"Authorities engage in illegal and fraudulent sale of ‘Bubinga’"

According to information received from representatives in villages, traditional chiefs are in collusion with officials of water and forestry to fraudulently and illegally sell Bubinga, forest gasoline which is prohibited to market in Cameroon.

This denunciation was made by Claude Bitangou, president of the Cameroonian organisation for the protection of trees (OCPA) and expert judgments in the Court of appeal of the Littoral forest audit.

According to the latter, the traffic of this product is carried out in the open with the knowledge and in the light of the authorities whose complicity is established. "Village leaders identify trees in the forests of their locality, and are establishing false letters of authorization of cutting of the Bubinga by those responsible for water and the forest.

This business, says Claude Bitangou is juicy and all accomplices are filling up their pockets at the crossing. "Before a truck carrying Bubinga crosses a forest station, between 50,000 FCfa and 100,000 CFAF is given to waters and forest agent", declared the president of OCPA.

The link does not stop at the village level, "when there is auction sales of seized timber in the regional delegations of waters and forests, delegates first select Bubinga which they secretly sell to the Chinese. When the Bubinga arrives at the port of Douala to be exported to China, the m3 is taxed at 3,000,000 or even 4,000,000 CFAF". Such money in the opinion of associations and NGOs is never fed back into the State coffers. "This money goes into the pockets of individuals, since the marketing of forest species is prohibited by a decree from the Prime Minister. Even in the villages, the money from the illegal sale does not benefit populations", says Michel Oundouki, forestry expert.

Faced with the gravity of the situation, NGOs and associations asked the Cameroonian authorities to enforce the decree prohibiting the marketing of certain tree species to the European Union, China, or any other destination.