Forestry Services Abort Timber Smuggling in Mocuba

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Forestry Services Abort Timber Smuggling in Mocuba

2:33 CAT | 15 Mar 2016

www.trees4moz.org / Chanfuta (Pod Mahogany) - Afzelia Quanzensis

An anonymous tip-off allowed the Forestry and Wildlife Services in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia on Saturday to abort an attempt to smuggle large amounts of illegally logged timber out of the Muaquiua area, in Mocuba district.

Forestry wardens, accompanied by members of the environmental police unit, followed the tip-off and found a man named Agostinho Madembe loading over 20 logs of a precious hardwood known as chanfuta onto the truck he was driving.

The wardens warned him that, under Mozambican environmental legislation, equipment used in illegal logging can be seized – which means that his truck will be forfeit to the state. Madembe paid little attention to the warning. He managed to lock the cab of the truck and slip away into the bush. The authorities reacted by emptying all the tyres of air, so that the truck cannot be moved.

The wardens, accompanied by a crew from the independent television station STV, found that the local community was collaborating with the illegal loggers. A community leader said the loggers had promised them 70,000 meticais (about 1,430 US dollars) for their cooperation. Members of the community who spoke to STV justified the theft of hardwood on the grounds that they were suffering from hunger and poverty.

But, if properly marketed, the 20 chanfuta logs could sell for around a million meticais. So not only were members of the community participating in the destruction of their own environment, but they were also being swindled out of large sums.

Fearing that the community leader was about to be arrested, local peasants barricaded the road to prevent the wardens and police from leaving. Eventually the removal of the barricades was negotiated – but not before the vehicles leaving the area were inspected, to make sure that the community leader was not a prisoner inside them.

Eugenio Manhica, head of the Zambezia forestry and wild life department, said that, regardless of the attitude of the local community, the authorities would pursue the case “so that the authors of the crime are held responsible for their acts”.

The illegal logging took place inside a legally granted timber concession. A representative of the concession, Erasmo Valente, said he had every intention of taking the case to court, so that the illegal loggers and their accomplices in the community would learn that they cannot cut down trees however and wherever they like.

Source: AIM