Gabon Targets 50 Timber Firms Over Felling Taxes

Gabon has moved against 50 forestry companies accused of skipping felling taxes over the past three years, as the Central African producer tightens control over an industry central to its export economy. That is according to the latest ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report, which sets out a coordinated enforcement drive moving in step with fresh legality cooperation with the United States.

Authorities are working through a dedicated Forestry Task Force that has widened scrutiny of tax compliance, concession obligations and regulatory payments across the sector. The drive is expected to recover revenue for the government while reinforcing oversight of operators across the country.

Gabon’s Justice Department, through its Environment and Natural Resources Division, has partnered with the US Forest Service and the Ministry of Water and Forests, the Sea and the Environment on a five-day workshop targeting the illegal timber trade. The session drew officials from Cameroon and Vietnam, a measure of how far legality verification and traceability now govern access to major consuming markets.

US officials used the talks to stress their commercial interest in keeping illegally harvested wood out of American supply chains in breach of the Lacey Act. The workshop follows a Washington enforcement push that has seen the Justice Department resume trade-enforcement training across Vietnam and India, binding forest governance in producing countries to market access abroad.

Infrastructure forms the second strand of the strategy, with President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema visiting the construction site of the future Kobe-Kobe deep-water port after signing a partnership with Africa Global Logistics. The project anchors a wider push to diversify the economy, strengthen regional trade links and expand industrial capacity.

Once operational, the port could improve the efficiency of exports of timber, mining products, and other commodities shipped from Gabon’s Atlantic coast. The build is part of a logistics overhaul aimed at making Gabon a trade hub for Central Africa.

Okoume remains the backbone of Gabon’s timber trade, with the report pricing Okoume FAS GMS sawnwood at €420 per cubic metre FOB and merchantable grade at €380, while its logs sold into the Asian market at €195, among the cheapest on the table. Assamela led the sawnwood listings at €1,400, well clear of Padouk at €850 and Iroko at €800, where cheap Brazilian pine and climbing freight rates have squeezed okoume traders for months.

For Gabon, the report sets out a stricter operating environment alongside a stronger logistics outlook, part of a wider Central and West African turn toward tighter oversight and heavier infrastructure spending. The ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report puts 50 companies in the enforcement net, the clearest signal yet that Libreville is tying forest governance to export competitiveness.