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Most members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) have failed to comply with a log export ban enacted last year to protect forests and create jobs by processing wood locally, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n The six members of the Central African bloc agreed to ban log exports from January 2022. The ban is partly aimed at combating climate change by protecting forests from over-logging. However, only Gabon and the Republic of Congo have suspended timber exports to China and other Asian countries, an online meeting of ECEC forestry and finance ministers found. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad and Equatorial Guinea do not.<\/p>\n Cameroon's finance minister, Luis Paul Motaze, said Cameroon needed the tax on exports, which brought in $127 million for the country last year. He said a study by CEMAC in 2022 showed that Central African countries would lose 1 percent of their gross domestic product if they stopped log exports.<\/p>\n This is unhealthy for a community that wants to grow, Motaze said, adding that the local industry does not have the equipment to convert the wood into various finished products. The deadline to implement the ban was initially pushed back to January 2023 to give CEMAC countries more time to comply.<\/p>\n Motaze suggested that the EU delay the deadline again to 2025 to give countries more time to invest in wood processing equipment and train workers.<\/p>\n The Republic of Congo and Gabon have already made some investments towards this goal and say their timber exports are now limited to semi-finished or finished wood products. Samuel Nguefo, director of the Yaounde-based Center for Environment and Development, told Cameroon state broadcaster that the Central African country should not worry about losing revenue due to the ban on logging exports.<\/p>\n Banning log exports would reduce deforestation, protect Central Africa's dwindling forests, stimulate local wood processing, stimulate growth and create jobs, he said.<\/p>\n He added that in the long run, CEMAC member countries will generate more income from local sales and exports of processed wood products. Exporting logs means most of the profits go to processing industries in China and other Asian countries with high demand for the raw material, Nguiffo said.<\/p>\n Most of the 4.2 million tonnes of timber exported from Central Africa since 2011 has gone to Asian markets, according to a 2021 report from the China-Africa Forest Observatory. During that time, the value of annual lumber exports to Europe more than halved to $600 million, the report said.<\/p>\n The European Union banned the sale of illegally harvested timber and timber products in 2012 and will restrict products suspected of contributing to deforestation in 2021. The United Nations says climate change and over-logging are threatening Central Africa's forest, the world's second-largest humid tropical forest after South America's Amazon rainforest.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) have failed to comply with a log export ban enacted last year to protect forests and create jobs by processing wood locally, officials said. The six members of the … Continue reading