Country details

Key points

• Cameroon has an estimated 12.8 million hectares of PFE, comprising 8.84 million hectares of natural production forest, 3.90 million hectares of protection forest and 17,000 hectares of industrial timber plantations.
• At least 500,000 hectares of natural-forest production PFE are estimated to be managed sustainably. Insufficient data were available to estimate the area of protection PFE so managed.
• In 2004, nine foreign companies held 3.15 million hectares of the concession area in 45 FMUs. Of 72 FMUs, 32 had approved management plans, the management plans of 17 had been rejected by MINFOF, the status of 14 was unknown and 19 were in process.
• Of the 4.95 million hectares of PFE under licence or allocated to concessions, about 1.76 million hectares had a management plan or had completed forest inventories for the preparation of a management plan.
• The integrity of the PFE is threatened by encroachment, poaching and poor logging practices, including illegal logging, but no official data on the extent of these are available.
• There is a good framework of policy and legislation but its implementation is limited.
• Despite considerable efforts to reorganize the forest administration and improve forest law enforcement, the implementation capacity of MINFOF remains weak due to a lack of funding, training and internal control.
• Cameroon is rich in biodiversity, accommodating more than 8,300 plant species, about 297 mammal species and 848 bird species; nearly half of all the bird and mammal species of Africa are present in Cameroon's forests.
• Hunting for wild meat, including for commercial sale, is believed to have significantly reduced the abundance of certain mammals in some areas.