In September Ministers of Forests, Industries and Environment in the Central Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) met in an effort to stimulate domestic processing of wood products in order to raise the contribution of the forestry sector to GDP. The communique and press release from the meeting says member countries of the Congo Basin have taken the unanimous decision to end log exports from January 2022, reported by todaynewsafrica.com.
The meeting also agreed an effort to harmonised forestry tax systems in member states.
The domestic press has commented on the latest meeting and Todaynewsafrica.com has pointed out that some CEMAC member countries already have legislation to this effect. Gabon endorsed a ban in 2010 and Equatorial Guinea announced such a measure in 2019. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon had aimed to introduce a log export ban but this is yet to be implemented.
