Research Article An Examination of Forest Certification Status among Logging Companies in Cameroon Daniel Nukpezah, 1 Dieudonne Alemagi, 2 Lalisa Duguma, 3 Peter Minang, 3 Charlie Mbosso, 2 and Zac Tchoundjeu 2 1 Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies, International House, University of Ghana, 1 Annie Jiagge Road, Legon, Accra, Ghana 2 World Agroforestry Centre Regional Oice, P.O. Box 16317, Yaound´ e, Cameroon 3 World Agroforestry Centre, P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi 00100, Kenya Correspondence should be addressed to Daniel Nukpezah; dnukpezah@staf.ug.edu.gh Received 24 June 2014; Accepted 9 December 2014; Published 31 December 2014 Academic Editor: Beatriz Junquera Copyright © 2014 Daniel Nukpezah et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. his paper assesses the level of interest, awareness, and adoption of ISO 14001 and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certiication schemes among logging companies in Cameroon. Eleven logging companies located in Douala in the Littoral Region of Cameroon were assessed through a structured interview using an administered questionnaire which was mostly analyzed qualitatively thereater. he indings indicated that none of the companies was certiied for ISO 14001; however 63.64% of them were already FSC-certiied. Four companies (36.36%) were neither FSC- nor ISO 14001 EMS-certiied. Among the factors found to inluence the adoption rate was the level of awareness about ISO 14001 and FSC certiication schemes. he main drivers for pursuing FSC certiication were easy penetration into international markets, tax holiday beneits, and enhancement of corporate image of the logging companies through corporate social responsibility fulillments. Poor domestic market for certiied products was found to be the major impediment to get certiied. To make logging activities more environmentally friendly and socially acceptable, logging companies should be encouraged to get certiied through the ISO 14001 EMS scheme which is almost nonexistent so far. his requires awareness creation about the scheme, encouraging domestic markets for certiied products and creating policy incentives. 1. Introduction he attention gained by forest resource use certiication has been linked to the fact that natural resources are being exploited unsustainably [1]. A number of eforts have been adopted in an attempt to curb the problem of forest degra- dation and deforestation, which stands tall among the other global environmental and social concerns [2, 3]. Domestic and allied nongovernmental transnational organizations have engendered private standard setting bodies whose purpose is to recognize oicially companies and landowners practicing “sustainable forest management” (SFM) [4]. Furthermore, among governmental mechanisms, voluntary market based tools such as certiications are gaining ground [1]. Between 2000 and 2003 alone, the area of certiied forests worldwide doubled to approximately 150 million hectares [5]. here are many certiication schemes; however this study focuses on those of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14001 environmental management system (EMS) standard which is the most common and widely recognized EMS certiication. Both ISO 14001 EMS and FSC certiication schemes have been hailed as contributors to sustainable forest management [6]. Simply put, ISO 14001 EMS is an environmental management system (EMS) which ensures “a transparent, systematic pro- cess known corporate-wide, with the purpose of prescribing and implementing environmental goals, policies, and respon- sibilities, as well as regular auditing of its elements” [7]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Scholarly Research Notices Volume 2014, Article ID 323014, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/323014