USAID and WWF Supporting Market Approach to Forest Sector Problems in Africa (April 2004)
Forests in West and Central Africa, including the ecologically rich but threatened forests of the Congo Basin, fall prey at an increasing rate each year to a range of regulatory and economic forces. Faulty legal frameworks encourage uncontrolled and poorly planned logging, while poor law enforcement and financial rewards lead to illegal logging. With support from USAID, WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) is addressing these problems by transforming forest products markets to support responsible forest management in West and Central Africa.
The GFTN is WWF’s initiative to eliminate illegal logging and improve the management of valuable and threatened forests. In countries like Cameroon, Gabon, and Ghana, the GFTN is establishing Producer Groups of producers, processors, and traders of forest products committed to achieving or supporting responsible forest management and credible forest certification. WWF’s West and Central Africa Producer Group includes forest owners and managers who are working toward achieving credible certification, as well as processors and manufacturers who have committed to eliminate illegal timber from their supply chains and trade increasing quantities of certified forest products.
In consuming countries at the other end of the forest products supply chain, the GFTN has established Buyer Groups consisting of retailers, distributors, and specifiers committed to implementing responsible purchasing policies. Buyer Group members help create demand for the responsibly-produced products coming from engaged producers like those in the West and Central Africa Producer Group.
WWF’s launch of the West and Central Africa Producers Group occurred against the backdrop of the October, 2003 Ministerial Conference of the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance process convened by The World Bank. The AFLEG process and the GFTN’s Producer Group approach are mutually reinforcing. By putting in place effective policies and legislation and ensuring their enforcement, the AFLEG process supports good governance essential to the efforts of responsible companies like those in WWF’s Producer Group. And by supporting the efforts of its committed members, WWF’s GFTN is taking action on the Ministers’ resolution to strengthen the capacity of companies to participate in responsible forest management and address issues of illegality in the forest sector.
“The same companies in West and Central Africa that produce almost a third of the world’s log exports must be part of the solution to forest crime. The members of WWF’s Producer Group are leaders in helping turn the rising tide of illegal logging, the bushmeat trade, forest fires, habitat and species loss, and harm to livelihoods,” said Darius Sarshar, Global Producer Group Coordinator for WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network.
According to a June 2002 WWF report, The Timber Footprint of the G8 and China, in the late 1990s most large timber companies in Cameroon were reported to be involved in illegal trade, contributing to an estimated loss of tax revenues to the government of more than 50 percent. In Gabon, almost 75 percent of planned legislation for the forest sector never becomes law. By applying the Producer Group approach in West and Central Africa, WWF’s GFTN is applying the values of the AFLEG process and supporting the well-being of companies, communities, and people that depend on forests, as well as the species like elephants, gorillas, buffalo, and mandrills that live in them.
With support from USAID and a range of public and private sector partners committed to the GDA approach, WWF’s GFTN is finding novel ways to leverage market forces and policy processes to help cure the ills plaguing forests in places like West and Central Africa.
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