Cameroon Suspends Ban on Log Exports
9/1/99
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Title: Cameroon suspends ban on log exports - state radio
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 1, 1999
YAOUNDE, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The government of Cameroon has suspended
a ban on log exports that was imposed from July 1, state radio
reported on Wednesday.
It said the ban was suspended under the terms of a presidential
decree signed on Tuesday.
The decree stipulates that 70 percent of the country's wood products
should be transformed locally over the next five years, thereby
authorising the export of 30 percent of logs, the radio said.
The ban was softened as soon as it came into force when Forestry
Minister Sylvestre Naah Ondoua allowed exports of two main species,
ayous and sapelli, to continue.
Logs from neighbouring Central African Republic and Congo Republic
are also still exported from the Cameroonian port of Douala.
The local press in Cameroon has reported that French timber operators
had opposed the ban, which was imposed out of concern for the
environment and in an effort to promote local industry.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.