On volume recovery index and implications for sustainable logging in Congo Basin

•The statistical estimation of a volume recovery index is demonstrated with data for three timber species.•The new index is both accurate and precise, improving on the current marketing coefficient.•The index is important for assessing the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of logging.•Ecological, management, economic, and policy constraints are examined for alleviation.•The index is relevant to carbon storage studies, through its systematic tally of volume waste.