FAO and the European Commission have a partnership programme with the aim of gathering and analysing data for the sustainable management of forests in ACP countries.
In the context of the GCP/RAF/345/EC project “The Sustainable Management of Forests in ACP African Countries”, the EC-FAO partnership programme (2000-2002) plays a role, notably in the examination and reform of fiscal policies affecting the management of forests.
For the Central African Republic, a country with a surface area of 623,000 kmē and a population of more than 3 million inhabitants, the services of a national consultant were required in order to:
• describe and enumerate all types of taxes collected from the forestry sector;
• describe the means of determining and revising taxes, methods of collection, follow-up and monitoring, the intervention at different levels of government in the administration of forestry revenue and the workings of existing links;
• take into account the total revenue collected from the forestry sector, as well as the distribution of payments between the different institutions;
• take into account the total amount of public spending in the forestry sector;
• comment on the strong and weak points of the current tax system, the criteria being the contribution of forestry taxes to the sector’s spending and the impact of the tax system on sustainable forestry management; and
• comment on the impact of all other fiscal measures having either a positive or negative impact on the forestry sector or on sustainable forestry management.
This work is done under the general management of the head of the technical group of the regional bureau for Africa (RAFO) in Accra and of the main forester responsible for sector studies in Rome. It is also under the direct supervision of the specialist in fiscal policies in Accra.
This work has the main aim of assessing the general situation with regard to the financing of public financial institutions from different sources, such as: revenue collected from the forestry sector and general public revenue collected from individuals and other sectors of the economy.
Central African Republic’s forests represent 3.8 million hectares, of which 0.4 million hectares are made up of inaccessible or unproductive forests. It is considered thus that productive forests in the southwest of the country covers a surface area of 3.4 million hectares, rich in very harvested species like the Sapelli, the Sipo, the Ayour, and the Limba.
In the year 2000, 15 permits said to be “Permits for Harvesting and Development” (PHD) were granted to 13 companies, one of these permits being a special felling permit and two others for craft work purposes. The total surface area of the permits granted covered 3,466,600 ha. These permits for which most of the forestry taxes are applied are only requested for production zones following prospecting. Forests for production which allow harvesting for craft or industrial purposes belong to the State forestry area. This area includes, amongst others, whole natural reserves, national parks, fauna reserves, forests for the purpose of recreation, and areas for protection and reforestation.
The permit for harvesting and development is granted for a period equal to the duration of the company and for a surface area which can ensure the reconstitution of the forest by an alternating system between the closure of harvested areas and the opening of new ones. A schedule of conditions specifies the different means of harvesting.
