Forestry makes a significant contribution to the economy of Central African Republic and is the second or third most important sector in terms of income, employment, exports, etc. The most significant source of forest revenue for the government is export duties on wood products. Following this, there are three main forest charges used in the sector (surface tax, felling tax and reforestation tax). In addition to these, there are a few minor charges on non-wood forest products and services. These forest charges are shared between the central government, the forest administration and local authorities. To some extent, forest charge collection suffers from problems of poor monitoring and arrears of charges. However, Central African Republic is one of the few African countries where charge collection exceeds public expenditure on the sector. In 2000, direct public expenditure on forestry was only FCA 322 million, compared with about FCA 1.5 billion collected in forest charges.
