From June to August 2019, six missions to verify allegations of illegal logging activities were carried out in the eastern and southern regions in Cameroon. Reports of these missions produced were submitted to the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife (MINFOF). During the missions, alleged violations were identified by Civil Society Organisations, members of the ISO 9001: 2015 Standardised System of Independent External Observation (SNOIE). These include:
- Unauthorised exploitation in forests of the national domain
- Unauthorised exploitation in Community Forests (CF) BOUMA BO KPODE of Nomedjoh village and CODEVIR of Nemeyong
- Non-compliance with the technical standards of exploitation as well as the norms of intervention in forest environment (NIMF), by the company COFA in its UFA 10068, and the forest company SIM in its FMU 10 037 around the village Koungoulou
- Exploitation without annual certificate of exploitation (CAE) in Community Forests (CF) BOUMA BO KPODE of Nomedjoh village and CODEVIR of Nemeyong
- Complicity of unauthorized exploitation in a National Domain Forest in Nko’olong Village, Department of the Ocean, Southern Region.
In order to document these alleged infractions, monitoring missions were carried out using the SNOIE system by organisations such as: the ‘Livestock Support and Preservation Project Biodiversity on the periphery of Protected Areas in Cameroon (PAPEL)’, ‘Forests and Rural Development (FODER)’ and ‘Center for Local Alternative Development (CeDLA)’. The resources needed to carry out the said missions were mobilised in the framework of the CV4C project, implemented with the financial support of the Union and the project “Integrating community monitoring in real time to sustain livelihoods and forests in West and Central Africa” (RTM2).
During the investigations carried out in the villages, suspected offenders were identified during these three OIE missions:
- AMOUGOU AMOUGOU Jules [1] assisted by a certain DEGONZ (chief shipyard) in the acts perpetrated in the FDN with presumption of complicity with the community
- COFA company (around the village Djaposten (District of Dja / Mindourou)
- The managers of the BOUMA BO KPODE FC of Nomedjoh village and CODEVIR of Nemeyong
- The SIM in its UFA 10 037 around the village Koungoulou
- ALOYSIUS BOIS, located at the Mendong Wood Park (Yaoundé),
- The operator of the name “DECO” operating in the FDNs in the neighborhoods of Nkongkeni with the complicity of the local populations,
- Various actors from traditional chiefdoms in the villages of Ngwei and Mapoubi (Littoral Region), local administration and individuals from village communities for complicity.
The species exploited during these illegal logging activities include: Bubinga, Tali (Erythrophoeum ivorensis), Okan, Azobe, Kossipo (Entandrophragma candollei), Ayous (Triplochiton scleroxylon), Azobé, Ekopbeli, Bilinga, Sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum), Moabi (Baillonnella toxisperma), Padouk (Pterocarpus soyauxii).
Of the five missions to verify allegations of illegal logging activities, two were able to trigger reactions from the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife (MINFOF) that resulted in the completion of forest control missions and the launch of a public auction of illegally cut and seized timber. The foreclosures of the seized species were respectively CFAF 4,280,225 and CFAF 805,075.
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[1] Amougou Amougou Jules had already been the subject of a formal notice according to the forest offenses register issued by the MINFOF of March 13, 2018, in the case of another denunciation for unauthorised exploitation in the national domain forest in Bissiang, district of Loukoudje, Department of Ocean in the South region. The denunciation was made in January 2017 by CeDLA (https://oiecameroun.org/index.php/sommier-des-infractions).
1. PVCI reference / seized report: 008 / PVCI / MINFOF / DRSU / NLS
2. Notice of formal notice 2438 / L / MINFOF / CAB / BNC / C4 of 21 June 2017
3. PVCI Reference: 02 / PVCI / MINFOF / DRS / DDOC / of 08 February 2016
4. Letter of formal notice 4420 / L / MINFOF / CAB / BNC / C4 of 17 November 2016 “
