Illegal timber trade costs Mozambique more than EUR140 million

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Illegal timber trade costs Mozambique more than EUR140 million

7:24 CAT | 06 Apr 2017

The Mozambican government estimates illegal logging and wood exports cost the country at least US$150 million (EUR140.7 million), characterizing the situation as “daylight robbery”.

The quantity of wood declared to the Mozambican authorities is far less than that sold on the international market.

“This is daylight robbery. The value declared to Mozambicans is not the same sold in the market, and discrepancies are very large,” Minister of Land, Environment and Rural Development Celso Correia said.

The minister was speaking at a press conference at the end of a cabinet meeting which took stock of the timber industry ‘Operation Tronco’. The country, he continued, saw little benefit from logging and loses between US$150 million (EUR140.7 million) and US$200 million (EUR187.6 million) from smuggling in the industry.

According to Minister Correia, the government had set an annual limit on wood cutting of 500,000 cubic meters, but there was evidence that the harvest was higher than this.

Celso Correia said that since March 1, Operation Tronco had detected serious irregularities in 75 percent of the 120 timber yards inspected, and 120,000 cubic meters of illegal timber had been seized.

“Much of the seized timber was logs, and part of it processed wood,” Correia said.

Offenses detected include the unauthorized exploration, storage and transportation of timber and the cutting and felling of immature trees, he added.

Yesterday’s Council of Ministers extended the ban on logging, in force since the beginning of the year, for a further three months to give time for the implementation of a new licensing regime and re-evaluation of operators’ performance.

National and international reports indicate that forest resources are at risk in Mozambique due to indiscriminate cutting and illegal export, allegedly with the connivance of senior government officials.

Source: Lusa