Legality of timber from Community Forests in GABON

In Gabon, Community Forests (CF) were established to "meet the needs of local communities in order to promote harmonious and sustainable development that can generate substantial income with a view to combating poverty. The social dimension of the government's sustainable forest management policy is thus realized. The allocation, management and exploitation of CF timber are governed by a legal and regulatory arsenal. The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the legality and traceability of CF timber in Gabon. It was conducted in the province of Ogooué Ivindo in 20 CFs under final agreement. The verification of the legality of the timber was carried out on several points: the legal existence of the management entity, the type of agreement, the mode of exploitation, compliance with the Principles, Criteria, Indicators and Verifiers of the CF legality grid.