18.06.2021
As relayed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on its website, CIFOR launched this Monday with the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife (MINFOF) a national awareness campaign on the use of legal timber in the main urban centers of the country. Under the slogan "Le bois légal, c’est génial” (Legal wood is great") the campaign aims to promote a change in consumer behavior to encourage the purchase of sustainable and quality wood products.
According to a study report conducted by CIFOR in Douala and Yaoundé in 2016, legal wood products only represent between 12% and 18% of the volume sold. To promote the long-term sustainability and availability of forest resources in Cameroon, it is crucial to increase the presence and demand for legally sourced wood in the domestic market.
Various awareness-raising activities are planned for this purpose, from radio broadcasts to commercials and public signage in timber markets. All tools will also be available on the CIFOR website: https://www.cifor.org/essor
For Liboum Mbonayem, a CIFOR researcher, "most Cameroonian citizens have no interest in knowing the origin of the products they buy. But we should make an effort to ask sellers for all the documents to ensure the legality of the wood, such as copies of the waybills that transported the wood or the delivery note. "
"The low proportion of sawn timber from legal sources is a hindrance to the rational management of forest resources, and therefore to the development of Cameroon," said Hortense Motalindja, Deputy Director of Timber Promotion at MINFOF. "With this campaign, we aim to increase demand, which will certainly encourage producers to comply with the law and supply the market with more timber of legal origin.
This activity is part of the project "Essor des transactions de sciages d'origine légale au Cameroun (ESSOR 2)" which aims to increase the quantity of legal sawn timber produced, by supporting the emergence of national demand, and by facilitating transactions between suppliers and buyers. ESSOR 2 is funded by the European Union through the FAO-EU FLEGT program and implemented by CIFOR and MINFOF until the end of 2021.
For more information, please contact :
Arnauld Chyngwa
CIFOR communication manager
a.nganso@cgiar.org
+237 694 68 7272
