Mozambique clamps down on illegal wood smuggling

Mozambique clamps down on illegal wood smuggling

Alex Rose-Innes

WITH the environmental impact of forest destruction in Africa gaining major interest at the United Nations (UN), Mozambican authorities had recently seized 13 trucks transporting timber in Dondo, Sofala province, in just three days.

Mozambique is losing forest at the equivalent of over 300 football fields every day. According to data from the World Bank, 67% is covered by semi deciduous trees, 1% by mangroves, 20% by evergreens and 12% by other species. As much as 65% of these are destroyed in slash and burn agriculture.

Just over 40% of Mozambique is forested,  of which about 86,000 hectares are lost annually due to deforestation.

Mozambican forests had almost been decimated with China’s illegal logging in the country and with the poor, rural populations relying on wood for their daily needs. The latest load was seized in Sofala during inspections carried out by the Ministry of Land and Environment aimed at preventing wood smuggling and illegal logging in the country. The confiscated wood consisted of black chacate, sandalwood and monzo from forests. These trees are found in Sofala, Zambézia and Manica provinces.

At the end of May this year, 50 containers of wood were confiscated at a Chinese company in Dondo, one of the companies suspected of illegal exporting. Despite heavy fines of up to E11 000 being imposed on perpetrators, the black market continues. Several national and international reports had highlighted Mozambique as an African country riddled with environmental crimes, mainly illegal logging.

During the last five years, the Mozambican government had issued new rules aimed to halt illegal felling of native species. Official figures suggest that Mozambique loses at least €140 million annually to wood smuggling. Chinese companies are said to be the major culprits. According to a report from NGO, the Environmental Investigation Agency, only seven years ago, 93% of all logging in Mozambique was illegal. The result?  As much as 15% of the country’s forests were decimated for charcoal production in just over two decades.

Environmentalists said the devastation by two cyclones in a relative short space of time and the devastation it created had been the direct result of deforestation in the region. Mozambique took the hardest hit with more than 600 residents killed by cyclone Idai in landslides and floods. Crops were ruined and the poor rural residents’ level of poverty increased. This had led to small subsistence farmers turning to charcoal production which is a quick way of earning money to put food on the table.

According to Global Forest Watch, Zimbabwe and Malawi also had 9% of its natural forests disappear and suffered the consequences during the cyclone when 340 and 59 people were killed in these two Mozambican neighbouring countries respectively.

Community-based programmes are training Mozambicans in forest conservation, how to produces sustainable timber products and provide employment in large-scale replanting programmes. However, much more needed to be done.

The magnificent Gorongosa National Park, which is part of the Great African Rift Valley, had already seen most of its wildlife killed by poaching, especially during the 15-year civil war between Renamo and Frelimo. Since then, it had also fallen prey to illegal logging and deforestation.

China buys the bulk of Mozambican timber and because of rampant poverty in the country, bribes ensure the assistance of residents and officials as permits are very expensive.

Poor Mozambicans can earn up to 300 meticais ($4.60) for a large bag of charcoal. The same-sized bag sells for 1,500 meticais ($23) at Beira’s harbour. In Nhamatanda, because of its proximity to the harbour, 16% of the forests had been destroyed as a result of large-scale industrial logging and charcoal production.

Andrew Hobbs, from the University of California’s Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, told The New Humanitarian, that charcoal production could provide a sustainable income if properly managed, but warned that with climate change, proper resource management systems were desperately needed.