The Due Diligence System (DDS) is a managerial tool intended to promote legality and traceability in the timber sector's supply chains. This system has been in place since late 2018 in the Nkok Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Libreville, Gabon, a region where the timber sector dominates economic activity. After two years of implementation, this system, which has been credited with providing economic and environmental benefits in the preservation of forest resources, has inspired the rest of the sub-region.
Based on this Gabonese initiative, the Central African ministers in charge of forests, industry and the environment decided on September 18, 2020, to ban, as of January 1, 2022, the export of timber in the form of logs to all Congo Basin countries. This new measure's main objective is forest preservation.