Equatorial Guinea
China, which has strategic interests in this newly oil-rich dictatorship (formerly a Spanish colony), is the dominant destination for Equatorial Guinea's timber exports (most of which is of Okoumé in log form). The logging sector is dominated by Rimbunan Hijau, which (under the sponsorship of the Minister for Forests) is not only logging at a rate per unit area of concession nearly three times faster than the norm but also producing almost as much as the legal limit for national production on its own. This implies that China's imports are driving illegal logging. One might assume that the roads which China is building in Equatorial Guinea will be used most heavily by heavy timber trucks.

The EU-funded CUREF project could greatly assist proper management of the nation's forests - which, under current circumstances, is likely to be commercially exhausted in little more than five years.

Equatorial Guinea tends to be ignored by trade organisations despite it epitomising much of what is rotten in tropical timber production - and what, by extension, is holding back the tropical timber industry from realising its full potential.