Changes Induced by Sino-Asian Investments in Cameroon’s Forestry Sector

This paper analyzes the changes induced by Sino-Asian investments in the forest sector in Cameroon. Our analysis shows that Sino-Asian operators have induced significant changes in terms of investment strategy and the destination timber exported from Cameroon. Indeed, faced with the constraints to obtain a forestry license in Cameroon, Asian investors specialized in buying out or taking shares in the capital of licensed companies. With this strategy, they successfully secured 18% of the surface area of forest management units and 57% of the notarized sub-contracts for the exploitation of council forests for permanent timber supply. For the period 2009–2018, the Asian, led by China and Vietnam surpassed Europe and become the first destination of Cameroon timber with 60.1% of timber exported. Sino-Asian capital is present in 20% of timber processing units of the country since logs (51.7%) and primarily processed sawing (44.1%) are the main exported products to Asian countries.