A total of 235 chainsaw milling (CSM) operations have been visited from 1st June to 31st July 2011
in order to interview 85 sawyers from 15 villages in the forestry zone surrounding Kumba,
Cameroon. In the field, four categories of sawyers (Type I, II, III, and IV) were differentiated
according to their motivations, challenges, production cost and profit. The main motivation of
sawyers is financial, regardless of their categories. The CSM average production amounts to 12.78
m
3
per operation requiring 2 standing trees (approximately 6.22 m3
per tree) every two months. In
total, with expenses of 34,719 FCFA/m3
, sawyers get revenue of 40,999 FCFA/m3
(i.e. +5,780
FCFA/m3
as profit). However, Type II sawyers earn a much higher profit than others (+12,829
FCFA/m3
). In general, CSM is an economically rewarding activity in that the majority of the sawyers
visited earn significant profit exception made of Type III. Regretfully, forest control (licences’ checkup)
is a major drawback that sawyers regularly face because of the illegality of their activity. Most
sawyers operate in informal way without paying taxes/licences so that the loss of earning to the
State revenues is important. The government should therefore legalize this activity by reforming the
licences awarded to various sawyers and guiding the implementation of a more transparent and
formal taxation in this sector.