2024-03-10 23:06:04
Considered several times and finally postponed, the ban on exporting wood logs from Central Africa is now set for 2028. An objective, supposed to give Cemac members time to adapt and find financial alternatives.
Central African states have until January 1, 2028 to ban “ absolutely » the export of unprocessed wood, according to the official text signed by the president of the Council of Ministers of the Central African Economic Union (UEAC), at the end of February in Bangui. From next year, however, they are asked to take the necessary measures to gradually achieve the objective. “ A distant goal, but which is always better than indefinite postponement » summarizes an expert, who recalls that before this latest announcement, the measure was no longer even on the countries’ agenda.
A financial challenge for most countries
The 2028 deadline will change nothing, or almost nothing, for Gabon, which is the pioneer of the Congo Basin and has not exported unprocessed logs for more than ten years. For Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic and even Equatorial Guinea, the timetable set is, however, still a challenge. For example, despite the progress made, Cameroon still exported 850,000 m3 of logs in 2022. Even in Congo-Brazzaville where the ban has been in effect since January 1, 2023, exports continue, via the granting of log quotas to Asian companies, which represent hundreds of thousands of m3, according to Alain Karsenty, expert in the wood sector at CIRAD (Centre for international cooperation in agricultural research for development). If these countries have not succeeded in following Gabon’s path, it is largely due to the “financial risks” that the ban on exporting raw wood poses to the economies of the States, explains Cemac.
Supporting States to mitigate losses
No longer exporting logs means for a country depriving itself of taxes. Cameroonian tropical woods, to name just a few, are taxed at 75% – on the basis of a market value, set by the authorities, rarely reevaluated, therefore disconnected from the market and which varies for each species. Hence the organization’s promotion of a progressive ban to alleviate ” the loss of these tax revenues » and allow savings « to absorb the shock ».
The gabon can testify to this “shock”: when the ban was applied in the country, its tax revenues fell by 80%, a loss of 75 billion FCFA according to Cemac. “ This is why agreeing to deprive themselves of them is easier for States which have other resources, such as oil, than for those which do not have them. », explains Alain Karsenty.
A specific Vietnamese request
Other obstacles include the lack of industrial capacity or the lack of energy to run them. And when the infrastructures exist, they sometimes barely function because it remains more attractive for their owner to export logs. Transforming sometimes means taking the risk of losing a market, explains the CIRAD expert. This is the case, for example, of tali, a wood that the Vietnamese buy because it is sold in logs.
The current obstacles are reflected in figures: the Congo Basin represents 20% of world exports of tropical logs, but only 6% of those of sawn timber for the same wood and 1% of the trade in tropical plywood, i.e. of wood having undergone several transformations, according to Cemac data.
To make matters worse, the desire of States to transform to create added value and jobs is today coming up against a sluggish Chinese market, coupled with a drop in Indian and European demand.
Read alsoHow the Wagner group carries out timber trafficking in the Central African Republic
#Ban #exports #timber #logs #Central #Africa #set