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Exposed: The Asian Companies Ruining West Africa’s Forests

by Cobus van Staden
Timber awaiting transport from the Campo Ma'an National Park in Cameroon near the border with Equatorial Guinea on October 9, 2022. Daniel Beloumou Olomo / AFP

West and Central Africa house some of the world’s last remaining old-growth rainforests. Asian timber companies are now driving widespread irresponsible logging, leaving ruined ecosystems in their wake. 

However, simply blaming ‘China’ for this destruction is unrealistic. The environmental platform Mongabay recently published a hugely helpful rundown of players in the West African logging industry. It shows how complicated the problem is.

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