Summary
• Wijma now has a second FSC-certified concession in Cameroon.
• Its volumes of certified hardwood will treble.
• The social programme behind the certification included investment in health care, infrastructure, farming and anti-poaching strategies.
• Timber from the new certified concession will arrive in Europe soon.

To repurpose an old philosophical conundrum; which came first, the chicken farm or the Forest Stewardship Council certification project in Cameroon?

According to Netherlands-based Wijma, one of the biggest names in the international hardwood trade, the answer is that one couldn’t exist without the other.

This summer, the company announced that the auditing organisation Bureau Veritas had issued it with its FSC certificate for a second forest concession in Cameroon. The successful accreditation of concession 09- 024, on the border with Equatorial Guinea, followed certification of 09-021 three years ago. The latest development almost trebled Wijma’s area of FSC-certified forest in the country to around 100,000ha and will significantly boost the amount and variety of certified tropical hardwoods it can supply.

“We expect it to treble current volumes,” said vice-president Ad Wesselink. “And this comes at just the right time, with customers in Europe increasingly insisting on certified material, particularly for government and local government work. For instance, in the [Netherlands] state of Friesland, they are undergoing a major programme of lake and waterways refurbishment. They have to use hardwood, but it absolutely has to be certified sustainable.”

But just looking at the bald figures of the area certified and the volume of wood generated (impressive though they are) only tells a fraction of Wijma’s Cameroon story. Delving deeper reveals the true complexities of tropical timber certification and just how much has to happen before people in Friesland can cross canals on bridges made of certified ekki or tali (two of the main species available from the concession).

That’s where the chicken farm comes in. A crucial element in the whole certification process is the social aspect. This entails involving as many stakeholders as possible via a consultative body called the comité de suivi, including representatives of the local communities, government, NGOs and businesses. It also means ensuring that the forestry and timber operations contribute to the wider regional economy and, beyond harvesting timber on a sustainable basis, minimise any wider environmental impacts they might have.

Wildlife protection

A secondary consequence of logging often alleged by environmental NGOs is an increase in the local bushmeat trade and consequent threat to endangered species. The argument is that better access created by timber operations lets hunters penetrate deeper into the forest and reach areas where wildlife was previously safe.

“The aim of the chicken farm is to provide a source of affordable protein, both to improve the general well-being of the community, including our workers, and reduce the incentive for hunting,” said Mr Wesselink.

To reinforce the battle against the bushmeat trade, he added, the local Wijma operation also supports anti-poaching patrols.

Another key aspect of the social programme was the refurbishment of the local hospital. This, says Wijma, is also more than just a gift to the community. It will help medical staff take the extra workload the timber operation may generate and, more broadly, along with funding for the local school and investment in the water, sewage and electricity infrastructure, it is intended to reinforce the perception that sustainable forest management brings long-term and widespread benefits. The hope is that this will strengthen the commitment of local people to the whole concept. And the company has also set up a development foundation, with the government, to provide seed capital for other social projects.

“This sort of support for the community helps people see that responsible forest management is a win-win for everyone,” said Mr Wesselink

Also on the certification agenda and decided in consultation with the comité de suivi were improvements to local roads, bridges and traffic signage, aimed at both raising general road safety and helping to ensure low environmental impact timber removal.

Establishing the management and harvesting programme involved local input too.

“Besides areas of special scientific interest, valuable habitats, and individual rare trees and other plants, we also have to ensure we avoid parts of the forest with special significance to the local population, such as burial sites,” said Mr Wesselink. “This all has to be included in detailed mapping of the concession, which is done using GPS, so forestry workers know for sure where they can and where they can’t harvest.”

Illegal loggers

Wijma also had to tackle the risk of illegal loggers moving into the concession and taking trees under the cover of the concession.

“The area is thought to be particularly vulnerable, because it’s very close to the border and the concern is that people will come across, fell the trees and smuggle the logs back with them,” said Mr Wesselink. “To deal with this we have a constant patrol of three guys on motorbikes going up and down the edge of the concession. If they see signs of illegal activity, including poaching, they immediately call in the local police.”

The felling regime in the concession is based on a 30-year cycle, with the area divided into 30 sections, one of which is harvested per year.

“The trees have to be a specified diameter according to the species,” said Mr Wesselink. “Most will be 100-150 years old, and we’ll take out one to one-and-a-half trees per hectare, which equates to 8-10m³ of timber.”

To make maximum use of the resource, the felling roster also spreads the harvest over as wide a range of species as possible.

“We are looking at secondary and tertiary as well as primary species,” said Mr Wesselink. “These offer performance characteristics as good as, if not better than the well-known varieties but we have to educate customers to accept them. Tali is a good example. It’s used in flooring in southern Europe and north Africa, but is also suitable for bridge decking, railing and other construction applications. And dabema and movingui can be used for window frames. It’s a challenge to introduce these species to new markets, but FSC certification will help.”

Shipments to Europe

Logs from the newly-certified concession will be sawn at Wijma’s mill in Bidou, one of two it operates in Cameroon, and the first shipments are expected to reach Europe soon. From the end of this year species for use in ‘hydraulic’ (water contact) projects, like ekki, tali and okan, will also be available from stock held at the company’s Kampen base. And it expects plenty of interest in the full range of material.

“We can only see demand for certified hardwood increasing,” said Mr Wesselink. “That includes in the UK, where the next big market push will be the London Olympics, which are also insisting on using only certified sustainable timber.”

To feed this demand, the 23 companies behind the Inter-African Forest Industries Association campaign, ‘Africa wood for life’, plan to increase the area of FSC- and PAFC-certified forest in the Congo region, including Cameroon, from the current 1.3 million ha to 3-5 million ha by 2010 and 10 million ha by 2012. Wijma clearly intends to be a full participant in that process. That means putting more concessions through certification and, presumably, setting up more chicken farms.