Cameroon's hidden harvest: commercial chainsaw logging, corruption and livelihoods

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Summary

This article discusses the extent, impacts, and governance dynamics of illegal loggingand associated corruption in the chainsaw milling sector in Cameroon and the implications for natural resource management theory and international initiatives, represented by the European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade(FLEGT) Action Plan. We show that state officials may be collecting some 46 millionin informal payments each year, part of which is siphoned into a pyramidal system thatmanages careers not by merit, but by the price one can pay. We argue that corruptionbecomes a root cause of policy failures when disillusioned state officials perceive thatthose at the top of the pyramid do not have the legitimacy needed to promote reforms.Arbitrariness, mistrust, and contradiction then predominate, thus weakening the ruleof law. We derive lessons for interventions addressing corruption and its impacts.

Authors

Cerutti, P
Tacconi, Luca
Lescuyer, G
Nasi, Robert

Journal

Society and Natural Resources: An International Journal