CONGO: Financial crisis threatens timber jobs

Photo: Laudes Martial Mbon/IRIN

Timber destined for export at Brazzaville river port. The forestry sector is Congo's second biggest earner of foreign currency after oil

BRAZZAVILLE, 25 November 2008 (IRIN) - Guy-Blaise Bakala, a timber worker in Pointe-Noire in the south of the Republic of Congo, has been sleeping badly since his bosses first announced they would have to let some workers go because the financial crisis is hitting the key timber sector.

"Every single day, our bosses tell us that we are not sheltered from unemployment because of what the company is going through," said the 39-year-old, who is married with four children.

Bakala fears what will happen if he loses his job.

"We would simply become homeless. We wouldn't have enough to pay for a new house," he said, adding that all four of his children go to a fee-paying school. “If I lose my job, the children will no longer be able to go to school."

The forestry sector is Congo's second-biggest earner of foreign currency after oil, which accounts for about 75 percent.

At least 10,000 jobs have been created over the past decade in the timber sector, according to government figures. The sector is the second-biggest employer after the civil service in a country where about 30 percent of the working population is unemployed, according to official data.

But now, because of the global financial crisis, wood producers are finding it harder to find markets for their goods and are cutting prices.

"There's no market, there's no demand," said Jean-Marie Mevellec, head of Congolaise Industrielle du Bois, one of the main timber companies in the northern Sangha region.

Mevellec emphasised the importance of forestry in keeping local towns alive.

"Today there are towns and villages that owe their survival to the presence of a timber company that pays taxes and keeps the local administration going," he said.

"The situation of the forestry sector is aggravated by the level of the dollar and by the rise in the price of oil," said Henri Djombo, the Forestry and Environment Minister.

He hoped the timber companies would keep their workers, despite the crisis.

"They should not make redundancies just for the sake of it. Because when the situation gets back to normal, they might no longer be able to find qualified workers," he said.

"We are in a situation where we can no longer pay the timber taxes and all the other duties," said Martial Fouty, head of Société Forestière Industrielles de Bois timber company.

The companies say that if the crisis continues, several thousand workers will be affected by job cuts or loss of pay.

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