General
The laws of most of the countries in this region either prohibit the export of logs or require that most of their timber exports comrpise milled wood not logs. By 2005, the EU imported almost all the region's milled wood products and rather less half its log exports.

Clearly, China's interest is solely in logs (particularly for the manufacture and export of plywood and flooring). Although this is flagrantly contrary to the intent of the law, China (and other countries) makes fuller use of the logs milled than is likely to be the case in these producer countries. In this respect, breaking the law might seem better for the forest than compliance. However, a substantial tax should be levied on those log exports - in effect a fine - and this should be invested (transparently) in protecting the region's natural forest. Such as tax would enable those exports to be regarded as legal - but in this one respect only.

Contrary to what misleading statistics of the FAO and others imply, the natural forest of interest for commercial timber operations(which are predominantly export-oriented) in the region is rapidly becoming exhausted - particularly where chinese logging interests are greatest.

Exports by Africa
During the period covered, Gabon and Cameroon, which have been Africa's leading exporters of tropical timber since the early 1990s, very substantially increased the quantity of such timber that they export.

Prior to 1990, Ivory Coast was Africa's leading exporter of tropical timber. The quantity that it exported during the period shown exhibits a slight declining trend.

In contrast, Ghana's exports of tropical timber exhibit a slight rising trend, but remain well below those of Ivory Coast (the state of whose forests and timber industry those of Ghana appear most closely to resemble).

Liberia re-emerged as the region's fourth largest exporter in 2000 and had its highest ever level of exports in 2002. The exports of tropical timber from Congo (Brazzaville), having fallen during the 1990s, rose to near record levels during 2003. Equatorial Guinea has been a major exporter since the mid-1990s. Those from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) are no longer substantial.

Imports from Africa
China has been the principal destination for tropical timber from Africa for six of the last seven years. China's imports account for much of the surge in the region's exports - some of which are characterised by speculative behaviour - and, by implication, changes to governance in the industry. China is a leading donor to the region of politcal and military "aid".

For a rather longer time, markets in France, Italy, Spain, and to a lesser extent Portugal have dominated the trade. This geographic concentration in the Southern EU suggests a role for the EU in regulating imports - in ways that do not dilute demands (which appear rather more widespread in Northern Europe) for improvements in both governance and socio-environmental standards in producer countries. Of course, some of the imports by the Southern EU are subsequently exported, for example, once they have been transformed.

The markets of the Southern EU appear to have been depressed in 1993 - just prior to a 50% devaluation of the predominant local currency of the region's producer countries - but otherwise their imports have been fairly flat.