Cameroon's Minister of Forests and Wildlife has just granted an annual logging certificate to the company Sextransbois, which already holds a forest concession under a provisional agreement. But for civil society, the process of granting this certificate, which concerns an area of the Ebo forest massif straddling the Central and Coastal regions, was not carried out in accordance with the forestry legislation and regulations in force in Cameroon. This decision threatens the rights of the Banen communities, who have always demanded a return to their ancestral lands, as well as the biodiversity of this forest.
In April 2023, Cameroon’s Prime Minister signed a decree on the reclassification of the Ebo forest. The forest massif, which straddles the Centre and Littoral regions, thus changed its status, moving from the national domain to the permanent forest domain, which permanently allocates the land in this area to the preservation of the forest and the habitat of wildlife.
Two months after this action, Cameroon’s Minister of Forests and Fauna (Minfof) made public the annual logging certificate, allocating part of the Ebo Forest to the logging company Sextransbois. The certificate concerns an area located at Massok-Songloulou, in forest management unit (FMU) 07 006. For nature conservation organisations, MINFOF’s action does not comply with the forestry legislation and regulations in force in Cameroon. “MINFOF has clearly jumped the gun. Articles 51, 63 et seq. of Decree No. 95/531/PM of 23 August 1995 state that forest concessions can only be awarded following a public invitation to tender, published in the press, on notice boards or by any other useful means, in the administrative units, communes and departments of the administration in charge of forests, for a period of forty-five (45) days. The law regulates restricted invitations to tender, but only in the case of exploitation under public management and subcontracting, which does not seem to be the case with FMU 07 006”, explains Sylvie Djacbou, Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
An impossible 2-month process
In addition to the absence of a public call for tenders over a period of 45 days, Greenpeace wants to know when the inter-ministerial committee met to select the best bidder. When did the Prime Minister notify the Minister for Forestry of his agreement in principle to the award of the contract? What about the bond to be lodged with the Treasury, which must be paid within 45 days of the winning company being notified of the public invitation to tender? And finally, when was the company notified? “These are all questions that do little to conceal a flagrant violation of the law, because they show that it is impossible for such a process to be completed in two months, as is currently the case,” adds Sylvie Djacbou.
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A few weeks earlier, Greenpeace Afrique issued a press release revealing the irregular nature of the decree classifying part of the Ebo forest as FMU 07 006, signed on 27 April 2023. This decision threatens the rights of local communities, in this case the Banen people, who have always demanded a return to their ancestral lands, as well as the forest’s biodiversity.
For the time being, efforts to obtain a reaction from Minfof to Greenpeace’s denunciations have been fruitless.
Boris Ngounou
