Mozambique: Tree felling and pollution worry environmentalists in Tete

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Mozambique: Tree felling and pollution worry environmentalists in Tete

9:27 CAT | 25 Aug 2021

File photo: DW

Indiscriminate felling of trees without proper reforestation, and pollution resulting from coal mining, could make Mozambique extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, experts warn.

Between 2017 and 2021, Mozambique was hit by around six cyclones, most notably Cyclone Idai, which hit the city of Beira, the capital of Sofala province, in the centre of the country.

Scientists say that climate change is behind the natural disasters that are occurring around the world. In Mozambique, environmentalists are seeking to understand why the country has been so severely impacted by these natural phenomena.

Simão Sebastião, from the Association for Legal Support and Assistance to Communities (AAAJC), complains of paralysis among inspection bodies in the face of environmental damage in Mozambique, such as the felling of trees and the destruction of mangroves.

The activist also highlights the activities of mining companies in Tete province, which extract coal using open mining, as an activity which should be the subject of rigorous inspection by the competent bodies.

“The extractive industry, as well as the indiscriminate felling of trees, ends up creating a kind of desertification. We are depleting the vegetation,” Sebastião explains.

Envdw — *Simão Sebastião – AAAJC activist*

“It will become impossible to guarantee the production of oxygen in the areas where there are such excesses,” he elaborates.

Sebastião says a thorough analysis on deforestation is needed, because “climate change is a reality” and it is necessary to act “so that tomorrow it is not even worse”.

Benefits to communities

In addition to damaging the environmental, exploitation of resources fails to benefit the local inhabitants, the environmentalist notes.”In many cases, all we have are frustrated communities,” he said.

Sebastião believes that their discontent is justified. “It’s disheartening to see your resources depleted day after day and the benefits [of this exploitation] not being channelled to the communities,” he explains.

Tetepollution.coal_.dw_ — *Dust raised by coal mining in Tete*

The activist also observes that there are many obstacles to communities formalising committees in order to benefit from the exploitation of the natural resources around them.

DW Africa asked the National Agency for the Control of Environmental Quality (AQUA), the entity competent to pronounce on indiscriminate logging in Tete, for comment, but it declined to respond.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Provincial Association of Forestry and Mineral Resources Operators, António da Silva, urges the government to be more attentive to the situation of the environment.

“I would like wood, for example, to have a price stipulated by the state, like cotton and tobacco. In this way, we could enforce rules for protecting the environment,” he suggests.

Source: Deutsche Welle