The Timber Trade in Africa’s Great Lakes: Implications for Uganda and the Region

This policy briefing examines the tropical timber trade from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to and through Uganda into the wider East African region. It highlights the challenges of regulating a trade characterized by informal operators and middlemen, and provides recommendations for improving regional coordination, domestic regulation in Uganda, and the use of existing platforms like the ICGLR and the Albertine Rift Strategic Planning Process to promote sustainable development.

• The timber trade in Africa's Great Lakes is primarily a one-sided flow of tropical timber from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that either terminates in Uganda or transits through Uganda to the rest of the region. This trade is expanding due to increasing international and regional demand and is difficult to regulate because it involves many small-to-medium operators and blurred lines between formal, informal, and illegal trade.
• The regional timber trade is less studied and less regulated than the international sector, meaning the international community has less leverage over it. While tools like the US Lacey Act Amendment (2008) and EU-supported FLEGT and VPAs exist, forestry sectors in the region remain heavily dependent on donor funding, such as from Norway.
• Regional coordination is hindered by the anglo/francophone divide between Uganda and the DRC, as well as a history of conflict. However, the Albertine Rift Strategic Planning Process serves as a successful model of bottom-up regional cooperation, having started as field-level collaboration between protected areas' agency staff in Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC.
• The timber trade is dominated by middlemen who derive power from access to credit, market information, and connections with state officials and law enforcement rather than resource ownership. In response, timber traders in Uganda have formed associations to share information, raise capital, and lobby, which may eventually reduce the reliance on middlemen.
• Infrastructure improvements along the Northern and Central Corridors are expected to facilitate access to forests in the eastern DRC. The document suggests that regularizing trade through computerizing customs procedures could reduce bribes by limiting 'human contact points'.
• Uganda faces a timber shortage and is encouraged to implement better regulation and promote plantation forestry, similar to China's response to its own forest depletion. Additionally, Uganda is advised to ensure its developing timber certification system is compatible with the DRC and other East African Community (EAC) neighbors.

APA

du Preez, M.-L., & Chevallier, R. (2012). The Timber Trade in Africa’s Great Lakes: Implications for Uganda and the Region. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Policy-Briefing-52.pdf

Chicago

du Preez, Mari-Lise, and Romy Chevallier. The Timber Trade in Africa’s Great Lakes: Implications for Uganda and the Region. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2012. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Policy-Briefing-52.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=du Preez |first1=Mari-Lise |last2=Chevallier |first2=Romy |title=The Timber Trade in Africa’s Great Lakes: Implications for Uganda and the Region |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=July 2012 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Policy-Briefing-52.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dupreez2012timber, author = {du Preez, Mari-Lise and Chevallier, Romy}, title = {{The Timber Trade in Africa’s Great Lakes: Implications for Uganda and the Region}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2012}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Policy-Briefing-52.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }