Contribution of artisanal chainsaw milling to forest degradation in Central Africa

Chainsaw milling is a neglected activity in forestry policies, because it is often carried out informally and by a large number of dispersed operators. Artisanal logging is also widely accused of contributing to forest degradation and deforestation. To test this hypothesis, we visited 120 chainsaw milling sites in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to assess its impact on the state of the forest and to analyse the rationales of artisanal loggers. Our findings paint a mixed picture of this activity: (1) 84% of the trees felled by chainsaw millers are located in the ‘undisturbed’ forest zone but at a short distance from degraded forest zones; (2) even when carried out without a licence, chainsaw milling complies with most of the legal technical requirements, except for the dabema species in Cameroon; (3) chainsaw millers adopt two profit maximisation strategies: in the DRC, the very high price of afrormosia and sapelli explains why these two species are still exploited intensively. In Cameroon, conversely, the low prices of sawn timber on the national market have encouraged operators to diversify the species felled to minimise the cost of removing sawn timber from the forest. Various interventions to regulate and professionalise chainsaw milling are needed to support the diversity of their production strategies, but two measures seem essential: formal chainsaw milling permits need to be made available at lower cost and the range of timber species on the national markets should be expanded, especially in DRC.

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2025.2535578

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