In order to stimulate timber production to increase the gross domestic product of Central African countries, the member states of the Congo Basin unanimously decided to terminate the export of timber logs from January 1, 2022. This is the substance of the ministerial meeting. On September 18, 2020, the Central Economic and Monetary Community CEMAC and the Forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo chaired by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife of Cameroon, Jules Doret Ndongo (Jules Doret Ndongo) , Industrial and Environmental Research. They also suggested that the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (COMMUNAUTÉ ÉConOMIQUE ET MONÉTAIRE DE L'AFRIQUE CENTRALE, CEMAC) community committee should formulate forest taxation guidelines. These guidelines will then be incorporated into the national legislation of the member states to achieve uniform forest taxation in the community space.
More countries have joined the existing measures taken by some individual countries: Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have approved the ban in 2010 and 2019 respectively. The Democratic Republic of Congo has set to implement this measure in 2017. Cameroon has made a decision, but it has never been applied. The authorities claimed that this was due to "accidents in regulations, structure and environment."
To achieve this measure, the ministers decided to establish a Tier 1, Timber, Timber Processing industry to trigger the transformation of local wood. Therefore, it has contributed to the GDP of its member countries.
Jules Doret Ndongo (Jules Doret Ndongo) told Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) that this move will also expand its business scope, create jobs, and strengthen participants in the industry. "The joint decision is in line with the need to coordinate departmental policies and make the forestry sector a pillar of economic development. The industry is backward and currently unable to produce high value-added services." Cameroon's Minister of Forestry and Wildlife explained.
Although Cameroon did not implement the decision initially, Jules Doret Ndongo said: “This time we will make every effort so that the decision can be applied both domestically and internationally, so that Cameroon’s peace Other countries/regions can obtain the expected benefits." The states in the subregion have also adopted a unified forestry tax system.
The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has been established in Gabon for 10 years and is preparing to ban the export of logs and launch an economic zone specializing in wood processing, such as the Enko Special Economic Zone near Libreville.
