Forest cover loss hit a record high in Cameroon in 2023, as more than 200 000 hectares disappeared that year, equating to roughly one football pitch every two minutes. This report investigates the principal perpetrators behind a network of politically connected companies that appear to be decimating Cameroon’s forests.

It examines the methods of these perpetrators and explores how corruption permeates and compromises every aspect of the country’s forestry management process and timber supply chain, from the granting of permits to excess felling of trees and the export of logs.

Two logging companies and one agribusiness company, all linked to Aboubakar Al Fatih – a discreet businessman and senior member of the highest decision-making body in Cameroon’s ruling party – have recently been granted large concessions in the country’s forests in controversial circumstances.

Civil society organizations allege that these timber companies, as well as an additional Al Fatih-linked logging company, Boiscam, have been harvesting wood beyond their permitted boundaries, likewise in violation of Cameroonian law. Despite this outcry, the network of companies continues to log unabated, exacerbating existing concerns that these entities are benefitting unduly from political favours.

The GI-TOC’s research into the network and its facilitators has found new evidence that supports these claims, while also revealing further corporate and interpersonal connections as well as alleged illegalities, including potential transfer pricing violations of the EU Timber Regulation.