(Business in Cameroon) - In the name of certification, companies active in the logging sector in Cameroun and in the Congo Basin are henceforth compelled to lower their production capacity.

  This was revealed at the seminar organized in Douala on Saturday 3 March 2012 by the Forest Steward Council (FSC) Africa representation, an ecolabel engaged in the protection of wood, or any wood-based object and in the enforcement of procedures to guarantee the sustainable management of forests.

In an exchange with the media, Elie Hakizumwami, FSC Director for Africa, explains the decline in the overall volume of wood exploitation: «An increasing number of companies now have a better understanding of the significance of sustainable forest management. Many of them pay their workers better, train them and take the needs of the riparian populations into account », he pointed out, adding that certification has a positive impact on logging companies.

Elie Hakizumwami encouraged some companies of the sector who make a point of controlling traceability, which constitutes the basis of traceability

Pallisco, Transformation Rift Cameroon (Trc) and Wijma, among others.

Moreover, FSC was pleased with the progress observed with respect to certification. The ecolabel currently boasts of having certified about 2 million hectares of forests in South Africa and several million hectares in the Congo Basin. FSC's duty is to develop certification standards for countries but it is up to the government to enforce them.

GCM