Cameroon Country Profile

Environment, Natural Resources and Extractive Industry

Individual Corruption

According to Global Witness, villagers protesting against illegal logging and attempting to claim their rights were intimidated by the authorities.

Business Corruption

Global Witness reports instances of collusion between corrupt forest officials and the private sector. Moreover, logging companies are not adequately monitored. The export of certain timber in unprocessed form has been forbidden since 2002 in order to stop the dramatic loss of rainforest due to uncontrolled and illegal logging.

Political Corruption

According to the Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2008, corruption hampers the good management of natural resource revenues. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is rife with corruption thus leading to a great loss of taxes for the government. Indeed, in 2004, a newspaper estimated corruption in this sector to have caused an annual loss of nearly USD 217 million.

For further information related to corruption in Cameroon's extractive industries, visit this profile's special page on the oil and forestry sectors.