In an effort to conserve national resources and combat effects of climate change, leaders in Cameroon recently suspended logging licenses of 27 companies that had violated forest-sector laws, according to Trust.org, an affiliate of media outlet Reuters.
"This decision forbids these companies from undertaking activities relating to forest exploitation, transport and export of logs and processed timber products," said Philip Ngole Ngwese, the country's minister of forestry and wildlife.
Officials see illegal logging as contributing to an "alarming rate" of deforestation, which is making Cameroon increasingly vulnerable to effects of climate change, including changing rainfall patterns. Forest covers nearly half of Cameroon, a coastal country in west central Africa; its forest constitutes a large portion of the Congo Basin, the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon Basin in South America.
Cameroon's forest depletion is unsustainable; between 1990 and 2005, Cameroon lost more than 13 percent of its forest cover to commercial logging and agriculture. The country exports 60 percent of its raw lumber to China and 80 percent of its processed lumber to the European Union (EU).
In October 2010, Cameroon reached a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the EU as part of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. The legislation-which is set to take effect on March 3, 2013-aims to remove illegally sourced timber from EU commerce. In February, the WWF criticized the EU for its slow progress on ratifying VPAs.
