A. Species
Scientific name: Pericopsis elata
Common name(s): Afromosia, Assamela
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Endangered
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Cameroon
Country/Region:
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: Camaroon
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 1992
End Year: 2007
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat and Wild species sourced from significantly modified habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Logging and/or Wood Harvesting
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Materials and construction
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people and National / local private sector
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat and Wild species sourced from significantly modified habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Afromosia production in Cameroon is intended to be sustainable, although data collection supporting this intention has been deficient.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The report mentions that afromosia harvesting is of substantial economic importance, both through taxation and revenues to government and for individual commercial forestry companies; however, it does not quantify this value. The Eastern region of Cameroon contributes for about FCFA 3 billions (US$ 4.75 million) as the felling taxes per year
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: A Forest Revenues Enhancement Program (FREP) was introduced in 1999. This dictates certain obligation of forest companies to realise various social activities (duties) such as the creation of schools, health centres, etc… for the benefit of local communities, the payment of the annual forest tax (“Redevance forestière annuelle” in French) by the exploiter. The annual forest tax is a specific tax that is settled on the surface area of the forest under exploitation. Revenues coming from this tax are shared between the public treasury or the forest administration (50%), the local council (40%), and the local communities (10%). When the permit is a sale of standing volume, local communities perceived additional informal tax of 1,000 FCFA/M3. .
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: This CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Forest tax revenues pay for health centres.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
The main recommendations raised by this ITTO/CITES project in Cameroon included: (1) Regarding monitoring and control: the re-organization of the control and monitoring system as outlined in the Forest and Environment Sector Programme (PSFE), development of a database encompassing logging, processing, transportation and trade statistics components, the provision of adequate materials and logistics for data collection and analysis and the training and sensitization of forest and custom officers at different levels; (2) Regarding CITES provisions, the first option which does not lead automatically abrogates of the 2005 Decree, consists by complementing the current CITES regulation in Cameroon. In fact, the study revealed that, the regulation related the implementation of CITES in Cameroon is incomplete because there are no lists/appendixes of CITES species; the modalities of issuance of certificates and the content of the documents are not clarified yet. It is therefore urgent to clarify such worst situation and to enact additional instruments. The second option should consist of the abolition of the Decree No 2005 / 2869 / PM of July 29th, 2005 and the order No 067 / PM of June 27th, 2006. The abolition of these two texts would be justified on the fact that the lists/ appendixes of species and modalities of issuance of documents are fundamental elements in the framework of the CITES Convention. The third recommendation should be the readjustment of the 1994 forestry law and the order No 0222 / MINEF / on the modalities of forest management plan and inventories. (3) Regarding the management of P. elata: increase knowledge of the stock of Assamela existing in protect areas, improve the knowledge on the wood quality of Assamela, adopt of a new Minimum Exploitable Diameter (90 cm), conduct inventories as to verify the credibility of the formula often used to calculate the reconstitution (recovery) rate, improve knowledge on the sylviculture of P. elata, (4) Regarding the management of the harvest of assamela, base the determination of assamela quotas on an individual basis (harvest quotas for individual FMUs, and next exportquotas for corresponding timber plants), using formulas and methodology developed in the course of the present NDF. This would help taking into account the fact that assamela is not uniformly distributed in its area and that its harvest should be banned in specific FMUs (where it is very scarce); (5) Regarding CITES scientific authority (ANAFOR), enhance its capacities in terms of infrastructures, technical know-how, and funds necessary for regularly making fair non-detriment findings for assamela and other CITES listed plant species.
Record source
Information about the record source: grey_lit
Date of publication/issue/production: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
A [non-detriment] report prepared for the National Forest Development Agency (ANAFOR) by
AMOUGOU A., BETTI J. L., BINDZI I., BILONG P., TCHATAT M., NDAM N., ONANA M., MBARGA N., BELINGA.J., KOULBOUT D., TIEGUHONG J., ASSEMBE S.
Date of record entry: 2023-09-22