Why has the government awarded a logging concession in the mega biodiverse Ebo forest to a little-known company?
When Yetina Victor last visited the Ebo forest in October 2023, he recalls feeling both enchanted and worried. Enchanted by the crystal clear Nibouem river whose foam enveloped the surrounding trees, and worried over the forest's uncertain future.
"We have everything in Ebo: varied fauna, all kinds of wild fruits, abundant medicinal plants, and the trees," says Yetina, chief of NdikBassogog I village in the Nkam Division of Cameroon's Littoral region. "You can spend a whole day admiring this unique landscape."
Ebo is indeed unique. The 2,000 km2 forest is the most functionally intact ecosystem in the Gulf of Guinea biodiversity hotspot. It is home to numerous threatened species including the world's largest population of Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, a new subspecies of gorilla, forest elephants, and the critically endangered Preuss's red colobus.
The forest is also the source of livelihood for 40 communities belonging to the Banen people. This indigenous group was forced to the edge of Ebo during a civil war in 1963 but has continued to rely on it for food, medicine, and cultural practices.
"The forest is their universe," says Prince Biack Y Indeli, president of the development committee of populations originating from the Ebo forest. "We didn't have cemeteries until recently - when a person died, we buried him and simply planted a tree on his grave."
The notion of cutting down trees in Ebo is thus regarded as an act of "sacrilege" for the Banen - as it is for conservationists and climate scientists, who note that the forest is not just vital for biodiversity but a crucial carbon sink containing an estimated 35 million tons of carbon.
Yet clearing swathes of the Ebo forest is what the government of Cameroon has seemed intent on doing in recent years.
In 2020, the Prime Minister created two Forest Management Units (FMUs) covering the pristine forest and paving the way for commercial logging. Following fierce resistance from local groups and conservation NGOs, the government withdrew the decree.
Nonetheless construction of a road soon began, reportedly without a permit and in violation of various regulations. By the time community protests led to the suspension of road building in November 2022, the thoroughfare was 27 km long and went into the heart of the forest.
In April 2023, the Prime Minister then issued another decree resurrecting its earlier plan. This time, his office reclassified 68,385 hectares of the forest as private property of the state. The Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife quickly awarded the FMU to a little-known company called Sextransbois. Local and international groups again opposed the plan, but they did not succeed in pressuring the government to reverse course. Logging has reportedly begun.
"All is lost for the Banen"
On paper, the government's 2023 decree makes some concessions to indigenous groups. Unlike the 2020 version, it states that "enclaves shall be created within the forest area" and that plans will be drawn up "to facilitate the return of populations to their villages" - something the Banen have been hoping for since the 1960s.
While some Banen community members welcome the plan, others vehemently oppose it. The latter group believe they will be banished from their customary lands and, with it, the source of their livelihoods. Samuel Nguiffo, Executive Secretary of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), says the government's reclassification of the forest has wiped out the Banen's legal claims to it.
"[Previously] the forest or the trees belonged to the state, but the land was part of what is called national land with no specific owner," says Nguiffo. "Communities could claim customary property rights to the land then. Now with the change, we have a specific owner which is the state, meaning all is lost for the Banen community."
Sylvie Djacbou, Congo Basin Advisor at the Global Climate Initiative, describes the government's move as a "scam". She says the Banen have been "robbed" of their land without having been properly consulted.
Yetina says the government's intention to allow logging amounts to a "cultural genocide".
"We will never accept it," he says. "Our community, prior to deportation in 1963, had always lived in perfect harmony with this natural environment. Where others see a vast forest, we try hard to make them understand that these are in fact the old Banen villages."
In response to the April 2023 decree, some aggrieved Banen members initiated legal proceedings calling for its withdrawal. The case has since proceeded slowly and is deemed unlikely to succeed.
The community's other attempts to mobilise have yet to reach the levels seen in 2020. Nguiffo believes this may be due to a combination of fatigue, the migration of community members to other areas within and outside Cameroon thereby making it difficult to mobilise, and fear of speaking out against logging interests.
"Carbon will be emitted"
Critics have expressed fears that opening up Ebo forest to logging could have other negative impacts too.
Djacbou suggests that the concession violates national laws such as the 1994 Forestry Law and 1996 Wildlife Law, which regulate the sustainable management and protection of natural resources. She believes it could also contravene international laws and conventions including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to which Cameroon is a signatory.
"If logging were to take place in the Ebo Forest without adhering to sustainable practices and without proper environmental impact assessments, it could be seen as a violation of the CBD's principles," says Djacbou, who was Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa at the time she spoke to African Arguments. "The destruction of endangered species' habitats and the potential loss of biodiversity would be contrary to the objectives set by the convention."
Nguiffo agrees, and adds that the government's actions could threaten Cameroon's trade with the European Union (EU), the UK, and other markets that are attempting to regulate imports linked to deforestation. This could have knock-on effects on important export sectors such as cacao, timber, rubber, palm oil and coffee.
Tree felling could also undermine Cameroon's climate commitments, warns Nguiffo. Cameroon's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) - its plan to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change - aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% compared to a business-as-usual scenario by 2030. 45% of reductions are meant to be reached in the forestry and land use sector.
"Carbon will be emitted when the forest is cut," says Nguiffo. "This will be by the companies for their private benefits but counted as Cameroon's emissions. Logging operations means Cameroon will likely not meet its target in reducing carbon emissions as a country."
In April 2024, a group of nine NGOs sent a letter to the foreign ministries and embassies of several Western countries raising these concerns. They warned that Cameroon is "a high risk" country for deforestation and forest degradation. The letter cites the Ebo Forest FMU as an "emblematic" case of more widespread patterns and the manifestation of the government's "utmost neglect of national legislation and international commitments for forests, climate, biodiversity and human rights".
The Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife's response to the letter accuses the signatories of having the "sole objective of undermining [Cameroon's] efforts in the conservation of biodiversity". It claims that communities have participated in development plans in an "inclusive manner" and dismisses the Cameroon's alleged high-risk of deforestation and forest degradation as a "figment of imagination". The Minister says that Cameroon's deforestation rate is around 0.6% and among "the lowest" in the Congo Basin sub-region.
According to Global Forest Watch, an initiative of the World Resources Institute that tracks deforestation worldwide, Cameroon ranked 7th in the world for tropical primary forest loss in 2023.
African Arguments contacted the Cameroonian government for further comment on criticisms raised about the Ebo forest concession but did not receive a response.
Who are Sextransbois?
Civil society groups say that the process of opening up the Ebo forest for logging violates numerous articles of forestry legislation and regulations. There was no public tender and, according to a report by CED, the speed with which the FMU was allocated - alongside the volumes and species of trees earmarked for felling - suggests the logging company was known before the official start of the process.
"The law says that all logging concessions have to be granted by public tender, but this wasn't the case," says Nguiffo. "And because this was [presumably] absent, no one knows how much money the logging company will be paying. We don't also know if there could have been a better offer."
Details about Sextransbois, the company awarded the tender, are also shrouded in mystery. There is little public information about the company and African Arguments' attempts to seek comment from its officials were unsuccessful. The person who answered a call to the company's listed phone number said they did not know the identity of Sextransbois' director. They said questions should be sent formally. Our formal letter seeking comment on the Ebo forest concession and the company's activities went answered.
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African Arguments also visited the company's headquarters, which are located in an obscure neighbourhood of the capital Yaoundé with no sign indicating their presence. The office of the company recently awarded a concession worth several million dollars seemingly consists of a receptionist at a computer and a shared printer. When African Arguments asked how to contact a spokesperson, the receptionist wrote details on a notepad that bore the name and logo of another company: Camvert.
Camvert is a logging company that has been heavily criticised in recent years as it has cleared vast swathes of forest near Campo Ma'an National Park in southern Cameroon to make way for a 60,000-hectare palm oil plantation. The company has been labelled "the arsonist of Cameroonian biodiversity" by rights groups and been accused of violating indigenous people's rights. It is also alleged that the process to award Camvert its concession similarly failed to comply with numerous regulations.
Camvert is run by Aboubakar Al-Fatih, who is believed to be close to the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) and President Paul Biya, who knighted him in 2013. The Cameroonian businessman is also in charge of Boiscam and SCIEB timber companies, both of which have also been accused of environmental and human rights violations. Camvert's Managing Director, according to his LinkedIn, is Mahmoud Mourtada, the former General Manager at Sextransbois.
Whoever the ultimate beneficiaries of the controversial logging concession are, campaigners warn that much damage will be done to biodiversity and local livelihoods.
"Today, the [Banen] communities have lost more than 100,000 hectares since the 2 Forest Management Units were first classified as private property of the state before being allocated [to Sextransbois]," says Stella Tchoukep, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa. "The loss of land means the loss of culture, identity, means of subsistence, home, etc. In the case of biodiversity, it goes without saying that the losses will be irreversible."
Nalova Akua is a Cameroonian multimedia freelance journalist who treats news, features and other events with equal passion. He holds a BSc in journalism and has featured in outlets including Zenger News Service, The Epoch Times, Euronews Green, BBC Future Planet and Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance.
