Vegetation and Forestry
The combination of tropical heat and rain in the alternate regions of forests and brushwood swamps produces a tropical growth of cocoa palms, cotton plants, flax and fibrous trees, and rubber vines in prodigal luxuriance and variety. The virgin forests are tropical to a height of about 1,000 m., when they become less dense, and the oak ferns make their appearance. Between 1,500 and 1,800 m. the wild coffee shrub grows abundantly, the oak ferns disappear, and are succeeded by glades and brushwood. At an altitude of 2,200 m. the forest suddenly comes to an end and the grass land begins. Only in the ravines, in which the soil is moist and sheltered from the winds, the forest continues to the 2,700 m. level. The high forest—the most magnificent of all tropical forest formations—is characterised by its amazing variety of entirely different trees, including, among others, the great wool tree, the mahogany tree, the yellow and red wood trees, the oil-palm, and rubber. Among the trees of the brushwood districts the principal are acacias and the oil-palm, which to a height of from 700 to 900 m. covers the slopes of the Cameroon plateau to the coast.
The chief planting activity appears to have been at Johann-Albrechts-Höhe, and in the Dibombari district on the Northern Railway. A forestry plantation at Manoka, near Duala, was abandoned on account of its remoteness, the difficulty of water supply, and the constant lack of labour. The principal work for the making of forest and state reserves has been conducted in Yabassi, Yaunde, Edea, and Dschang. The efforts of the forest department and of private persons have been concerned mainly with: (a) Investigations of woods suitable for beams, wharves, and for boat and waggon building; (b) trials of woods resistant to teredo navalis for small boats; and (c) experimental shipments to German South-West Africa of woods serviceable for building, mining and street paving.
A large increase, amounting to 270 per cent. in the production of building and other timber, took place in 1911. The first place in the exports is held by Cameroons mahogany, which is stated to be increasing gradually in value in the market; its exports having risen in value from £7,022 in 1910 to £22,000 in 1912. The next wood in importance is Cameroons ebony, the exports of which have been as follows: 1909, 672 tons, worth £3,038; 1910, 1,221 tons, worth £6,090; 1911, 1,652 tons, worth £6,777; whilst in 1912 the value of the shipment was £9,055. The increase of exports has been largely due to an increase of cutting by the natives, and this has entailed a considerable amount of robbery by them. As a consequence, timber exploitation on Government lands was entirely prohibited to natives in the period 1912-13, and concessions were given to Europeans with much caution; a decrease in the production was therefore expected. A difficulty regarding the exploitation of timber in the Cameroons is the lack of good waterways in the forest regions.