07 Mar 2024

Flora / Early warning: anticipating illegal timber logging trends in Cameroon

The country's Congo River basin is emerging as an area for criminals to profit significantly from this illicit trade.

Cameroon’s Congo River basin forest sector is emerging as an area for criminal actors to make significant profits through illegal timber logging. Demand for high-quality wood in Asia is growing and Cameroon provides opportunities for meeting this demand, not least because its forestry sector governance and management is ineffective. The key to combatting transnational organised crime in the timber sector is to detect early warning signs on the changing nature of demand for high-value wood species in the furniture industry.

About the author

Nicholas Atampugre is an independent consultant based in Accra with over 35 years’ international development experience. His early career focused on environment and development issues. This has broadened to governance, monitoring and evaluation, organisational development and research.

Image: Adobestock

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