pressure on forests and, without
preventative measures, the deforestation rate is
likely to increase (Government of Liberia 2008).
In addition to subsistence farming, a significant
cause of forest degradation is chainsaw logging
and associated pit-sawing, as well as other forms of
uncontrolled logging. In the absence of sawmills,
pit-sawing is a major source of timber supply forreconstruction. Blackett et al. (2009) identified two
problems affecting the sustainability of remnant
forests: over-harvesting per hectare, and the lack of
post-logging management. Chainsaw logging occurs
in all counties at distances of up to 5 km from roads– four-fifths of production forests are now within
3 km of a road (ITTO 2005). Other threats include
conversion to small-scale agriculture (especially dry
rice cultivation), and illegal alluvial mining for goldand diamonds, which can damage rivers, streams
and soils. As with deforestation, these threats are
increasing as internally displaced people return tothe hinterland from urban centres.

Vulnerability of forests to climate change.
The south of Liberia has an equatorial climate,with rainfall exceeding 5000 mm. The northern
regions are strongly influenced by the West African
monsoon, with a severe wet season between
May and November. The rainy season is heavily
influenced by the Inter-Tropical Conversion Zone.
Mean annual temperature in Liberia increased
by 0.8 °C between 1960 and 2006, an average of
0.18 °C per decade (McSweeney et al. undated).
Mean annual rainfall has decreased since the early
1960s, but it is difficult to determine whether this ispart of a long-term trend. Variations are associated

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total (’000 ha)’000 haArea of primary forest*
Area of degraded primary forest**
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land

-

-

2420
1010
950

*
Closed dense forest, 2004.
Open dense forest (forest logged in the ten years prior to 2004).
**
Source: Government of Liberia (2010).

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Status of tropical forest management 2011

with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which
irregularly brings drier conditions to West Africa(ibid.). Mean annual temperature is projected toincrease by 0.9–2.6 ˚C by 2060 and by 1.4–4.7 ˚Cby 2090 (ibid.). In 2007 Liberia prepared a NAPA
to respond to the country’s urgent and immediateneeds to adapt to climate change. The NAPA
states that agriculture, forestry, fisheries, wetlands
and public health are of immediate concern.
However, the potential impacts of climate change
on Liberian agriculture and forestry are largely
unknown. Liberia’s 2008 Food and Agricultural
Policy establishes the monitoring of climate change
and the provision of support for climate-change
adaptation in agriculture and forestry as key action
areas (Government of Liberia 2011).

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. According to the National Forest
Reform Law, 2006, “All forest resources in Liberia… are held in trust by the Republic for the benefitof the people” (Table 3). Although the term landownership is in common use in the country, it is
not possible, in a strict sense, to own the land itself.
Rather, it is the right to use land, or the resources on
it, that can be owned by an individual or group.
Land ownership rights are held under three tenuresystems: the customary land-tenure system; theAnglo-American system of land tenure, also known
as the deed system; and the land registration system(Blaser 2008). Communal land is designated forthe exclusive use of local communities for purposes
other than logging. Customary rights over suchland are not recognized automatically; they musthave been documented previously. The only private
forest resources are those that have been developed
through artificial regeneration on privately owned

land. An ITTO diagnostic mission in 2005 (ITTO2005) reported that the traditional land andresource rights of the majority rural population
have been systematically ignored and underminedby a small elite throughout Liberia’s 150-year
history. Nevertheless, the Liberian Constitution andspecific laws, such as the National Environmental
Protection Act (2002), note the rights of rural
people.
The right to control the exploitation of natural
resources such as timber and diamonds has beentreated in the past as a prize of political office,especially under presidents Doe (1980–90) andTaylor (1997–2003). Armed factions also controlled
territory to exploit natural resources, which helped
to drive the conflicts of 1990–96 and 2000–03.
Communities claim land that has been designatedas national forest and there are also apparent
conflicts over some large and long-term rights,
such as those held by the Liberian Agricultural
Company. The real extent of these conflicts, claims
and challenges to ownership is unclear (Blaser
2008).
The most pressing issue affecting all land use in
Liberia is the lack of legal clarity over property
ownership and use rights. Security of land tenure
in today’s Liberia is weak or non-existent andits restoration is essential to the developmentof Liberia’s economy and democracy. Rights ofaccess to and use of natural resources, including
land, minerals, forests and water, are shrouded ina state of tenure insecurity, vague and ambiguous
legislation, conflicting and competing tenurearrangements, and constant and persistent clashesof customary and statutory rights (Government of
Liberia 2008). There is scope under the National
Forest Reform Law for community and private

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category

Total area

Of which PFE’000 haState ownership (national, state or provincial government)
Other public entities (e.g. municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/or Indigenous groups
Privately owned by individuals, firms, other corporate
Source: Government of Liberia (2010).

114

4330
0
4330
0
0

2720
0
2720
0
0

LIBERIA

ownership, but all forests remain public pending theresolution of the land ownership issue (FAO 2010).

lifted its timber export sanctions, allowing thecountry to redevelop its commercial forest sector.

Criteria and indicators. With the support of the
ATO/ITTO regional project, Liberia’s ATO/ITTO
PCI for SFM scheme was completed in January
2010. These PCI were formulated by a technicalcommittee selected and mandated through anational working group and the draft document
was vetted at a high-level national workshop
attended by a range of stakeholders.a A field test
was conducted and its results were validated during
a multi-stakeholder workshop. Training on the useof the Liberia ATO/ITTO PCI was also organized,
although more is needed because of the low humanresource capacity of Liberia’s forest sector. Liberia’s
submission to ITTO for this report was not in the
ITTO C&I reporting format.

The National Forestry Reform Law provides forfour principal commercial forest exploitation
contracts and permits:

Forest policy and legislation. Before 2004,
timber revenues and profits were controlled andmanipulated by former president Charles Taylor totighten his grip on the country. Existing logging
concessions were taken from their previous owners
and given to Taylor cronies (for example, Taylor’s
brother ran the Forest Development Authority –FDA). Revenues were diverted to buy arms and toacquire personal assets. Combatants were employedby logging companies and used to quell local
opposition. Wildlife was hunted intensively (Blaser
2008).
In July 2003, the United Nations Security Council(2003) imposed sanctions on exports from
Liberia – including timber exports – to restrict
the flow of arms and to weaken the Taylor regime.
Sawmills, plywood mills and all other forest
products’ industry infrastructure were destroyed bylooters. Some companies lost millions of dollars ininvestment.
After eviction of the Taylor government and a moveto a transitional government, free elections were
held in November 2005 and a new government
headed by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected. Since
then, rapid progress has been made in the forest
sector, driven initially by the National Forest
Monitoring Committee with assistance from the
Liberia Forest Initiative, a multi-donor support
mechanism. Based on this collaboration, the FDA
is undertaking profound reforms. A new forest law,
the National Forestry Reform Law, was approved
by Parliament and enacted in October 2006. In thesame month the United Nations Security Council•

Forest management contracts (FMCs): contracts
for the management of forest areas between
50 000 and 400 000 hectares in size.

•

Timber sales contracts (TSCs): contracts for the
management of forest areas of 5000 hectares orless for a period of no longer than three years.

•

Forest use permits: for non-timber forest uses
(e.g. tourism and the harvesting of NTFPs).

•

Private use permits: to regulate commercial
activities on private land.

The Government of Liberia has adopted a newconceptual approach to the development of theforest sector, referred to in the Liberian forest policy(adopted in 2006) as the principles of the three Cs –commercial, conservation and community forestry.
The policy aims to conserve and sustainably manage
all forest areas so that they continue to produce acomplete range of goods and services for the benefitof all Liberians and contribute to national poverty
alleviation, while maintaining environmental
agreements and conventions. Nevertheless, thepolicy has been criticized for lacking a clear strategy
for reforestation and afforestation, NTFPs andvalue-added, and a failure to address the issue ofillegal chain-saw operators (Blaser 2008).
The four strategies for implementing Liberia’s
forest policy – as spelt out in the National Forest
Management Strategy of 2007 – are:•Strategy for commercial forestry: this focuses on
improving forest concession management,
reforestation and forest plantation development
and the modernization of the wood-processing
industry.

•

Strategy for community forestry: this strategy
acknowledges the need for the greater
involvement of local people in all aspects of theforest sector and pays special attention to thepotential for forests to contribute more to local
people and communities. It focuses on the
production of bush meat, woodfuel and other
NTFPs, as well as the management of forests by
local communities to meet differing objectives.
However, the dissociation of forest-use rights

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Status of tropical forest management 2011

from land ownership in the National Forest
Reform Law makes the implementation ofcommunity forest management by local people
a contentious issue.
••

Strategy for forest conservation: this includes the
management of specific sites of highconservation value and the integration ofconservation objectives with all aspects of forest
management. The strategy focuses on wildlife
and protected-area management, themanagement of wetlands and mangroves, andthe development of ecotourism and nature
tourism.
Cross-cutting activities: to support the above
strategies, cross-cutting activities are to be
implemented to strengthen the overall
framework for the development of the forest
sector. These include activities on issues related
to land tenure, ownership and land-use
planning; public administration (including
financial management); research, information,
education and training; and legislation and law
enforcement.

The Community Reform Law was enactedin October 2009 and the National Wildlife
Conservation and Protected Area Management
Law is awaiting ratification (Government of Liberia2011). The extended delay before enactment of
the latter has fostered a perception that Liberia‘s
3Cs have differing priorities, with ‘commercial’
as the big C. This notion has been reinforced bymaps that apparently confuse the relative areas offorest suitable for commercial, conservation andcommunity uses (Government of Liberia 2011).
A forest suitability study undertaken as part of
the National Forest Management Strategy initially
identified 3.41 million, 1.14 million and 0.05
million hectares of forest suitable as ‘multiple
sustainable use’ areas, protected areas and pilot
community forests, respectively. It also stated thatmultiple sustainable-use areas may be managed
either by commercial firms or through community
forest management, with at least 1.09 million
hectares of forest suitable for community forest
management (Government of Liberia 2011).
The Environmental Protection Act, which became
law in 2003, is designed to enhance and manage
Liberia’s environment and natural resources.
The Environmental Protection Agency, createdunder the Act, is to provide an inter-ministerial

116

mechanism for addressing and coordinating
responses to Liberia’s environmental problems.
It should also establish a policy framework forenvironmental issues (including forest management,
nature conservation and environmental impact),
but this has not yet been done.
The Public Procurement and Concession Act(2005) establishes the rules for the acquisition anddisposal of government assets, requires national andinternational competitive bidding for all timber
concessions, and sets standards for pre-qualifying
prospective timber concession-holders. Other lawsthat are being formulated include the Wildlife Law
and the Community Rights Law.
Under the National Forest Reform Law the FDA
has promulgated ten core regulations to ensure thatthe country’s forests are managed in a way that is
consistent with SFM and other requirements. They
are 101: Public Participation; 102: Forest Land Use
Planning; 103: Prequalification; 104: Tender, Award
and Administration; 105: Pre-felling Operations;
106: Benefit Sharing; 107: Forest Fees; 108: Chainof Custody; 109: Penalties; and 110: Rights ofPrivate Land Holder.
The Community Rights Law with Respect to Forest
Lands, which was approved in October 2009, aims
to empower communities to “fully engage in thesustainable management of the forests of Liberia, bycreating a legal framework that defines and supports
community rights in the management and use offorest resources”. Among other things it defines
the rights and responsibilities of communities toown, manage, use and benefit from forest resources.
Forest lands ranging from 5001 and 49 999
hectares may be designated as community forest
land. Communities have the right to enter into
commercial agreements with logging companies
to log community forest lands, subject to a rangeof conditions, and have the right to 55% of therevenues generated.
Draft Guidelines for Forest Management Planninghave been developed to help forest managers andstaff of companies that have been allocated FMCs,
TSCs or other commercial permits, as well as
staff at the FDA and other government agencies,
to prepare and approve (respectively) forestmanagement and timber-harvesting plans. The
planning requirements for harvesting forests underthe various contractual arrangements differ in boththe types of plans to be submitted and also theLIBERIA

level of detail. Notwithstanding these differences,
however, the guidelines are designed to ensure that
all logging companies conduct harvest activities in a
way that meets SFM standards.
This is the first set of guidelines for forest
management planning prepared in the country.
It is designed to be read in conjunction with the
Liberian Code of Forest Harvesting Practices, theobjectives of which are to:•Provide forest operators with guidelines andstandards for improved forest harvesting practices
that improve standards of logging/utilization andreduce environmental impacts, and so contributeto the conservation of forests through their wiseuse.

•

Promote the health and safety of forest workers.

•

Provide a framework for effective control oftimber harvesting with predeterminedguidelines and benchmarks.

In 2007 the Government of Liberia entered into anagreement with SGS to develop a chain-of-custodysystem for Liberia’s forest sector for the tracking
and verification of round logs. The tracking
system, known as LiberFor, is claimed to be theworld’s most advanced nationwide verification
system in place to monitor wood products andassociated revenues (Pichet et al. 2009). Data
are collected through physical inspections,documentary control and (eventually) legality
audits and registered on a web-based information
system. The implementation of the system faces
several challenges, however, including a lack of
capacity among forest stakeholders and a legacy
of weak governance, which still impacts on forest
management practices (ibid.).
The Government of Liberia signed a VPA with theEuropean Union in April 2009, committing it todevelop and implement a legality assurance system
to ensure that all timber products specified in the
VPA are produced legally.
Institutions involved in forests. An Act ofParliament in 1976 established the FDA as the
body responsible for forestry in Liberia and also
recognized the importance of forests as a key
renewable natural resource. Amendments to thisAct in 1988, 2000 and 2003 sought to strengthen
the FDA’s ability to manage and protect forests.
The FDA is the agent through which policy isimplemented, including forest management plans.
However, the FDA has limited human resources– in 2008 it had about 300 staff. More personnel
will be required if the 3C approach is to be adopted
and as more TSCs and FMCs are awarded. The
FDA regional and district offices were destroyed
during the civil conflicts. The FDA is struggling torenovate about one unit per region to accommodate
regional offices, including supportive logistics(Blaser 2008). Integrating the 3C concept ischallenging for the FDA, particularly at the FMU
and regional levels.
Liberia has two professional forestry education
institutions, both of which are inadequate and theircurricula are outdated. The main facilities at theCollege of Agriculture and Forestry, University of
Liberia, including dormitories and accommodation
for teaching and support staff, are damaged andhave not been renovated or refurbished. The college
has been a pipeline of foresters to the FDA, offeringa bachelor’s degree, but the forestry program isunderstaffed, underfunded and there is a limited
number of advanced degree-holders (Blaser 2008).
The Forestry Training Institute (recently renamed
the Anthony Sayeh Forestry Training Institute)is the only institution for training middle-level
forestry technicians in 60% practical and 40%
theoretical forestry. During the civil conflicts theschool facilities were looted and the structure
de-roofed. The school resumed operations in2008 and work is ongoing, including throughan ITTO-funded project, to restore its training
services.

Status of forest management
Forest for production
In the late 1990s more than 30 companies held
logging concessions covering 40% of the national
territory. The Oriental Timber Corporation alone
was logging some 1.6 million hectares both within
the PFE and outside it. During the reform process,however, all existing concession agreements werecancelled. With the cessation of formal logging,most of the forest industrial infrastructure waseither destroyed or left idle to rust and decay.
Skilled workers as well as professional foresters
have been unable to exercise their skills for many
years, and many either passed away or reachedretirement age.

117

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Nevertheless, FDA staff, private operators andnewly developed civil-society organizations andtheir personnel have worked hard to develop a
positive sense of entrepreneurship in the sector,
which now has the potential to become an engine
of development in Liberia (Blaser 2008). With thelifting of United Nations sanctions in 2006 the
FDA set about developing new concessions andallocating them.
Under the National Forest Reform Law, FMCs
must meet all of the following requirements:•

The land involved must be identified as apotential concession in the national forest
management strategy in effect at the time theconcession is offered.

•

The land involved must not include private land.

•

The contract must require the holder toperform actions necessary for sound, long-term
forest management, including inventories,
preparation of management plans, and annual
operations plans.

•

The contract must require the holder to prepare
all environmental impact assessments required
under the laws governing environmental
protection.

•

The contract must require the holder to submit
a business plan to the FDA and to demonstrate
to the FDA’s satisfaction that the holder has thetechnical and financial capacity to manage theforest sustainably.

•

The contract must require the holder toestablish a social agreement with local forestdependent communities, approved by the FDA,
that defines those communities’ benefits andaccess rights.

•

The contract must require the holder to pay thegovernment the fee that the holder bid in theconcession process, in addition to any otherapplicable taxes and fees.

•

The basic term of the contract must
approximate the length of a forest rotation on
the land based on a sustainable yield of timber
products, although the contract may beterminated sooner.

•

The land area subject to the contract must be atleast 50 000 hectares and no more than 400 000
hectares.

118•

The size of annual coupes must allow the holder
to harvest every suitable area once during theterm of the contract.

•

No holder can fell trees before the felling
effective date.

•No holder can fell trees unless they possess avalid annual harvesting certificate.

•

The FDA will issue an annual harvestingcertificate to a holder only after all the following
conditions have been met for the year:–

The holder has an approved annual
operations plan.

–

The holder has an approved forest
management plan that covers the specificarea to be harvested.

–

The holder has met the previous logging
season annual audit requirements.

FMCs will comprise 90% of the areas allocated,with only 4% of the area subject to harvestingin any one year. Harvesting will be selective
and designed to encourage the rapid growth ofremaining stock. The design of FMCs includes
set-aside areas ( slopes, sacred areas, watercourses,etc) amounting to about 20% of the area, which
will be excluded from logging. In aggregate, thisarea is about one-third of the total designatedprotected areas of Liberia (Government of Liberia2008).
The requirements for TSCs (for areas of forest no
larger than 5000 hectares) are less stringent than for
FMCs, but an approved annual operations plan anda valid annual harvesting certificate are required.
It is difficult to assess the sustainable potential of
Liberia’s forests because there has been no forest
inventory for 40 years and records of logged-overareas and volumes extracted in the last 20 years
are incomplete and unreliable. Growth and yield
dynamics are not well known and there are no
permanent sampling plots or research on growth
and replenishment rates (Blaser 2008). As of July
2009, seven forest management conces­sions had
been formally designated over an area of about
1 million hectares, and three awarded under FMCs,
but logging had yet to commence. Shearman(2009) recalculated harvestable volumes over the
1 million hectares designated for forest management
concessions and concluded that the actual volume
would be in the range of 25–50% of the volume

LIBERIA

calculated by the FDA and, moreover, that the
25-year felling cycle was too short to be sustainable.

current condition and stocking of most existing
plantations is unknown.

It has been suggested that up to 500 000 hectaresof community forest land, designated andrecognized under the Community Rights Law,might be managed as carbon concessions in which
commercial forestry operations would take place
according to raised logging standards (Governmentof Liberia 2011).

Forest certification. No Liberian forests are
certified (e.g. FSC 2010) and there has been no
move to develop policies in this direction.

Silviculture and species selection. There is a lackof silvicultural knowledge about Liberia’s forests,
and much of the documentation of research
programs in the 1970s and 80s has been lost (FDA2006). Neither the National Forest Reform Law,
the national forest policy, nor the guidelines forforest management planning specify a silvicultural
approach; rather, the silvicultural system tobe employed is to be specified in each forest
management plan. FMCs are issued for a periodof 25 years, implying a felling cycle of the same
duration; the bid document issued by the FDA for
Forest Management Contract Area ‘K’ (which has agross forest area of 267 000 hectares), for example,
specifies a felling cycle of 25 years. The Liberian
Code of Forest Harvesting Practices specifies
cutting limits for a number of species based on dbh,
as well as a range of post-harvesting requirements.
No recent information was available on the mostcommonly harvested species; Table 4, therefore,shows the species listed in ITTO (2006).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
The area of planted forest is about 9700 hectares,
comprising mainly Gmelina arborea, Tectonia
grandis, Eucalyptus spp, Pinus spp and a number of
hardwood species. There are also important rubber
estates over several thousand hectares on agriculturalland, which are generally in poor condition (Blaser
2008). There are large areas of oil-palm plantations,most of which are not currently managed. The

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. At present, no forest canbe considered to be managed sustainably (Table 5).
Timber production and trade. Total industrial
roundwood production in Liberia was estimated at
360 000 m3 in 2009, compared with 280 000 m3
in 2004 and 766 000 m3 in 2002, and sawnwood
production was estimated at 80 000 m3 (ITTO
2011). In 2009 the estimated value of exports oflogs and sawnwood was US$1.18 million, up from
US$295 000 in 2008 and only about US$11 000 in2007 (ibid.).
Liberia has four sea ports, all of which weredamaged during the civil conflicts. The National
Port Authority has fully renovated the port at
Monrovia, and Mittal Steel is about to renovate the
Buchanan port. The other two ports (Harper andGreenville) both need considerable investment if
they are to facilitate timber exports (Blaser 2008).
Non-timber forest products. Fruits, roots,
mushrooms, leaves, honey, snails and bush meat are
all harvested from forests and used as food by local
communities. Bush meat – harvested both legally(but unsustainably) and illegally – accounts for up
to 80% of meat consumption in Liberia (Blaser
2008). The most commonly hunted species areantelope, deer and monkey. Gums, resins, medicinal
plants and cola nuts (Cola spp) are marketed locallyand serve as sources of income. An estimated 98%
of Liberia’s energy needs are met by fuelwood andcharcoal.
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimated
Liberia’s national forest biomass carbon stock at
506–707 MtC; Eggleston et al. (2006) estimated

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial hardwood
Species

Notes

Lophira alata (ekki)
Ceiba pentandra (ghe)Hallea ciliata (abura)
Entandrophragma candollei (kossipo)
Gilbertiodendron preussii (limbali)

Largest quantity harvested; regenerates well in forests.
From open areas; for veneer and plywood.
General-purpose timber; from swampy areas.
Used for flooring and furniture-making; difficult to regenerate.
Used for heavy carpentry and shipbuilding, etc; difficult toregenerate.

Source:ITTO (2006).

119Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

1310
1700

1310
1000

*
**

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
0
265**

Certified

0-

PlantedWith
management
plans
0

0

9.7

0

Sustainably
managed

0
0

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
FAO (2010).

it at 1302 MtC and FAO (2010) at 585 MtC. The
large tracts of land that became overgrown by bushand secondary forests during the civil conflicts are
not counted in these estimates. Liberia has createda climate-change and REDD working groupwithin the FDA. The FDA submitted a projectidea note to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
in 2008 and a readiness preparation proposal in
March 2011. It is collaborating with Conservation
International and the World Bank to develop a
REDD+ strategy for the country. This is hindered,however, by the country’s limited human-resource
capacity in policy and research institutions and in
civil society. Table 6 summarizes Liberia’s forest
carbon potential. Liberia has significant intact forestand potential for conserving existing carbon stocks
through avoided deforestation.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. No areas have been designated as
primarily for soil and water conservation.
Biological diversity. Biologically, Liberia is
exceptionally diverse, with high rates of endemism.
The country’s forests serve as a sanctuary for almost
half of the remaining forest in the Upper Guinean
Forest Hotspot (one of 34 hotspots worldwide
that represent areas with 75% of the planet’s mostthreatened species). Liberia’s forests are home toat least 2900 flowering plants, 240 timber species,
150 mammals, 620 birds and 125 reptiles andamphibians. Some of the well-known species,
whose conservation depends to some extent on

Liberian habitat, include Pan troglodytes (western
chimpanzee), Piliocolobus badius (red colombus
monkey), Cercopithecus diana diana (diana monkey),
Hexaprotodron liberienses (pygmy hippopotamus) and
Loxodonta africana cyclotis (forest elephant). Fifteen
mammals, ten birds, one reptile, four amphibians,
one fish, eight arthropods and three plants found inforests are listed as critically endangered, endangeredor vulnerable on the IUCN red list of threatened
species (IUCN 2011). One plant species (Cyathea
camerooniana, a tree fern) is listed in CITES
Appendix II (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Protective measures in production forests. The
Liberian Code of Forest Harvesting Practices
prescribes a number of exclusion areas: protectedareas; protected animal species habitat; areas
susceptible to degradation (such as steep slopes);
watercourses; and cultural and customary tenure
areas. No trees may be felled within such exclusionareas or their buffer zones, and no machines may
access them (except at designated watercourse
crossings). The Code prescribes a number of otherprotective measures in production forests, such as
directional felling, wildlife management withinconcession areas, and waste management.
Extent of protected areas. There are two main
protected areas in Liberia: Sapo National Park(180 000 hectares) in the southeast and the East
Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (13 600 hectares),which is less than 2% of the country’s land area.
Fauna and Flora International, other NGOs and theGovernment of Liberia developed a five-year ‘action

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% totalforest with
canopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

506–707

88++

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
sink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity+

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

120

LIBERIA

plan’ for Sapo National Park in 2005. Although
not strictly a management plan, this constitutes theextent of protection PFE under management plansshown in Table 7.
The Government of Liberia through the FDA has
identified the Gola National Forest (Gbarpolu
County), Wonegizi National Forest (Lofa County)
and Lake Piso Basin (Grand Cape Mount and Bomi
counties) as areas to be upgraded and incorporated
into the national protected forest areas network.a
Consultative meetings with the citizens of Grand
Cape Mount and Bomi counties about the creationof Lake Piso Multiple Use Protected Area areunder way. Lake Piso, as well as the Mesurado andMarshall wetlands, have been declared as Ramsar
sites (Spalding et al. 2010). Initial meetings havebeen held on the creation of a transboundary peacepark that will coordinate the management of theGola forests on both sides of the border between
Liberia and Sierra Leone (Blaser 2008), and thepark was launched by the presidents of the twocountries in May 2009 (Gasana 2010).

The Forestry Training Institute, now the Anthony Sayeh
Forestry Training Institute, in Monrovia, Liberia.

The government’s poverty reduction strategy (PRS)
is predicated on, among other things, exploiting
Liberia’s rich natural resource base (Government of
Liberia undated). It predicted that forestry would
be one of the main components of rural economic
growth in the PRS period (April 2008–June2011), contributing 14–15% of real GDP. Forestry
production was projected to grow substantially by
2011 to more than 1.3 million m3, but this seems
overly optimistic given that by late in 2009 logging
had not recommenced. The predicted growth
was based on the progressive reintroduction ofcommercial logging in all regions, and secondaryand higher processing of logs was expected to
become a significant source of value-adding andjobs from 2009 onwards.

A four-year GEF project titled Consolidation of
Liberia’s Protected Area Network was launched in
May 2008. Managed by the FDA, it will assist withthe development of a comprehensive approach to an
expanded protected-areas network.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. No protection PFE isconsidered to be under SFM (Table 7).

In addition to the formal sector, informal forestbased activities play a vital role in the livelihoodsof many Liberian citizens. Fuelwood and charcoal
production employ numerous people and remain,by far, the most important energy sources in the
country. Similarly, the harvesting and sale of bushmeat and NTFPs make a significant contribution
to local income and employment while providing amajor share of protein in the average diet.

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. Long in tatters, the Liberian
economy has started to grow. GDP grew by 2.6%
in 2004 to 5.3% in 2005, 7.8% in 2006 and 9.5%
in 2007. Nevertheless, poverty remains widespread:for example, 58% of households headed byprofessionals fall below the United Nationsdesignated poverty line of US$1 per day.a

Livelihood values. About one-third of the
population lives in forested areas and depends

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and water

Protected areas
with management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

101
194

101
97**

0
0

0
180

0
0

*

As reported in ITTO (2006).

**

UNEP-WCMC (2010).

121

Status of tropical forest management 2011

on forests for housing and furniture materials, avariety of foods and traditional medicines, healthywatersheds for fish, clean water and soil, microclimate stabilization and some cash income. Rural
communities were particularly dependent on
forests for subsistence during the recent civil strife.
Thousands of people make their living from theprovision of charcoal and fuelwood to urban centres(ITTO 2005). The traditional ‘Sande’ (females) and‘Poro’ (male) (secret) societies that are of significant
importance to rural communities conduct theirrituals in certain groves and rivers within isolated
forest areas.a
Social relations. Until recently, local andtraditional forest use and ownership rights
had not been recognized in Liberia. Under theJohnson Sirleaf government, however, community
involvement in forestry has become a major goal.
The National Forestry Reform Law specifies therights and responsibilities of communities withrespect to the ownership and use of forest resources,
and the Community Rights Law with Respect
to Forest Lands further sets out those rights andresponsibilities and specifies that forest lands
5001–49 999 hectares in size may be designated ascommunity forest land that communities can use to
generate revenue, including by logging. Although
its stated objective is to empower local communities
to fully engage in the sustainable management of
Liberia’s forests, it has been criticized for weakening
controls on the allocation and management oflogging concessions (Global Witness 2009).
The government conducted intensive forest
management outreach over several months prior
to the final drafting of the National Forest Reform
Law in 2006. The various regulations based onthat law require public communication throughradio and newsprint media, as well as consultationin affected communities. In practical terms, thismeans that communities in or around proposed
timber concessions or protected areas must be fully
consulted in an environmental and social impact
assessment (Government of Liberia 2008). A similar
process has been used recently to validate draft
proposals for an expanded network of protectedareas.

122

Summary
Deforestation appears to have increased in Liberia
since the end of the civil conflicts as people return
to rural areas. In addition to subsistence farming,a significant cause of forest degradation is chainsaw
logging and associated pit-sawing, as well as otherforms of uncontrolled logging. The Governmentof Liberia has adopted a new conceptual approachto the development of the forest sector, referred
to as the principles of the three Cs – commercial,conservation and community forestry, and there
is a new Community Rights Law with Respect
to Forest Lands. Draft guidelines for forest
management planning, and a log-tracking system,
have been developed. As of July 2009, sevenforest management conces­sions had been formallydesignated over an area of about 1 million hectares,
but logging had yet to commence. Nevertheless,forest production is projected to grow substantiallyin the next few years as commercial logging isreintroduced.

Key points•

Liberia’s PFE covers an estimated 1.90 million
hectares (compared with 1.41 million hectares
in 2005), comprising 1.70 million hectares ofnatural-forest production PFE (compared with
1.31 million hectares in 2005) and 194 000
hectares of protection PFE (compared with
101 000 hectares in 2005).

•

None of the PFE is currently considered to beunder SFM. The existing protection PFE
comprises about 4.5% of the lower estimate of
total forest area.

•

An embargo on the export of timber imposedby the United Nations Security Council in 2003
was lifted in October 2006.

•

Liberia has a new forest policy and a new forest
law (the National Forestry Reform Law) and isin the process of developing national-level PCI
for SFM.

•

Little is known about the potential impacts ofclimate change on Liberian forests. Liberia hassignificant intact forest and therefore potential
for conserving existing carbon stocks throughavoided deforestation.

LIBERIA

EndnoteaGovernment of Liberia (2010).

References and other sourcesBlackett, H., Lebbie, A. & Marfo, E. (2009). Chainsaw
logging in Liberia: an analysis of chainsaw logging(pit-sawing) in the natural forests of Liberia. Towards
a more sustainable production. Forest Development
Authority, Monrovia, Liberia.
Blaser, J. (2008). Assessment of the current status of theforest sector in Liberia. And identification of priority
needs for development assistance through ITTO project
activities. Report prepared for ITTO by Juergen Blaser
and Bledeeh V. Dagbe.
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories Programme. Institute for Global
Environmental Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010
country report: Liberia (available at http://www.fao.org/
forestry/fra/67090/en/).
FDA (2006). National Forest Policy and Implementation
Strategy. Government of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia.
FSC (2010, website accessed July 2010). FSC certification
database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.org/
PublicCertificateSearch).

Gasana, J. (2010). Governing TBCAs. ITTO Tropical Forest
Update 20:12–14.
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007).
Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks:
making REDD a reality. Environmental Research Letters
No. 2 (available at http://iopscience.iop.org/17489326/2/4/045023/fulltext).
Global Witness (2009). Background investigations into
companies bidding for Liberian forest management
contracts. memorandum. Global Witness, London, UK(available at www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/780/en/liberia_poised_to_hand_forests_to_timber_pirates_global_witness_warns_).
Government of Liberia (undated). Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Government of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia.
Government of Liberia (2008). Readiness program idea note
(R-PIN) for reducing emissions from deforestation anddegradation (REDD). Submission to the World Bank
Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (available at www.
forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp/node/72).
Government of Liberia (2010). Report of progress towardachieving sustainable forest management in Liberia.
Submission to ITTO. Prepared by Dr. Wollor Topor,
Professor, College of Agriculture and Forestry, Universityof Liberia .

Government of Liberia (2011). Readiness preparation
proposal (R-PP) of the Republic of Liberia. Revised
version submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership
Facility, World Bank, March 2011 (available at http://
www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp/).
ITTO (2005). Achieving the ITTO Objective 2000 andsustainable forest management in Liberia. Report of thediagnostic mission. Presented at the thirty-eighth sessionof the International Tropical Timber Council, June
2005. ITTO, Yokohama, Japan.
ITTO (2006). Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005.
ITTO, Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.
int/en/sfm/).
ITTO (2011, website accessed March 2011). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/
annual_review_output/?mode=searchdata).
IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red listof threatened species (searchable database available atwww.redlist.org).
McSweeney, C., New, M. & Lizcano, G. (undated). UNDP
climate change country profiles: Liberia (available at
http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/).
Pichet, T., Laval, M. & de La Rochefordière, A. (2009). The
opportunities and challenges of implementing a timberchain-of-custody system in post-conflict Liberia. Paper
prepared for the XIII World Forestry Congress, Buenos
Aires, Argentina, 18–23 October 2009.
Shearman, P. (2009). An assessment of liberian forest area,
dynamics, fda concession plans, and their relevance torevenue projections. A report commissioned by Green
Advocates, Monrovia, Liberia. Rights and Resources
Initiative, Washington, DC, United States.
Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World
Atlas of Mangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.
UNDP (2009). Human Development Report 2009. United
Nations Development Programme, New York, UnitedStates.
UNEP-WCMC (2010). Spatial analysis of forests withinprotected areas in ITTO countries. Data prepared for
ITTO. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March
2011). UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed
species (searchable database at available at www.cites.org/
eng/resources/species.html).
United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
March 2010). World population prospects: the 2008
revision (searchable database available at http://esa.
un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp).
United Nations Security Council (2003). Report of theSecretary-General in pursuance of paragraph 19 ofresolution 1478 (2003) concerning Liberia, 5 August
2003.

123

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Nigeria

Forest resources
Nigeria has a land area of 92.4 million hectares. It is
Africa’s most populous country, with an estimatedpopulation in 2010 of 158 million people, up from
141 million in 2005 (United Nations Population
Division 2010). Nigeria is ranked 158th out of
182 countries in UNDP’s Human Development
Index (UNDP 2009). The climate is humid in thesouth and drier to the north. A large proportionof the country sits on a plateau, which is divided
into three parts by the Niger River and its main
tributary, the Benue. Mountain ranges, including
some peaks above 2000 m, occur along the central
and northern borders with Cameroon. There are
two major vegetation zones: the forest zone, which
occurs in a belt 50–250 km wide adjacent to the
Atlantic coast; and a savanna zone to the north,which can be subdivided into the Guinea, Sudan
and Sahel zones.
Based on a linear extrapolation of surveys from1977 and 1994, FAO (2010) estimated forest coverin 2010 at 9.04 million hectares. Only a smallpart of this forest is lowland rainforest: even in thelate 1990s it was estimated that only 1.19 million
hectares of lowland rainforest remained in the
country, only about 288 000 hectares of which wasin official forest reserves.b
Forest types. Nigeria’s forest types comprise
open tree savanna, mangrove and coastal forest,
fresh water swamp and lowland wet forest. The

124

latter type (also called ‘high forest’) is divided
into lowland rainforest in the south and mixed
deciduous forest to the north. These forest types,
although heavily degraded, are the main remaining
sources of hardwood timber; there is an estimated
3.94 million hectares of lowland rainforest.a
Meliaceae and Leguminosae species such as Khaya
ivorensis (Lagos mahogany), Entandrophragma spp,
Lovoa trichilioides (cedar) and Gosweilerodendronbalsamiferum (agba) are characteristic of therainforest area, whereas Sterculiaceae, Ulmaceae andMoraceae species such as Nesogordonia papaverifera(otutu), Triplochiton scleroxylon (obeche), Celtis
spp and Chlorophora excelsa (iroko) characterizesemi-deciduous forests. The transitional area on
the northern fringes of the forest zone has beenheavily degraded by human activity and is now
characterized by fire-tolerant savanna species such as
Parkia spp, Daniellia oliveri, Afzelia africana, Ceiba
pentrandra and Butyrospermum paradoxum (sheabutter tree), some of which yield valuable products.
Riparian (gallery) forests are the only closed forest
in the savanna zone, characterized by species suchas Mitragyna ciliate, Lophira lancolata, Terminalia
glaucescens and Uapaca spp.
Nigeria has the largest extent of mangroves inAfrica, with more than 730 000 hectares (Spalding
et al. 2010). The largest areas are around the Niger
delta, where they are found up to 40 km inland.
The Niger delta constitutes one of the world’s
largest contiguous blocks of mangrove forest (ibid.).
Some of Nigeria’s forests are so heavily degradedthat secondary forest succession is impeded. Elaeis
guineensis (oil palm) regenerates naturally in manydegraded areas of the high-forest zone. Importantsecondary forest species in degraded forest and inunmanaged rubber and Gmelina plantations are
Trema guineensis, Pentaclethra macrophylla, Musanga
cecropioides and Anthocleista spp (ITTO 2006).
Permanent forest estate. In the 1960s thegovernment set aside an area of 9.7 million hectares,
about 10% of the country, as forest reserves. These
were distributed over 445 sites, 75% of whichwere in the savanna and 25% of which were in thehigh forest. The total area available for harvestingin forest reserves in the seven ‘productive’ states(Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun

NIGERIA

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡
†
§

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)9.7–13.5
9.04

4456
958**

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted

Total

2720
2720‡

4105
5622

375
382†

1010
2540§

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Calculated using the ratio of forest with greater than 60% forest cover estimated by UNEP-WCMC (2010) (10.6%) and the total
natural forest area as estimated by FAO (2010).
Updated information was unavailable. Therefore, the estimate of ITTO (2006) is used here.
FAO (2010).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).

and Oyo) is 3.92 million hectaresa; it is unclear,
however, how much forest remains in theseareas. More than 60% of the initial forest reservearea had been lost by 2000 due to agricultural
encroachment, illegal logging, planned agriculturaldevelopment and urbanization. No new data on
the production PFE was available for this report.
The estimate of protection PFE in Table 1 is takenfrom UNEP-WCMC (2010), which is similar to
the estimate by FAO (2010). It indicates an increasesince 2005 (which was based on an estimate by
UNEP-WCMC in 2004), but this is most likely
due to differences in assessment method rather thana real increase.

2005, compared with the world average for that
period of 3.3%.
FAO (2010) also reported that the area of primary
forest declined from 326 000 hectares in 2005
to zero in 2010 (Table 2). There are likely to besmall areas of intact forest, however. For example,
owing to its rugged terrain, most of the Afi forest
reserve (about 8500 hectares) in Cross River Stateis still primary forest.a The main direct causes ofdeforestation and forest degradation are oil andgas exploitation in the coastal forests and shifting
cultivation, fuelwood-gathering, charcoal-making,illegal logging and urbanization.
Vulnerability of forests to climate change.
The mean annual temperature in Nigeria has
increased by about 0.2 °C over the past three
decades (McSweeney et al. undated). Mean annual
rainfall has decreased since the early 1960s, but
it is difficult to determine whether this is partof a long-term trend. It is projected that theannual temperature will increase by 0.9–2.5 °C
by the 2060s (ibid.), with warming most rapid in
the northern, drier part of the country (Federal
Ministry of Environment 2003). Since the forest
area has been reduced dramatically in the past
50 years and most of the remaining forests aredegraded, the ecosystem services performed byforests are greatly diminished.

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. While it isapparent that Nigeria’s forests have been declining
in both extent and condition, no reliable data are
available on the extent of forest loss or degradation.
The change in forest area reported by FAO (2010)
was calculated using a linear extrapolation ofdata from 1977 and 1994. By this method it wasdetermined that the forest area declined from 13.1
million hectares in 2000 to 11.1 million hectares in2005 and to 9.04 million hectares in 2010. On thebasis of the data presented in FAO (2010), Nigeria
lost 21% of its forest cover between 1990 and
Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of degraded primary forest
Area of secondary forest
Area of degraded forest land

0
-

0
-

0
8660*
-

*
‘Naturally regenerated forest’.
Source: FAO (2010).

125

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Nigeria’s climate-change strategy includes a focus
on forests and trees as an effective adaptation
measure (Government of Nigeria 2010a). Forestrelated actions include avoiding unregulated forest
exploitation; the implementation of a national
afforestation program using appropriate tree species
to protect watersheds; and the development ofagroforestry and organic farming as a means to help
people to adapt to changing climatic conditions.
The Ministry of Environment identified the biggest
obstacles to climate-change adaptation as a lackof awareness and knowledge about the impacts ofclimate change.

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. Forests are state-owned (Table 3).
Forest reserves, which cover around three-quartersof the forest area, are held in trust for the people.
Their management and control is vested in state
governments, although dual ownership of naturalforests by local and state governments still exists
in the northern states. Thus, local governments
are responsible for communal forest areas, state
governments are in control of forest reserves, gamereserves and sanctuaries, and national parks areunder the control of the federal government.a
Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category

State ownership (national,
state or provincial
government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities
and/or Indigenous groups
Privately owned by individuals,
firms, other corporate

Total area

Of which
PFE’000 ha

9040

5622

0

0

9040
0

5622
0

0

0

Source: 	Based on the estimate of total forest cover and total PFE
shown in Table 1.

Individuals or private organizations may occupy
land on leases (usually 99 years), but only thatwhich the occupier puts on the land belongs to theoccupier. The government may withdraw authority
to occupy land at any time, with appropriatecompensation paid (FAO 2010). Tree tenure rights
in communal areas are ascribed to the person who
planted the tree or the person who uses the land on
which the tree lies.b

126

A total of 16 states (Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra,
Cross River, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo,
Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, River andBayelsa) contain high forests and have special forest
laws to administer their tenure (ITTO 2006).
Criteria and indicators. Nigeria is a member ofthe ATO and, since 2001, of ITTO. The C&I
frameworks of these two organizations are therefore
available for uptake in Nigeria. With the support of
the ATO/ITTO regional project, the Governmentof Nigeria finalized, in May 2010, the developmentof a national version of the ATO/ITTO PCI for thesustainable management of the country’s naturalforests, and conducted training in their use. The
Government of Nigeria used the ITTO C&I in its
submission to ITTO for this report.a
Forest policy and legislation. Nigeria has had
forestry and natural-resource conservation laws
since the first half of the 20th century. The first
Forestry Act was enacted in 1937, which established
a forest reserve system under the state governments.
A more comprehensive forest law was enacted in1956 – the Law for the Preservation and Control ofForests in Eastern Nigeria. This gives the designatedminister responsibility for the protection, control
and management of forest reserves and protectedareas and the power to de-reserve forests (i.e.
re-classify them for other uses). Some states
have enacted specific regulations to monitor andcontrol the reserves, but the apparent high rate of
deforestation suggests that overall control has notbeen effective.
Nigeria’s national agricultural policy, adopted
in 1988, set forth a national policy on forest
management and the sustainable use of forest
resources. The goal was to achieve self-sufficiency
in all aspects of forest production. Major goals
included the expansion of the forest estate and its
management for sustained yield, the promotion offorest regeneration at rates higher than harvesting,the protection of forest resources from fire andgrazing, and the development of forest industry.
To achieve these objectives, it aimed to expand
the forest estate from 10% to 20%. Nevertheless,de-reservation and deforestation expanded over thelife of the policy (ITTO 2006).
A 2002 participatory review of the 1988 policy led
to the approval (in 2006) of a new national forest
policy, the first to stand alone and not be subsumed
within the policy of another sector. A forest law that

NIGERIA

has been in preparation for several years to provide
legal backing to the new policy is yet to be passed,
however (in August 2010 it was before the Federal
Ministry of Justice before going to the National
Assembly for approval).a The policy review took
into account changes in the present state of theforest sector in Nigeria and also addressed emergent
global issues. The overall objective of the new policy
is “to achieve sustainable forest management thatwould ensure sustainable increase in economic,
social and environmental benefits from forests andtrees for the present and future generation including
the poor and vulnerable groups”.a
An analysis of the new policyb showed that it
has some major points of departure from the oldpolicy that could strengthen sustainable forest
use and environmental protection. Unlike theold policy, the new policy focuses on creating thenecessary environment to ensure the longer-termsustainability of forest resources. For example, it
mandates the preparation and implementation ofscientific forest management plans; stresses theimportance of developing community-based forest
protection and management; and urges the federal
and state governments to increase revenue by
valuing forest products at their true market value
and tightening the control of harvest operations.
It recommends special funding arrangements
to support research and development and the
expansion of the forest estate.
A comprehensive national land-use policy is underdevelopment. Among other things it contains
an action plan for forestry and wildlife habitat
development.
The four-year (2000–03) National Forestry
Development Programme, which aimed toestablish forest plantations through community
participation, was approved for implementationby the National Executive Council. Due to theunavailability of funds, however, implementation
was stalled and the program was extended to thenext four years (2003–07). The extent to which it
was implemented in that period is unclear.
Programs dealing with environmental management
have been in constant flux, with negative
consequences. For example, the federal Ministry ofEnvironment (2001) stated that efforts to combat
desertification “have been adversely affected byfrequent shifts in policy by government. Suchpolicy shifts have been observed to be dictated by
the country’s economic fortune or misfortune”.
Institutions involved in forests. The forest sector
is administered at the federal, state and local
government levels. Responsibilities, authority andresources are shared among these levels according
to the 1999 Constitution, which gives control
over the development of natural resources tolocal governments and the states. However, there
is a lack of clarity in the respective mandates of
the responsible bodies (there are 36 state forest
departments and 774 local councils), which leads toinefficiencies.
The Federal Department of Forestry (FDF),
created in 1970, is currently under the Ministryof Environment; it has no authority over forest
management and is mainly responsible forinternational treaties and for providing policy
guidelines to state forest authorities. The National
Forestry Development Committee is responsible
for formulating national forest policy and technicalforest management guidelines. In order to facilitate
field operations the FDF fosters forest andenvironmental development through six divisions:
Forestry Management; Forest Resource Survey;
Forest Resources Utilization; Agroforestry; Support
Services and Extension; and Environmental
Conservation. The Forestry Research Institute ofNigeria has a mandate for research and education
on forestry and the use of forest products.
The University of Ibadan, the University ofAgriculture and the Federal University ofTechnology, Akure provide training for forestry
professionals.a In 2008, 180 students (12% of them
women) graduated with forest-related masters
degrees, 400 students (12% women) graduated with
forest-related bachelor degrees, and 560 students(12% women) graduated with forest technician
certificates or diplomas (FAO 2010).
Forest-sector development has been hindered
by a lack of funds and frequent policy changes,
despite (or perhaps partly because of ) the extensive
bureaucracy involved in overseeing the sector(ITTO 2006).
Direct investment and reinvestment in forest
management, administration, research andhuman resource development in 2009 by thefederal government, sub-national governments,
private sources and international governmental

127

Status of tropical forest management 2011sources were estimated at US$19.2 million,
US$9.24 million, US$800 000 and US$650 000,
respectively.a In 2008 an estimated 13 100 people
were employed in public forest institutions,
including at the state level, 5320 of whom had
university degrees or equivalent and 9% ofwhom were women (FAO 2010). An estimated180 professional staff and 250 technical staff areemployed in forestry in the federal government.a
Several NGOs provide inputs to the managementof forest resources. Notable among these are theNigerian Conservation Foundation, the Nigerian
Environmental Study and Action Team, Savannah
Conservation Nigeria, the Forestry Associationof Nigeria and local initiatives such as the Ekuri
Initiative in Cross River state.

Status of forest management
Forest for production
According to FAO (2010), the available
information on Nigeria’s forests “is either obsolete
or based on extrapolation from very old data.
Nigeria falls short of the basic standard of acquiring
regular and up to date data on the forest resources”.
While many forest reserves were intensively
managed in the past for timber production, asignificant number has also been almost completely
deforested while retaining the designation, leading
to the apparent contradiction of non-forested forest
reserves (ITTO 2006).
There are generally three types of logging operationin Nigeria:•

Small-scale operations that use chainsaw mills(accounting for more than half of the log
volume taken from forests). Fees for this type of
logging are usually assessed on a stumpage basis.

•

Medium-sized operations that are usually an
integral part of a medium-to-large industrialorganization. This type of logging is usuallyorganized by concessionaires and annual
production generally amounts to
10 000–20 000 m3 per operation.

•

Larger operations, also conducted byconcessionaires, generally producing about
60 000 m3 per year.b

According to Sanwo (2005), 70% of the total
timber extracted in high-forest states in Nigeria

128

is stolen, with no records kept. The state forest
departments have been unable to adequately protect
the forest estate from encroachment.
The state allocation of timber resources has,since the 1970s, systematically moved awayfrom long-term tenures to short-term (1–3 year)
concessions. This prompted an exodus of large
and sometimes foreign-owned concessionaires andnow concessions are largely in the hands of small
concessionaires. In off-reserve areas, communities
have rights to trees and negotiate freely with timber
operators for the sale of trees. Forest planning is
minimal. Timber resources are generally allocatedby discretion. In some states (e.g. Ondo and Edo),a committee screens applicants and forwards
a list of registered concessionaires who meetstatutory requirements to the commissioner for
his final decision. In Ogun State, the allocationis administered directly by the commissioner.
These allocations are not based on sound technicalconsiderations but rather on political patronage.b
An exception to how the state forest services areorganized is in Cross River state, which is the only
state to have established a forestry commission
instead of a department within the ministriesof agriculture or environment. The Cross River
Forestry Commission is headed by a board
comprising representatives of various stakeholders.
Its most important difference compared to forest
departments is its (semi-) financial autonomy. Dueto a revision of state laws, the Forestry Commission
is able to directly access part of the revenue
generated from forests with which to manage its
programs.b
Silviculture and species selection. Initially,
the forest resources in the high-forest zone weremanaged for timber production on a felling
cycle of 100 years, with a specified minimum
diameter limit for various species of 60–90 cm(FDF 1996). Forests in the southern and southcentral regions were sub-divided into numbered
mile-square compartments managed on the basisof working plans prepared by the FDF. In response
to harvesting pressures, the felling cycle for naturalforests was reduced to 50 years and has since
been further lowered. Natural regeneration of theharvested forests was stimulated by the Tropical
Shelterwood System (TSS). By the mid 1960s,
200 000 hectares in the western region of Nigeria
was managed under the TSS. Owing to the low

NIGERIA

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Mansonia altissima (ofun)
Tectona grandis (teak)Terminalia superba (afara)
Entandrophragma candollei (omu)
Triplochiton scleroxylon (obeche)

From southern deciduous forests.
Plantation timber.
Rare as large trees but regenerating in secondary forests.
From natural forests, increasingly rare.
Timber from natural forests and agroforestry plantations.

Source: ITTO (2006).

growth rates of the natural forest, the TSS wasabandoned in the early 1970s in favour of artificial
regeneration under the taungya system. The earlytaungya plantations led to subsequent major
plantation schemes in the high-forest zone (ITTO2006).
More than 300 tree species have been identified as
possible timber species; about 40 were reportedly
being harvested on a significant scale in 2005
(ITTO 2006). In addition to the five species
listed in Table 4 and Gmelina arborea fromplanted forests, Entandrophragma cylindricum(sapele), Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum (agba),
Chlorophora excelsa (iroko), Terminalia ivorensis(edo), Brachystegia spp and Lophira alata (ekki)
are common species harvested for timber (ITTO2006), although recent information was unavailable
for this report.
Planted forest and trees outside the forest. The
estimated planted forest area of 382 000 hectares
in 2010 (FAO 2010) was thought to comprise atleast 168 000 hectares of Gmelina arborea and teak.
Other planted hardwood species include Terminalia
ivorensis, Nauclea diderrichii, Triplochiton sceroxylon,
acacias and eucalypts, and about 10 000 hectaresof various pines (Okonofua 2005). However,
the estimate by FAO (2010) is based on a linear
extrapolation of past establishment rates.
Many of the planted forest areas are being harvested
today, but few of them are adequately managed forlong-term production (ITTO 2006).
The Presidential Initiative on Afforestation for
Economic and Environmental Sustainability waslaunched in 2008 with a focus on promoting
indigenous forest species and an overall target of
expanding national forest cover by 25% in ten
years. To finance afforestation the government
recently directed that 60% of the Ecological Fund1

1 The Ecological Fund was established in 1981 by the Government of
Nigeria to address the serious ecological problems facing the nation.

should be used for the massive afforestation of thecountry as a sign of a firm commitment to theattainment of sustainable forest development in
Nigeria. Towards this end, the first tranche of
5 billion naira has been released to the EcologicalFund Office for the first phase of the program for
upgrading forest nurseries and raising 1 million
tree seedlings in each of Nigeria’s 37 states forplanting in the 2011 planting season.a In addition,
about 400 hectares of new plantations have been
established in degraded forest reserves in ten statesin the last two years.a
Forest certification. No Nigerian forest has so far
been certified (e.g. FSC 2010), and no certification
initiative in the country has been reported.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. The Government of
Nigeria (2010) reported that 3.45 million hectaresof production forest were under management
plans (an area significantly greater than the total
production PFE), on the basis of reports fromstate forestry departments, but the status of thesemanagement plans is unclear, and no data for thisparameter are shown in Table 5. A lack of detailed
information makes it difficult to estimate the areaof forest under active management and to assess
the quality of that management. The only area offorest for which available information suggests asustainable regime is the Ekuri community forest in
Cross River state.
Timber production and trade. The total fuelwood
production in 2005 was estimated at 70.4 million
m3 (FAO 2010). Nigeria’s total production ofindustrial roundwood was estimated at 7.10 million
m3 in 2009, although this figure is repeated fromprevious years and its accuracy is unclear (ITTO
2011). On the other hand, the Governmentof Nigeria (2010) reported an average annual
sawnwood harvest of 7.52 million m3 in the PFE
and 1.98 million m3 in other forest. An estimated
2.0 million m3 of sawnwood, 56 000 m3 of129

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

2720
2720

1060
1060*****‡†NaturalWithmanagement
plans
650
-‡

0
0

-

375

PlantedWith
management
plans
175

33†

382

-

Sustainably
managed

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
As reported in ITTO (2006). No new data were available for the present report.
Government of Nigeria (2010) reported that 3.45 million hectares were under management plans, but the extent to which theseare operational is unclear.
The Ekuri community forest in Cross River state.

plywood and 1000 m3 of veneer were produced,
and about 64 000 m3 of logs and 163 000 m3 ofsawnwood were exported (ibid.).
The Nigerian industrial forest sector comprises
about 2000 sawmills of various sizes, ten plywood
mills, two functional paper mills, eight safety-match
factories and four particleboard mills. The sector is
producing at 30–40% of installed capacity. The rateof recovery in the sawmilling sector is lower than
40%, partly because of the use of obsolete machinesdesigned for the conversion of large-diameter logs.
Most sawmill owners are unable to replace theirmachines with more modern equipment suited tothe changing nature of the resource. The forest fees
and tariffs levied on standing timber or cut logs arevery low. Combined with a protectionist policy (i.e.
a log export ban), this reduces timber prices and socontributes to inefficiency and waste in the logging
and industrial processes – they may be profitable
while being totally inefficient.b
In 2009 the total value of exports of primaryindustrial wood products was US$28.2 million(up from US$22.8 million in 2004 but downfrom US$53.9 million in 2002) and the total
value of imports was US$11.4 million (up from
US$800 000 in 2004 and US$1.76 million in2002) (ITTO 2011).
Non-timber forest products. Marketed NTFPs
include Acacia senegal (gum arabic), rattan
and fibres such as Raphia spp, Garcinia afzelii(chewsticks), and sheabutter from nuts of Vitellaria
paradoxa (syn. Butyrospermum parkii). Many
NTFPs are locally traded and consumed by ruralcommunities, including leaves (eg Abura spp), fruit,bark, nuts, honey, mushrooms, resins, canes andmedicinal plants such as Garcinia spp. Bush meatis perhaps the most important NTFP, providing
a source of protein for rural people in isolated

130

Certified

high-forest areas and in the savanna zone. Plantsthat provide edible products are Irvingia gabonensis;
Spondias mombin and Dacryodes edulis; Gnetum
africanum leaves as vegetables; the seeds of Parkia
biglobosa (dawa-dawa); and the nuts of Cola spp.
Fruits of oil palm and Raphia spp are used widelyfor palm wine. No national data are available on
the volume or value of the harvest of any of theseproducts.
As forests become increasing degraded, competition
for NTFPs becomes fiercer and market failures andthe absence of clear property rights result in the
non-management of those resources (FAO 2001).
Ecological services provided by the forest include
protection from erosion, floods and desertification,
the regulation of stream flow, wildlife habitat, theprotection of biodiversity, carbon sequestration,and microclimatic benefits, among others. These
ecological services have not been evaluated and are
rarely considered in policy decisions.b
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al (2007) estimatedthe national-level forest biomass carbon stock at
1278–1805 MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006) estimatedit at 3952 MtC and FAO (2010) estimated it at1085 MtC. Due to past deforestation, Nigeria
has relatively limited potential for avoiding
deforestation. On the other hand it has considerable
potential to sequester carbon through forest
restoration (Table 6). In 2010 Nigeria establishedthe Nigerian Climate Change Commission
within the federal Ministry for the Environment.
The Commission will address issues related toenvironmental pollution, erosion, deforestation,desertification and climate change and has prepareda national climate-change policy and legislation.
REDD+ is a key concern in Nigeria’s climatechange negotiation strategy at the UNFCCC.
In mid 2010 Nigeria was granted observer status

NIGERIA

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

1278–1805

11++

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
monitoringsinkcapacity
capacityto
2030
+++

+

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity+

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with
canopy cover >60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

at UN-REDD. The Nigeria REDD+ readinessprogram was submitted to the UN-REDD Policy
Board in March 2011. It focuses on Cross River
State, which contains about 50% of the remaining
rainforests in Nigeria and is rich in biodiversity.

Forest for protection
Soil and water. An estimated 57 300 hectares offorest are managed primarily for the protectionof soil and water.a No further information on
measures to conserve soil and water was available
for this report.
Biological diversity. Twenty mammals, seven birds,
twelve amphibians, one reptile, ten arthropods and68 plants found in forests are listed as criticallyendangered, endangered or vulnerable on the
IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN 2011).
Two plant species are listed in CITES Appendix I
and 25 in Appendix II (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Protective measures in production forests.
The principal constraints on conservation in the
production PFE are poaching, over-harvesting,illegal burning, grazing and deforestation. Few
protective measures are undertaken in forest reserves(ITTO 2006).
Extent of protected areas. The federal government
controls Nigeria’s eight national parks through the
National Parks Service. Nature conservation laws
include the Wild Animals Preservation Act (1916)
consequently modified and adopted by the states),
the Endangered Species Decree (1985) and theLand Use Act (1976). According to UNEP-WCMC(2010), 2.54 million hectares of forest are in IUCN
protected area categories I–IV; while this is likely anover-estimate, in the absence of other data it is usedin this report to represent the area of the protection
PFE.

1993; and the Kamuku and Okomu nationalparks in 1999. Five of these national parks arelocated close to borders with neighbouring
countries, suggesting potential for transboundary
conservation. The Cross River National Park, forexample, borders Cameroon’s Korup National
Park. A transboundary conservation initiative inthe region could help to address illegal logging,and unsustainable hunting and NTFP extraction,
all of which are prevalent in the area (Eniang et al.
2010). A successful challenge by the Governmentof Cameroon in the International Court overthe location of the border has also led to theunauthorized shifting of boundary markers by local
people (ibid.).
Some national parks have been degraded bylogging, grazing, burning and the hunting andsmuggling of primates, all of which are illegal
within park boundaries.
The NGO Pro-Natura International (Nigeria)
recently announced a project in collaboration
with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation andseveral donors in the Omo-Oluwa-Shasha Forest
in southwestern Nigeria with the aim of protecting
the forest from further degradation. Project
activities include capacity-building, an investigation
into alternative livelihood approaches, and thedevelopment of a REDD+ initiative (Pro-Natura
International 2011).
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. Given the lack of clear
information on what is happening in the field,
the generally widespread problems of degradation,illegal logging, poaching and encroachment, andthe lack of data on management plans and theirimplementation, no area of protection PFE isconsidered to be under SFM (Table 7).

The first national park, Kainji Lake, was establishedin 1973; the Chad Basin, Cross River, GashakaGumti, Old Oyo and Yankari national parks in

131

Status of tropical forest management 2011

A forest-dependent family near Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Socioeconomic aspects

Livelihood values. Forest products, particularly
NTFPs, support the subsistence of local
communities: an estimated 48 million people
depend significantly on forest resources for theirlivelihoods. Sustainable rural-based programs tostabilize ecosystems and diversify products in order
to meet the continuing needs and livelihoods offorest-dependent communities are being carriedout in some states as pilot projects, although no
information on these is available.a

Economic aspects. Although forests are importantfor domestic energy, food and medical supplies,
these are not fully reflected in formal national
accounts. Officially, the forest sector contributed
2.5% to Nigeria’s GDP in 2008 and 3% (US$692
million) in 2009.a
A major problem facing Nigerian forestry
is inadequate funding. In 1993 the federal
government urged state governments to pay 10%
of forestry revenues into a trust fund for forest
management, but only a few state governments
have implemented this proposal. The setting andcollection of forest revenues is at the discretionof state governments and sometimes local
communities, so there are large variations, byregion, in the fees charged (ITTO 2006).

Social relations. The sharing of benefits fromforest activities between state governments andlocal communities varies from state to state. State
governments are supposed to share a percentage
of any revenues collected from forest activities
outside forest reserves (on average 25–40% ofrevenues in the savanna and 30–35% in the closed
forest) with local communities, but this is often

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

1010
2540

1010
2536**

-

-

-

*
**

132

As reported in ITTO (2006).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).

NIGERIA

not done in practice (ITTO 2006). Nevertheless,in many FMUs communities have used royalty
payments to develop, renovate and upgrade basic
local infrastructure such as schools, health centres,
roads and markets, and also to provide training on
alternative livelihood options such as bee-keeping,snail-rearing, livestock, tree-crop nursery raising,and improved crop husbandry for cash crops suchas cocoa and oil palm.a
The continuing decline and degradation offorest resources in Nigeria suggest that therelationship between local communities andforest administrations is not conducive to forest
conservation and SFM in most of the high-forest
states of Nigeria (ITTO 2006). Community-based
forest management is pursued in only one state,
Cross River.anatural production forest (the same as estimatedfor 2005), 2.54 million hectares of protection
forest (compared with 1.01 million hectares in2005), and 382 000 hectares of planted forest(compared with 375 000 hectares in 2005).
•

Data are generally weak. Increases in estimatesof the PFE are most likely due to differences inassessment method rather than real increases. A
forest reserve system to be managed by state
governments was created in 1937, but theextent to which forest reserves are still forested isunclear.

•An estimated 33 000 hectares of the production
PFE is under SFM. No forest is certified, andno part of the protection PFE is under SFM.

•

A new national forest policy was approved in2006. The Presidential Initiative on
Afforestation was launched in 2008, and funds
were made available to encourage afforestation.

•

The wood-processing industry is characterizedby outdated technology, poor recovery andinefficiency.

•

There is a lack of awareness in Nigeria about thepotential impacts of climate change, including
with respect to forests. Nigeria has considerable
potential for carbon capture and storage
through forest restoration and afforestation, if
forest governance can be improved.

Summary
One of the obstacles to SFM identified in 2005
was the lack of reliable forest data. There appears
to have been little improvement in this regard sincethen; even estimates of forest cover are derived
using deforestation rates that are up to two decades
old. It is unclear how much forest remains inwhat was set aside in the 1960s by government
as forest reserves. A new forest policy with several
positive features was approved in 2006, but thelaw to implement the policy is yet to be passed.
Despite the apparently poor and worsening stateof Nigeria’s forests, an estimated 48 million people
depend significantly on them for their livelihoods.
Chainsaw milling accounts for more than half thelog volume harvested. Illegal logging is reportedly
high. State forest administrations are generally
severely under-resourced, although the Cross River
Forestry Commission has direct access to part of
the revenue generated from forests with which
to finance its programs. Since 2008 a national
afforestation program has been under way with
an ambitious target for expanding national forest
cover. Nigeria has a relatively limited potential foravoiding deforestation. On the other hand it has
considerable potential to sequester carbon throughafforestation and forest restoration.

Key points•

Nigeria has an estimated PFE of 5.62 million
hectares (compared with 4.10 million hectares
in 2005), comprising 2.72 million hectares ofEndnotesaGovernment of Nigeria (2010b).

b

ITTO (2007).

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T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
Eniang, E., Olajide, O., Egwali, E. & Ebin, C. (2010).
Presentation made by Edem Eniang at the International
Conference on Biodiversity Conservation in Transboundary
Tropical Forests, Quito, Ecuador, 21–24 July 2010.
FAO (2001). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000. FAO
Forestry Paper 140. FAO, Rome, Italy.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010 country
report: Nigeria (available at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/67090/en/).
FDF (1996). Nigerian Forestry Action Programme. FDF, Abuja,
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Federal Ministry of Environment (2001). National action
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McSweeney, C., New, M. & Lizcano, G. (undated). UNDP
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Okonofua, S. (2005). Silvicultural management of natural andplanted forests in Nigeria – an overview. Presented at the
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splash/?p=883).

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Sanwo, K. (2005). Effects of pilferage and biopiracy on thedevelopment and harnessing of renewable resources in
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Government of Nigeria (2010b). Report of progress towardachieving sustainable forest management in Nigeria.
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Abuja, Nigeria.
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters No. 2 (available at
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).

Spalding, M., Kainumu, M. & Collins, L. (2010). World Atlas ofMangroves. Earthscan, London, UK.
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Yokohama, Japan (available at http://www.itto.int/en/sfm/).

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ITTO. 2010.UNEP–WCMC, Cambridge, UK.

ITTO (2007). Achieving the ITTO Objective 2000 andsustainable forest management in Nigeria: report of thediagnostic mission. ITTC(XLIII)/6. ITTO, Yokohama,Japan.

UNEP-WCMC (2011, website accessed March
2011). UNEP-WCMC species database: CITES-listed
species (searchable database at available at www.cites.org/
eng/resources/species.html).

ITTO (2011, website accessed March 2011). Annual Review
statistics database (available at http://www.itto.int/annual_
review_output/?mode=searchdata).

United Nations Population Division (2010, website accessed
August 2010). World population prospects: the 2008
revision (searchable database available at http://esa.un.org/
unpp/p2k0data.asp).

IUCN (2011, website accessed March 2011). IUCN red list of
threatened species (searchable database available at www.
redlist.org).

134

TOGO

Togo

Forest resources
Togo lies north of the Gulf of Guinea in West
Africa. It has a land area of 5.68 million hectares
and an estimated population in 2010 of 6.8 million
people (United Nations Population Division
2010). Togo is ranked 159rd out of 182 countries
in UNDP’s Human Development Index (UNDP2009). The country is characterized by a narrow
east–west extension of between 50 and 150 km
and a longer length from north to south of about
600 km. There is an extensive inland plateau,rising from 60 m to 450 m in altitude towards
the north and the Atakorian Mountains in thewest. The highest peak (Mount Agou) reaches analtitude of 986 m. There is little forest in Togo.
FAO (2010a) estimated the forest area at 486 000
hectares in 2000 and 386 000 hectares in 2005 andextrapolated the forest area to 287 000 hectares
in 2010. The Government of Togo estimatedthe extent of open forests and planted forests at
511 000 hectares in 2009a; in addition there areabout 1.18 million hectares classified as bush andtree savanna.a Togo also has an estimated 11 000
hectares of mangroves.
Forest types. Originally only about 17%
of Togo was forested.a The country has lostnearly 50% of its forests since 1990, mainly to
subsistence agriculture. Apart from fragmentsof closed semi-deciduous forests and degradedsemi-deciduous forests in the southwest (which

cover less than 120 000 hectares), there are
only a few small islands of dry forests (forêts
denses sèches) in southern and central Togo (lessthan 30 000 hectares) and gallery forests alongwatercourses.a The majority of the forest is in aforest–savanna mosaic (about 320 000 hectares),which extends from the Guinean vegetation zone
into the Sudanian vegetation zone. On the plateau,dense savanna forests are characterized by Ceiba
pentandra, Daniellia oliveri and Butyrospermum
paradoxum. Further north, Khaya senegalensis
and Prosopis africana predominate, along withthe palm Borassus aethiopum. There are stands ofsemi-deciduous closed forest in the mountains(about 40 000 hectares), with Antiaris africana andChlorophora excelsa among the most typical species.
Togo has only about 50 km of coastline, which
is mostly sandy with some lagoonal waters where
mangroves are rare. In total, Togo has less than
1000 hectares of mangroves, which occur in small
patches near the border with Benin (Spalding et al.
2010).
Permanent forest estate. No distinction is madein Togo between production PFE and protection
PFE; harvesting is undertaken in all areas, evenin officially protected areas (ITTO 2008). Togo’s
PFE consists of 83 forest areas, including 71
classified forests (forêts classées, estimated at 217 000
hectares), two national parks (357 000 hectares)
and ten wildlife reserves (218 000 hectares). Of
the total theoretical PFE of 792 000 hectares, large
areas are either very open forests or deforested.
About one-third of the PFE is estimated to becompletely without forest cover and the remaining
area consists of heavily degraded and secondary
forests and human-induced savanna dominated by
Ceiba pentandra.a UNEP-WCMC (2010) estimatedthe forested protected area (with 30% and morecrown cover) at 368 000 hectares; this estimate isused in Table 1.

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. Becauseof its small forest area and the continuing pressureson it, Togo has one of the world’s highest rates ofdeforestation, losing an estimated 5.75% (20 000
hectares) of its forest estate per year (FAO 2010b).

135

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*
**
‡

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)0.5-1.09
0.5–1.68**

368
287

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlanted
41
0

14
15‡

313
368

Total

368
383

As reported in ITTO (2006).
The higher figure includes an estimated area of 1.179 million hectares of bush and tree savanna.
FAO (2010a). In addition to state-owned plantations there are an estimated 21 000 hectares of privately owned plantations,which are not considered to be part of the PFE (ITTO 2008).

natural forest areas (Government of Togo 2009a).
Uncontrolled forest fires already occur regularlyin the latter stages of the dry seasons and cause
additional damage to degraded forest areas.

Most of the deforestation appears to be occurringin wetter areas, where forests are important forwatershed protection. The major threats to thescarce remaining dense forests include uncontrolled
fire (the main cause of deforestation in non-PFE
forest), excessive fuelwood harvesting, shifting
cultivation, and illegal cutting of the few remaining
commercial tree species. In addition, in the past
35 years the frontier of cotton plantations (inparticular in the southern zone around the forestof Abdoulaye and in the western Tchilla-Monota
forest area) has advanced at the expense of forest.
There is no primary forest left in Togo (Table 2).
More than one-third of the forest in forest reserves
has been converted to agricultural uses.

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. According to the 2008 Forest Code,there are three types of forest tenure: the publicforest domain (domaine forestier de l’Etat), which
includes forest reserves; the collective forest domain(domaine forestier des collectivités territoriales) andprivate forest (domaine forestier des particuliers)(Table 3). Closed forests and dense tree savanna
are generally part of the public forest domain.
In all forest reserves, user rights exist for local
communities (as per the colonial forest code of1938, articles 12–18, and reconfirmed by the 2008
Forest Code).

Vulnerability of forests to climate change.
Togo’s climate varies from humid tropical totropical savanna. Togo finalized its NAPA in
September 2009, according to which climatechange is projected to increase average monthly
temperatures by 1–1.25 °C on a south–north
gradient. These warmer temperatures are projected
to be accompanied by a drying trend, which would
have a major impact on various economic sectors.
The main climate-related risks identified in Togo
are flooding, drought, altered distribution of rain,
late rains, violent winds and coastal erosion. Acrossthe country, climate change could increase theincidence of drought, wildfire and flooding. The
most vulnerable ecosystems are coastal ecosystems,
agricultural ecosystems and some of the remaining

The new collective forest domain comprises thoseforest lands that have been legally classified assuch. Communes, prefectures and regions haveterritorial authorities (collectivités territoriales),which have legal status and financial independence
under Law 98/006 (amended in 2001). They have
responsibilities in the management of state lands
and on environmental issues. Communes andprefectures generally have a keen interest in the
management of forest reserves.
Villages adjacent to forest reserves generally havea village development committee (comité villageois

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of secondary forest and degraded primary forest
Area of degraded forest land*

0
287
-*

0
407**

*
Most of the former forest land has been converted to agriculture and is now considered as such.a**
Degraded since 1990 (derived from FAO 2010a); most of this land is now productive agricultural land.
Source: Government of Togo (2010).

136

0
287
407

TOGO

de développement – CVD), which attempts to ensurethat local interests are accommodated in the use offorest reserves and is responsible for the managementof committed forests. Outside the reserves, all trees
and plantations belong to local communities andprivate citizens, with little control from the state(ITTO 2006). Such off-reserve forests provide mostof the forest products sold locally.a
Criteria and indicators. Togo participated in the
C&I processes of ITTO, Dry-zone Africa and
ATO/ITTO, but no adequate C&I framework for
SFM has yet been developed for local conditions.
No strategic plan or actions are foreseen beyond
securing forest reserves from further conversion
and encroachment. The Government of Togo used
the ITTO C&I In its submission to ITTO for thisreporta, and a national validation meeting of the
C&I report was convened in March 2010.
Forest policy and legislation. Until 2008, forest
use was regulated by the 1938 forest code andthe 1988 environmental code. A new forest code
was approved by parliament in June 2008 (Law2008/009), as was a new law on the environment(Law 2008/005). The 2008 Forest Code addresses
issues of participation, SFM, ecological security andthe role of the forest industry in the framework ofsustainable development. It specifies the definitionof the national forest domain; rules for classifying
and declassifying forests and for forest management
planning; and the institutionalization of local
management through the creation of CVDs.a
Although CVDs have been assigned management
authority over forests, overall responsibility fornatural resource management has mostly remainedwith the central Ministry for Environment andNatural Resources (Ministère de l’Environnement etdes Ressources Forestières – MERF).

The national environmental policy of 1998,
completed in 2001 as the National Environmental
Action Plan (Plan National d’Action pourl’Environnement – PNAE), is the most important
policy framework for forests. A project todevelop a specific forest policy, initiated in 2000,
was never concluded. In December 2009, theDeclaration of a National Forest Policy was
submitted to the government for approval. Thisdeclaration canvasses a participatory approach
to forest management and greater decentralized
responsibility in managing forests; the divisionof tasks between local stakeholders and the state;
the principles of sustainably managing forest
resources; the valorisation of biodiversity; therecognition of the role of forests in climate change;
and the organization of the forest sector. The
new forest policy was to be prepared through a
consultative approach in 2010. In December 2009
the Government of Togo approved a declaration
on a national policy for land-use management(Politique Nationale d’Aménagement du Territoire)that encompasses environmental management, rural
economic development and social integration. The
forest policy will need to be consistent with thisrecently initiated policy process.
Institutions involved in forests. MERF was
reorganized in 2008 (under Decree 2008/090PR)
to create a central service and decentralized units,
coordinated by a Secretary General.a The central
service comprises three general directorates:
Environment; Forest Resources; and Common
Programmes. The Office for Forest Development
and Harvesting (Office de Développement etd’Exploitation des Forêts – ODEF), which
was attached to MERF, was also reorganized
and is due to be changed from an ‘office’ to a

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public

Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Privately owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
--Domaine forestier de l’Etat (not clear in extent).

-

-

-

369

Domaine forestier des collectivités territoriales(not clear in extent).
The distribution of forest between the two categories domaine
forestier de l’Etat and domaine forestier des collectivités
territoriales needs to be clarified.

281

27

domaine forestier des particuliers; includes privately owned
forest plantations (mainly teak) and other areas.

Source: Government of Togo (2010).

137

Status of tropical forest management 2011

semi-governmental organization supervised by aboard. Nevertheless, by mid 2010, none of thelegally decided changes had been installed and theformer organization (as described in ITTO 2006)
was still functional.a ODEF is responsible for the
management of forest reserves, forestry extension,
harvesting and reforestation.a Following the 2008
institutional reform, four new organizations havebeen created with a mandate attached to MERF:
the National Forest Development Fund (Fonds
National de Développement Forestier); the National
Agency for the Management of the Environment(Agence Nationale de Gestion de l’Environnement);
the National Fund for the Environment (Fonds
National de l’Environnement); and the National
Commission for Sustainable Development(Commission Nationale du Développement Durable).
In 2010 MERF employed 1213 staff, substantiallymore than in 2005 (937 people); 550 havespecialized functions in the management of forest
resources, 20 have university degrees and 73 arehigh-level technicians.a
The University of Lomé and the Togo Agricultural
Research Institute (Institut Togolais de Recherche
Agronomique) have mandates in forest-based
research. The country’s only forestry training
institute, Institut National de Formation Agricole,in Tové, was closed between 1990 and 2004 but
restarted in 2006 to train agricultural technicianswith specialization in forestry. A post-graduate
course in natural resource management is planned
to start in 2011 at the Agricultural University (Ecole
Supérieure d’Agronomie).
No major international NGO works in forestrelated areas in Togo, but a considerable numberof civil-society and national NGOs are engaged inlocal forest development, generally organized inregional federations. Three groupings have someinfluence on forest development: the Consortiumdes ONG en matière d’Environnement au Togo
(COMET), a consortium of NGOs dealing
with the environment; ROSCTOCC, a Togolese
network of civil-society organizations concernedwith climate change; and REBIOTOG, a network
concerned with biodiversity (ITTO 2008). There
has been a general trend towards wider public
participation in the management of forests.
Communities and NGOs are often involved inprotecting forests, such as from fire (throughbrigades de feux de brousse).

138

Status of forest management
Forest for production
The rural population traditionally depends onforests and trees for fuelwood, fodder, timber andother forest products. This heavy dependence
generates great pressure on forests. Most of the 71
remaining forest reserves are heavily degraded andare deforested to a great extent.
For more than 20 years, no long-term concession
contract (permis de coupe conventionnée) has been
allocated because there are no commerciallyexploitable forests left in Togo. Today, timberharvesting rights are assigned (through cutting
permits – permis de coupe spécial) to individuals
and collectives for small-scale timber harvestingor the cutting of single trees. There are no forest
management prescriptions (e.g. pre-inventory of
diameter limits) for this type of timber harvesting(cahier de changes); harvesting is based simply on
the availability of sizeable trees in a given area.
Thus, even official timber operations are donewith complete informality (ITTO 2008). The only
obligation of a timber operator is to pay a forest tax(which for the time being is not centralized) andto submit to passive control by the forest service.
Such a procedure is convenient to the operator,
who does not need to follow rules and is thus
able to maximize profits. It is also open to misuse
and risks the development of a petty corruption
system among officials. Conflicts arise where local
communities exercise their traditional land rights.
Should this system continue, the scarce remaining
timber resources are likely to be completely
depleted within a short time.
Silviculture and species selection. Timber
harvesting takes place in some forest reserves,in savanna and in planted forests; trees outside
forests are also harvested. Silvicultural rules do notexist to manage natural production forest. A large
array of species is used for timber, but no data are
available about the volume harvested. Besides thoselisted in Table 4, the most commonly harvested
timber and fuelwood species from degraded andsecondary forests are Afzelia africana, Albizia spp,
A. zygia, Alstonia congensis, Anogeissus leiocarpus,
Ceiba pentandra, Cola cordifolia, Daniellia oliveri,
Dichostachys glomerata, Dialium guineense,
Harungana paniculata, Isoberlinia doka, Lophiraalata, Macaranga spinosa, Malacantha alnifolia,
Parkia biglobosa, Prosopis Africana, Pterocarpus

TOGO

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Tectona grandis (teak)*From planted forests; annual production about 40 000 m3,
including state forests and private plantations.
20–30 additional species are also harvested in natural forests andsavanna. The harvest volume is unknown. One species (Pterocarpus
erinaceus) is currently exported by a Chinese trader with anindicative volume of about 3500 m3 per year.a

Khaya grandifolia (acajou)*, Pterocarpus spp, Pterocarpus
erinaceus (véne), Chlorophora excelsa (iroko)*, Antiaris africana(ako)*, Triplochiton scleroxylon (ayous)**
Also listed in ITTO (2006).
Source: Government of Togo (2010).

planting rate is generally considered inadequate
to meet the timber needs of the country; a rate of2000 hectares per year of industrial plantations
would be needed to meet domestic requirements forconstruction timber alone (ITTO 2006).

erinaceus, Pycnanthus angolensis, Terminalia superba,
Trichilia africana and Uapaca heudelotii.
The most important commercial tree species is
Tectona grandis (teak) from planted forests androadside plantings. Teak was introduced in 1910
and has become well adapted to the country; it is
known commercially as ‘Togo teak’. The species
regenerates naturally in Togo and is used widelyin agroforestry plantations, as street trees and incommercial planted forests. ODEF has developed asilvicultural system to induce natural regenerationand this is practised in some of the older teakstands.

Forest certification. There is no certified forest in
Togo (e.g. FSC 2010). Both state and private teakplantations have potential for certification, but
most of the harvested timber is exported to markets
where there is little demand for certified timber.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. About 7000 hectaresof teak and eucalypt plantations (state andprivately owned) have some sort of management
and harvesting plan (Government of Togo 2010,
ITTO 2008). As there is no production PFE andharvesting occurs in all kinds of forests, including
protected areas, no forest can be considered to beunder SFM (Table 5).

Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
Planting new forests and trees is possibly the
only way for Togo to address some of its biggest
environmental problems, such as deterioratingwatersheds and freshwater supply, climate change,
and increasing shortages of fuelwood, timber and
NTFPs. Nonetheless, the development of newplantations is hampered by a lack of knowledge, ashortage of funds and a high level of insecurity withrespect to land tenure and the use and frequencyof forest fire. Between 1970 and 2009, about
38 000 hectares of forest plantations were created,
including 24 000 hectares outside the PFE byindividuals and private firms (ITTO 2008). The
main planted species is teak (estimated at morethan 18 000 hectares). The planned planting rate ofteak is 300 hectares per year, mainly on agriculturalland using the taungya system (ITTO 2006). This

Timber production and trade. Total roundwood
production was estimated at 6 million m3 in 2008
(FAO 2010a). In 2009 Togo produced about
123 000 m3 of industrial roundwood (ITTO2010), predominantly teak – the public sector alone
produced about 27 000 m3 of teak per year between
2006 and 2008.a Log production has fluctuated in
the last decade, declining from 314 000 m3 in 1999
to 65 000 m3 in 2004 before recovering slightly(ITTO 2010). No data are available on the volumeof timber harvested by the informal sector (ITTO2008).

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)*

Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

41
0

41
0

NaturalWithmanagement
plans
5.5
0

CertifiedSustainably
managed

0
0

5.5

14

PlantedWith
management
plans
1.2

0

15

7

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).

139

Status of tropical forest management 2011

Fruits, roots and medicinal plants are collected but
are no longer available in the required quantities
or qualities. The three spices mostly used in Togo
are the seeds of Monodora myristica (false nutmeg)
and the fruits of Piper guineense (African pepper)
and Xylopia aethiopica (Guinean pepper); each hascommercial value in Togo (Kokou et al. 2005).
Bush meat is the most important NTFP in forest
reserves. Another considerable source of income,although illegal, is the collection of wild reptiles forexport. At least 18 reptile species are produced inanimal farms for export, in particular Python regius(royal python) but also chameleons (Chamaeleo
gracilis, and C. senegalensis), big lizards (Varanus
niloticus and V. exanthematicus) and turtles (e.g.
Kinixys belliana, K. erosa and K. homeana).

Five-year-old private teak plantations in Togo in a taungyasystem.

Nearly all of Togo’s wood exports are in the formof logs. An estimated 95 000 m3 were exported
in 2009, up from only about 12 000 m3 in 2004.
The major export species was teak, but 3500 m3 of
Pterocarpus were also recorded.a The main export
destinations are in Asia, including India, Pakistan
and China.a Timber products from neighbouring
countries (mainly Ghana) are traded in the Togomarket but are also exported from the free port ofLomé. Trees harvested in the savanna, including
teak, limba, ayous, ceiba and cola, are providing
an increasing share of the raw materials for local
sawmills (ITTO 2006). There are more than 200
depots for construction wood, many of them of
an informal nature.a Commercial fuelwood andcharcoal production is estimated about 2 million
m3 per year (ITTO 2006).

Forest carbon. Togo has one of the lowest national
forest carbon stocks in sub-Saharan Africa. Gibbs
et al. (2007) estimated the total forest biomass
carbon stock at 145–252 MtC and Eggleston etal. (2006) estimated it at 510 MtC. Togo has notparticipated in any of the forest carbon initiatives
in REDD+ or in afforestation and reforestation
projects through the CDM. In March 2011,
however, the country began preparing a REDD+
strategy with the support of the ITTO Thematic
Programme on Reducing Deforestation and Forest
Degradation and Enhancing Environmental
Services (REDDES). Togo has considerable
potential for the enhancement of carbon sinks
through reforestation and agroforestry activities andincreased efficiency in the use of forest biofuels.
Togo participates actively in the UNFCCC climatechange adaptation program. The Governmentof Togo (2009a) listed forests as an important
adaptation measure in its national reporting to
the UNFCCC. Table 6 summarizes Togo’s current
forest carbon potential.

Forest for protection

Non-timber forest products. Forest fragments
harbour a variety of plants that are used in dailyliving or as a supplemental source of income.

Soil and water. While soil and water protection isa major objective of forest management in Togo,

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

145–252

2+

Enhancement Forest areachangeof carbon
sink capacity monitoring
capacity
to 2030+++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity+

Importance Engagementinof forest
international
fire/
REDD+
biomass
processes
burning+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

140

TOGO

no forest is set aside primarily for the protectionof soil and water.a An estimated 5700 hectares ofprotection plantations was established between
2000 and 2007 in forest reserves (e.g. Kara – 362
hectares; Namon – 413 hectares; Asrama – 338
hectares; and Avétnou – 1100 hectares), theobjectives of which expressly include the protectionof soil and water resources.aBox 1 Bird-watching in Togo
In Togo, small forest areas, such as the classified
forest of Missahoe and the adjacent classified
forest of Damétui, may have surprising assets.
The Missahoe–Damétui forest, for example, is aheavily degraded semi-deciduous forest
dominated by Antiaris africana and Chlorophora
excelsa. It only covers an area of about 5000
hectares, yet it is catalogued by Bird Watch
International as an excellent spot forbird-watching.

Biological diversity. Togo contains considerable
biological diversity due largely to its ecologicaldiversity (ranging from savannas in the north tohumid tropical forests in the southwest). There
are at least 3085 plant species, 228 mammal
species, 708 bird species, 156 reptile species and
42 amphibian species (Government of Togo
2009b). Mammals that once occurred in Togo but
have largely or entirely disappeared include thechimpanzee, the red-bellied monkey, the Dianamonkey, the African lion and the wild dog (ibid.).
Six mammals, two amphibians and one arthropod
found in forests are listed as critically endangered,endangered or vulnerable on the IUCN red list of
threatened species (IUCN 2011). One plant species
is listed in CITES Appendix I and three are listed inAppendix II (UNEP-WCMC 2011).

Source: www.birdlife.org/index.html.

in Togo is the encroachment of parks by the local
population, in particular for subsistence agriculture;
fuelwood cutting and poaching; and the lack ofmeans for participatory management planningwith local stakeholders. Togo’s fourth assessment
report to the CBD on its biodiversity (Governmentof Togo 2009b) estimated that at least 125 000
hectares of officially protected areas are encroached.
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. In general, insufficient
data were available for an estimate to be made on
the area of protection PFE under SFM. Missahoe,
the site of a former ITTO project area, is also
supported by Birdwatch International and IUCN
Netherlands. It constitutes the only forest area
known to be under management consistent withsustainability, as shown in Table 7. Nevertheless, thecommunity in this area needs further support in its
efforts to maintain the integrity of their forest.

Protective measures in production forests.
Provisions are made in the 2008 Forest Code toprohibit logging on slopes susceptible to erosion as
well as for the protection of streams, springs andwatersheds. None of these measures is implemented
effectively, however.
Extent of protected areas. Estimates of Togo’s
protection PFE are highly uncertain because noneof the protected areas is effectively delineated or thedemarcation is no longer recognizablea; moreover, it
is unclear how much of these areas are still forested.
According to UNEP-WCMC (2010), 368 000
hectares of forest are in protected areas conforming
to IUCN protected-area categories I–IV, and thisfigure is used as a proxy for the protection PFE.
The main problems of protected-area management

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. The contribution of the forest
sector to GDP was about 3.5% annually in the
period 2006–08a, although this estimate does notaccount for informal activities (especially related towood energy). Since 2000 there has been modest

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)***

Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

313
368

61
368

200
200

5

5**

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Missahoe and the adjacent Damétui classified forest (see Box 1). But there is a need to further support the community in its
efforts to maintain the integrity of the heavily degraded forest.

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Status of tropical forest management 2011

Box 2 Sacred forests
A special role for biodiversity conservation can be
attributed to sacred forests, in particular in thehuman-populated region of southeast of Togo(see also Kokou et al. 2005). Sacred forests arescattered throughout the semi-deciduous forest
fragments and range in size from less of one
hectare to tens of hectares. Inventories haveshown that these forests are a last refuge of many
tree and fauna species. They are considered an
important part of the heritage in the riparianvillages, as they are sometimes useful catchment
areas for rivers and provide NTFPs. With thedecreasing social and economic cohesion,
however, sacred forests are increasingly under
threat.
private investment in teak plantations on private
land. The formal private enterprise employs about1000 salaried full-time and part-time workers. It isestimated that forestry provides about 90 000 jobs
in the informal sector, 77% of them for women andchildren, many in commercial fuelwood collection
and charcoal-making (ITTO 2006).
Livelihood values. The few existing forests areoften considered by rural people as the only
available reserves of land. Therefore they are heavily
encroached upon and claimed for subsistence
production. Forest reserves provide an importantsource of protein for people living in rural areas.
Forests are also a place of ritual and spiritualsignificance for many ethnic groups.
Social relations. The participation of local
stakeholders in forest decision-making andmanagement is not well-developed. Where afunctional working relationship exists (e.g. in
Missahoe through a number of projects), effective
partnerships between local population and theforest authorities can be established.

environmental deterioration are deforestation anddegradation; desertification; soil erosion in all
forms and all ecological zones; the sedimentationof lakes and waterways; the salinization of thecoastal sedimentary basin; a generalized drop inwater quality; a loss of soil fertility; and biofuel
shortages. The main difficulty in protecting andmanaging forests in Togo is the heavy pressure onthem from an impoverished rural population. The
Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources isin charge of forests but capacity is low. This affects
many forestry operations through, for example, thefailure to secure the integrity of classified forests andforest protected areas and the inability to enforce
forest laws and regulations. Progress is slow in forest
restoration and reforestation.

Key points•

Togo has an estimated PFE of 383 000 hectares(compared with 368 000 hectares in 2005),
comprising 15 000 hectares of state-owned
forest plantations (compared with 14 000 in2005) and 368 000 hectares of protection forest(compared with 313 000 hectares in 2005).

•

There is no natural-forest production PFE andtherefore no natural-forest production PFE
under SFM. An estimated 5000 hectares ofprotection PFE (an area also used for
production) is sustainably managed.

•

There is no regulated forest industry in Togo.
Timber and fuelwood harvesting is occurring in
all forests, irrespective of their legal status.

•

Togo has the highest relative forest loss inAfrica. The main direct threats to forest
resources are uncontrolled fire; excessive
harvesting for fuelwood; agricultural
encroachment; illegal cutting; and poaching andhunting.

•

A process is ongoing to reclassify forest reserves
and protected areas and to develop collaborative
forms of management.

•

The Government of Togo adopted a new forest
policy in 2008 and is developing a wider forestand environmental policy that aims to increase
the participation of local people in forest andnatural resource management. Support by theinternational community would greatly assist in
the implementation of this forest-reform
process.

Summary
Togo faces numerous environmental challenges,
including a growing population, poverty, andan imbalance between the consumption of
resources and the rate of restoration. Forest-sectorplans and programs give little consideration
to the environmental and social dimensionsof management. The most visible signs of

142

TOGO

EndnotesaGovernment of Togo (2010).

b

ITTO (2008).

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