The Cameroon Ministry of Forestry recently published the results of an audit it commissioned of the Cameroonian company Compagnie de Commerce et de Transport (CCT). This audit concluded that the allegations made by Greenpeace Africa concerning illegal activities by some suppliers of timber to CCT were founded, but went further to state that these illegal activities have always been repressed by its administration.

Greenpeace Africa through this briefing is responding to this audit report.

Brief History

On the 9th of September 2015, Greenpeace published a report CCT’s Timber Trade from Cameroon to Europe-A Test Case for EUTR’s Due Diligence Requirement in which it revealed how the Cameroonian firm CCT has been trading wood from a large number of Cameroonian logging companies (Greenpeace Nederland, 2015). The Greenpeace report listed CCT’s main 2014 suppliers, providing evidence that several of them were involved in illegal logging activities. A frequently observed infringement was that of logging outside its legal boundaries of its cutting permit (hereinafter referred to as VCs from the French ventes de coupe), then subsequent declaring that this illegal wood originates from the legal logging title.

The Cameroon government debunked this report as false a few days after it was released without any attempt to descend to the fields to ascertain the veracity of the report. The Minister of Forestry wrote in a press release that “these allegations, which are simply derived from stereotypes with the intention to breed trouble, are unfounded and have nothing in common with the true picture of the forestry sector in Cameroon” (Point of Order, Minfof 2016)

Nonetheless, the Dutch Competent Authority, after its own investigation stemming from the same report which was debunked by the Cameroon Minister of Forestry, imposed sanction on Fibois, a Dutch company that trades in wood from CCT, for violating the European timber regulation (Greenpeace, 2016) The sanction consisted of a conditional penalty against the Dutch company and the Dutch Competent Authorities also filed an official report with the public prosecutor.

Greenpeace Africa carried out yet another field research in early 2016 concerning another CCT supplier, La Socamba, and sent a letter to the Minister of Forestry with its findings on April 4th 2016. The letter revealed how this CCT supplier was involved in illegal logging activities and also stated in part that “We recommend a full investigation on CCT and its suppliers as an immediate first step” (Greenpeace Africa, 2016). This time, the Minister seemed to have followed Greenpeace Africa recommendation to open an investigation. However, the investigation methodology has remained unclear and the conclusions reached raise further questions. Greenpeace Africa has sent a letter via email to Minfof requiring clarification but we did not get any response from them. (Letter for Clarification After Perusal of Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) CCT Audit, Greenpeace Africa 2016).

Conclusions of Minfof Audit and the questions it raises:

One of the stated objectives of this audit was to identify all the supply sources of CCT for the previous and the current year (“Identifier toutes les sources d’approvisionnement de CCT pour l’exercice précédent et l’année en cours”). However, the tables provided in the report all concern 2015 and no explanation was given why the 2016 data does not appear in the report even though it was part of the objectives. Similarly the source of the data on the table on page 2-3 is omitted in the report.

The table on page 2-3 mentions “R.A.S.” (rien à signaler) for the companies SFC, Amougou Aboui etc but in the April 2016 “sommier des infractions” published by MINFOF  these companies appeared on the list of companies which committed infractions as shown below:

  • Ets. Amougou Aboui: 456/PVCI/MINFOF/CAB/BNC/C1 du 15/12/2015: “Non respect des normes techniques d’exploitation” (XAF: 2,000,000)
  • SFC: 16/002/PVI/MINFOF/DR-SU/DD-DL du 18/01/2016: “Exploitation forestière par vente de couple dans le domaine national au delà des limites accordées” (XAF 6,499,810)
  • SBAC: 455/PVCI/MINFOF/CAB/BNC/C1 du 15/12/2015, “Non respect des normes techniques d’exploitation” (XAF 500,000)
  • EKOMO OYONO Mathurin (SIBOIS) VC 09 01 210: 15/013/PVCI/MINFOF/DRSU/DDDL/SF du 06/08/2015: “Exploitation forestière non autorisée dans le domaine national’’ (N° 0064/C/MINFOF/CAB/BNC du 28 avril 2016)

Greenpeace Africa doesn’t understand why the audit report mentions that there is “nothing to report” for these companies instead of mentioning the infractions they committed and the fines they were asked to pay. These inconsistencies make the audit report less credible. 

Another objective of the mission as per the report was to verify the legality of the exploitation activity of the operational companies that have various contracts with CCT (“vérifier la légalité des activités d’exploitation des sociétés opérationnelles, qui détiennent des contrats divers avec CCT”). Although the audit report mentions the existence of a “rapport de mission équipe 1 BNC dans la Région du Sud” and a “rapport de mission équipe 2 BNC dans la Région du Littoral”, it doesn’t mention which of these companies have been verified. Greenpeace Africa sent an email to MINFOF on the 4October 2016 requesting to receive these annexes, and after no response, another letter addressed to the Minister was sent requesting for these annexes but both communications have received no reply.

It is stated in the audit report that at the time the mission went to the field, most of the titles were no longer operational (“Enfin, lors du passage de la mission, la plupart des titres concernés, notamment ceux de SIBOIS et LA SOCAMBA, n’étaient plus opérationnels […]”). Greenpeace Africa would like to point out that even if a title is no longer operational, a proper field investigation could still have revealed illegal activities in many circumstances, through evidence like logging roads and abandoned logs (marked and unmarked), tree stumps carrying hammer marks etc.

Moreover,the audit report suggests that all wood harvested by Sibois and La Socamba have been seized or confiscated. With regard to La Socamba, it refers to MINFOF’s 28 September 2015 infraction report concerning 4 tali trees of approximately 22 m3, which were reportedly seized. However, as indicated in our 26 May 2016 publication “La Socamba: How Cameroon’s stolen wood reaches international markets”, in January 2016 Greenpeace Africa identified several abandoned logs marked with VC 09 01 203, with cutting dates between May and September 2015, in the community forest Avenir de Nkan, several kilometers outside the borders of its VC. This evidence not only suggests that between May and September 2015, La Socamba was illegally logging in this area, but also that the wood harvested was by no means limited to 4 tali trees. Has the MINFOF audit team investigated this? Why were these abandoned logs not confiscated in September 2015 and still lying in the forest in January 2016?

Lastly, the procedure/methodology followed to deduce the short table from the longer one seems unclear and needs clarification because under the heading “Écarts de production par essences” covering pp. 4-6, a long and a short table are presented comparing authorized and logged volumes for specific species. The short table appears to be an incomplete summary of the long one, as several companies and volumes are missing.

The gaps and omissions in the audit report brings to light the need for an Independent Forest Monitor: the reinstitution of an independent forest monitor will help close these gaps in field investigation and monitoring and will grant credibility in future MINFOF field investigations as well as will give impetus to the VPA process.

Media contacts

[email protected] – Greenpeace Africa Forest campaigner; +237 655304948 

[email protected] – International Communications coordinator, Greenpeace Africa; +27 799304743