Equatorial Guinea Timber Risk Profile

Legal rights to harvest

• Lack of cadastral information to determine clear property limits and use of the land 
• Lack of legalization of the property and communal forest titles 
• Traditional occupation and land use by local inhabitants without submitting documentation required by law, which generate property conflicts when forest concessions are awarded on the same land 
• Forest concession or harvesting permits are awarded without the required documents or could be awarded by the authorities without complete evaluation this could cause property conflicts.
• Development of forest management plans without the minimal required contents, or not developed by  competent technicians 
• Lack of forest management plan implementation by the companies and lack of monitoring by the forest administration 
• Illegal logging done through verbal agreements between chainsaw operators and villages or individual owners, especially in communal forests or privately owned forests

Taxes and fees

• Evasion of payment forest occupation, conservation, compensation fees
• Timber processing industries do not report their total production to avoid paying value-added tax (VAT) 
• Evasion of Minimum Tax Fee (CMF) by logging companies 
• Re-cubing’ and reclassification - reduction in the volumes and changes to quality details to pay less in taxes

• Timber harvesting activities
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• The absence of Forest Management Plans as a part of the forest planning 
• Logging of species with a smaller diameter than those authorized 
• Harvesting prohibited species 
• Trees’ seed for regeneration are not identified 
• Roads and temporary bridges are constructed without the necessary security measures, causing accidents and flooding by blocking rivers and streams 
• Illegal access by companies to some previously harvested forests (non-awarded or awarded to another company) in search of timber species to log and sell 
• Lack of respect for the protection zones, where cut is not allowed; slope areas, river banks, protection forests within a 2 km radius of villages 
• Logging of species in the protected areas by companies without respecting the limits of the established concessions 
• Logging of protected species without authorization 
• Risk of illegal hunting of protected species in the protected zones by the opening routes that permit access to those areas 
• Logging is done without environmental licenses and environmental impact assessments 
• Lack of respect of the health and safety requirements during the logging activities; lack of hygiene and security committee, lack of distribution and use of personal safety equipment, use of toxic and dangerous products without protection, wood transport done outside the hours stipulated by the law 
• Lack of formalization of the work contracts for seasonal and discontinuous work.
• Lack of registration of the workers in the National Institute of Health and Safety
• Lack of efforts in the training and retaining employees by the forestry companies 
• There is no worker union or other types of association representing the workers in any company
   

Third parties' rights

• The mechanisms for distributing the forest benefits between the parties are not applied in a way to ensure benefits to all communities
• There is a risk that fruit trees are not respected during the logging, impacting a source of alimentation for the local communities
• Companies improperly occupy community and traditional ancestral forests, recognized by the national laws.
• The radius of 2 km around the villages is not respected. Not all companies hire local workers where they have a Forest Harvesting Lease Agreement (CAAF)

Trade and transport

• To transport and export prohibited species codes are changed and instead using codes of similar species 
• Classification of wood lots for export do not follow the measures imposed by law. The reallocation of timber for export is not compared to the transport delivery notes.
• Illegal export of roundwood logs from prohibited species. This practice occurs from the forest to the stockpile, with the collaboration of the consignee agencies that have containers and machinery ready for shipping 
• Companies present false specifications to reduce the volumes and the classification of the qualities 
• Wood on stackers without the company’s logo—wood from unclear origin 
• Change of guides to outsmart the controlling agents 
• Night transport using paved highways without a transport guide to take advantage of the absence of the controlling agents 
• Transport of wood without transport guide in illegal logging zones and bribe the controlling agents 
• Use of expired guides and repeated use of a guide when there is a lack of all the required information and to bribe the controlling agents 
• Illegal export of roundwood (Valid for logs exported prior to October 26, 2020) 
• False wood classifications for export; declaration of a lower number of containers than the number embarked 
• Illegal exportation done without documentation, very often by containers without the approval of the forest administration 
• Illegal harvesting of CITES species 

Processing

• Forestry companies operating without registry documentation required by the State government, logging in forests without proper documentation from the villages’ council 
• Installation of industries without conducting an environmental and social impact assessment, which implies the absence of an environmental license 
• There is an excessive waste of wood during the processing, which is burned
• There should not be any forest concessions without prior installation of an industry, whether of first or second  transformation
• Illegal export of logs (without processing) within containers mixed up with timber 
• Lack of fulfilment of health and safety requirements for the companies; lack of health and safety committees in the companies, no distribution and no use of adequate safety equipment by employees, use of inadequate vehicles to transport employees 
• Companies do not pay their workers following a work accident 
• Employees without a work contract 
• Lack of work contracts and lack of registration of the workers’ in Social security System (INSESO)
• Lack of compliance with the requirement to hire national workers