A Critical Appraisal of Government Forestry Policy in View of Forest Sustainability in Cameroon - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 190

sion for a special permit under section 56(2) for a maximum non-renewable period
of one year. Equally, section 56(3) provides that for other special forest produce
(ebony, ivory, wild animal horns, plant and medicinal species), firewood, and
poles, desired by an individual for non-commercial use, exploitation permit can be
granted by mutual agreement for a non-renewable period of three months. On the
other hand, the law in section 40 provides that exploitation of any forest shall be
subject to a prior inventory of the said forest in accordance with the rules fixed by
the Ministry of Environment and forests.
16.8 Logging Ban on Rare Hardwoods
The government imposed a log export ban in 1999 on endangered hardwoods in
Clorophora excelsa (iroko), Erythrophleum ivorence (maobi) and Guibourtia de-
meusel (bubinga), though not sapelli and ayous, the country's largest hardwood
exports. This followed five years of intensive logging and government's failure to
effectively implement a policy aimed at reducing raw-log exports and encouraging
processed wood exports. This act helped to promote the exploitation of hitherto
underutilize species. Also, the policy requirement that 60% of all timber products
be processed locally was increased to 70% (Article 71 of law 94-1). The advan-
tage here is that bi-products of the timber processing, such as saw dust used for
cooking, would be beneficial to the local people thereby mitigating fuelwood de-
mand and consequently, deforestation.
16.9 Sanctions
The 1994 Forestry Law upholds the legacy that fines and terms of imprisonment
can be imposed for non-complience with the twin objectives of deterring would-be
offenders on the one hand and compensating the damage done on the environment
on the other hand. As a matter of fact, section 141(1) of the 1994 forestry law
stipulates that:
“Without prejudice to the prerogatives of the legal Department and the judicial police
officers having general jurisdiction, sworn officials of the services in charge of for-
estry…shall, on behalf of the state, local councils, communities or private individuals,
investigate, establish and prosecute offenses relating to forestry”.
Section 154 of the same law levies a penalty as from 5,000 to 50,000 CFA francs
(10 to 100 US dollars) or imprisonment for up to 10 days or both, on any person
who carries out activities contrary to the law (sub-sections 6 and 25, 1994 forestry
Law) with respect to forest ownership and exploitation. This also applies to any-
one who contravenes the laws and regulations governing customary exploitation
rights provided for in sections 8, 26 and 36. Also, according to provisions of sec-
tion 42 of the 1994 forestry law, exploitation licenses are not transferable and its
holder should not exploit products not mentioned in the license. A fine of 200,000