Douala, May 20, 2009 - One of the basic objectives of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership as defined in its Cooperation Framework is "to promote the sustainable management of forests in the sub-region as stated and recognised in the Yaoundé Declaration (1999)." Industrial logging is seen by the majority of partners as forming part of the sustainable management of production forest concessions, with forest certification being the tool that can enable consumers and processing companies to distinguish between timber produced under sustainable management conditions and that originating from logging operations managed in a less transparent manner.

With a view to contributing to the public debate on the economic, social and environmental impact of industrial logging – a debate which has brought to light some contradictory stances, to say the least – the CBFP offered to hold a consultation workshop on “The role of industrial logging in the sustainable management of Congo Basin forests” (19-20 May 2009) in Douala, Cameroon, to develop a joint vision of the CBFP partners in the positive and negative consequences of industrial logging on the system for sustainably managing Central African forests.

The German facilitation team invited scientists, local NGOs and representatives from logging companies to talk about their experiences, in order to establish the impact that sustainable industrial logging would have on the ecological development in the implementation area,  and on the economic and social development of  the local population, especially highly forest-dependent groups. This workshop was also an opportunity to explore the real impact of the global economic crisis, which has had a severe effect on the construction industry in Europe and the United States, on the forestry sector in the countries of Central Africa.

	Download the workshop's conclusions (translated to English by GTZ) View the workshop's documentation (in French)
Photo (Hans Schipulle) A member of the timber monitoring team explains the traceability system to Samuel Makon, CBFP Facilitator Delegate. The blue spots on the logs signals FSC certified timber