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Cameroon: WWF Hails Nation's Forestry Laws
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
6 August 2008
Posted to the web 6 August 2008
L.P.N.
Forest certification and the respect of the rights of the indigenous peoples were among the major concerns of the Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-International), James Leape and the Director General for Africa of the German based Public Development Bank (KFW), Bruno Wenn who visited Cameroon from July 26 to 31.
The two officials told journalists in a press briefing in Yaounde last Thursday, July 31, that forest certification is one of the surest ways to ensure sustainable management. They both expressed satisfaction on Cameroon's forestry laws stating inter alia that the country could serve as a serious base for sustainable forest management for the Central African sub-region. "For Cameroon to better manage its forest, it must get other neighbours to do the same", Leape said. Forest Certification, he said, can only succeed if loggers voluntarily decide to respect it.
The WWF official was particularly concerned with ensuring that the laws in place are fully respected. "It is important to continue to tract down illegal loggers", he said. James Leape announced that more than one million hectares of Congo Basin forests have achieved certification under the world's leading sustainable forestry scheme. "Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has now been achieved for forestry operations on 1.2 million hectares, a significant step towards WWF's Green Heart of Africa network initiative goal of having certification achieved for 50% of production forest in the Congo Basin", a press statement issued in Yaounde after the visit said. The certification, the release said, involves logging companies such as SEFAC, Transformation Reef Cameroon (TRC) and WIJMA in Cameroon and CIB in the Republic of Congo.
The visit which enabled James Leape and Bruno Wenn to discuss with Cameroonian officials, including a meeting with the Prime Minister and partnering with logging companies and representatives of indigenous peoples was crowned with the signing of a code of ethics and principles concerning indigenous peoples and conservation in Central Africa. The code is designed for WWF Central African Programme Office employees and its partners. The implementation of the code is expected to guarantee the recognition of the rights and interests of the local populations in all conservation and sustainable forest management initiatives led by WWF.
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