Fraudulent Networks Fuel Deforestation and Illegal Timber Exports in Cameroon

This story by Jean Sovon and Vivian Wu originally appeared on Global Voices on December 16, 2025.

Deforestation and illegal timber exports in Cameroon are plunging the Congo Basin — the planet's second largest “green lung” — into a genuine environmental crisis and causing widespread and lasting degradation of terrestrial ecosystems.

Despite efforts to curb the illegal practice, the Cameroonian government has been unable to effectively protect the country’s nearly 22 million hectares of forest. Forest cover accounts for 45 percent of Cameroon’s national territory, making it the second-largest rainforest ecosystem in the Congo Basin after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This extensive natural resource, which contributes enormously to the fight against climate change, is declining at an alarming rate under the combined pressure of several uncontrolled industries: logging, unchecked agricultural activities, and timber trafficking. This situation has reached a critical level, directly threatening biodiversity, the national economy, and the existence of local communities.

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An explosion in global demand

Caught between national economic needs and global pressures, Cameroon is struggling to resist the lure of high timber demand. Strong demand for rare tropical species — ayous, sapelli, tali, and bubinga, which are abundant in the forests of the Congo Basin and highly prized worldwide — has intensified industrial logging in Cameroon since the early 1990s.

Legally, timber harvesting and marketing have been governed by a legal framework since 1994, requiring operators to comply with quotas and reforestation obligations to contribute to sustainable forest conservation. In reality, however, authorities are struggling to effectively regulate the process, leading many to illegally divert timber for commercial purposes. 

Much of the demand for this illegal timber comes from European and Asian countries. These rare species are mainly exported to these two continents, where processing and marketing generate significant added value.

According to Timber Trade Portal, a platform working to improve the legality of the timber trade worldwide, in 2019, Cameroon had 93 forest concessions that produced more than 3.3 million cubic meters of logs (2017) for markets in China, Vietnam, Belgium, Italy, France, the United States, Spain, etc.

But in 2018, a crisis in the European tropical timber industry in Central Africa, including Cameroon, caused demand on the European timber market to plummet. In a report entitled Les forêts du bassin du Congo – Forest Status 2021, published by the Central African Forest Observatory (OFAC), timber exports from Central Africa to Europe more than halved between 2010 and 2020, falling from USD 1.4 billion to USD 600 million.

This crisis in the European timber industry stems from several factors, including the implementation by European countries of measures to guarantee the legality of timber in accordance with the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) voluntary partnership agreements. This has led to a shift in demand towards Asia, which is becoming increasingly pronounced. The report adds that:

Internal and external causes undermining national efforts

Despite numerous efforts by national authorities to control the flow of timber, strong demand from Asian countries, led by China, has opened the door to unorthodox practices. 

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Firstly, illegal timber trafficking fuels the shadow economy. While observers focus their attention on legal logging, which is the real driving force behind the forestry industry, illegal logging, which is often better organized, undermines national efforts.

There is little enforcement of the laws governing the sector. Within the system, companies operate in prohibited areas, exceed authorized timber limits, commit fraud, and use falsified documents to obtain goods through legitimate channels. One local resident, Mbaye Ekongé (a pseudonym to protect his safety), told Global Voices:

The porous nature of its borders is also one of Cameroon’s major concerns when it comes to protecting its timber market. Poor border controls have contributed to the development of a cross-border network that encourages those involved in the black market to continue with this fraudulent practice.

According to one commercial operator, Alban Nkontcheu (a pseudonym to protect his safety), illicit networks work as a chain to illegally transport Cameroonian timber out of the country.

Furthermore, Alban Nkontcheu does not rule out the possibility that, with this strong foreign demand for wood, China, which is the world’s leading importer of tropical wood, is a preferred destination for Cameroonian wood, whether legal or not.

The Cameroonian state incurs a colossal loss amounting to billions of CFA francs each year due to uncollected logging rights, unpaid taxes, and losses related to the underdevelopment of local processing.

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