“Most of the timber traded in Africa’s Great Lakes originates in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and either ends up in
Uganda or transits through Uganda to the region. This trade is set to expand, largely driven by a growing regional and international demand. It is a difficult trade to regulate, in part because it involves many small to medium-scale operators and in part because the lines that separate the formal trade from the informal and the illegal are not clear cut. Less is known about this regional trade than about the global timber trade and it is also less well regulated. The briefing is based on a larger report that discusses the international, regional and local dimensions of the timber trade in this region, and focuses specifically on demand-side factors driving this trade. Here lessons are extracted from the larger report for policymakers in Uganda and the region.”
