YAOUNDE, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The preservation and conservation of what remains of the forests of the Congo Basin, the Amazon and Southeast Asia concerns the whole of the international community, Cameroonian Forestry and Wildlife Minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle has said.

    The minister, who was speaking Friday during a meeting with students of the Institute of International Relations of Cameroon (IRIC), said that it was the duty of everyone to ensure that the vital forest resources are preserved for generations to come.

    Speaking at the forum dubbed "Forests: International Implications for the twenty-first century," the minister took time to outline what he described as threats to the world's forests.

    The minister told the IRIC students that experts from across the world had concurred that most of the current threats were as a direct result of human activities, including intensive agriculture, logging and natural disasters.

    With its 22 million hectares of forests, Cameroon has ratified all conventions and signed all treaties relating to the conservation and sustainable management of forests and intends to punish all those who try to infringe the law, said Ngolle Ngolle,

    "We cannot continue to lose 4 to 5 billion CFA francs (between 9 and 11.2 million U.S. dollars) per year in illegal logging and people have the right to benefit from timber royalties from the exploitation of their forests," said the minister.

    According to figures provided by FAO, the world has 3.8 billion hectares of forests including 650 million hectares found on the African continent. The Congo Basin, which extends across the Central African region including Cameroon, has 200 million hectares of forests with a population of 65 million people.

    About 28 hectares of forest are destroyed every minute that passes and 3 to 15 million hectares are deforested annually in the world, according to official figures. The deforestation of tropical forests represents 20 percent to 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

    Illegal logging leads to a loss of 15 billion dollars annually to countries in the south. In Cameroon, they lose the state 4.7 billion CFA francs per year, which is representative of between 10 percent and 20 percent of forest output.