Most timber exported at Walvis not from local forests

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has clarified that most of the trucks seen on Namibian roads transporting timber for exports are from neighbouring countries using the Walvis Bay port for export.

He said about 1 405 containers of timber were exported through the Walvis Bay port between July 2020 and February 2021, but only eight of those originated from Namibian forests.

“In total, 994 permits were issued at the Katima Mulilo forest office, with 947 of these permits being for timber coming from Zambia and 47 for timber coming from the DRC. Two permits were issued at Nkurenkuru forestry office for trucks coming from Angola. In total 1 397 timber containers from neighbouring countries used our port of Walvis Bay from July 2020 to February 2021,” he said.

Shifeta made these remarks on Thursday in the National Assembly where he was clarifying the ministry’s position on the exportation of unprocessed or semiprocessed timber from Namibia.

Specifically, he was addressing the issue of whether his ministry is still issuing harvesting and export permits and environmental clearance certificates for timber from Namibia.

He said the ministry suspended the issuance of all timber harvesting permits on 26 November 2018 after it was discovered that some aspects of both the Forest Act and the Environmental Management Act were not followed.

Shifeta reiterated that since then, no timber harvesting permits were issued by the forestry authority in Namibia, however, export permits were issued to allow the already harvested timber to be transported both internally and for export on conditions that only processed products, including planks of not more than 5cm thick should be exported.

This, he said, resulted in very few people applying to export containers of processed planks.

He said, however, in line with Namibia’s efforts to position itself as a logistics hub for the sub-region, timber in different forms continues to be transported through Namibia from other countries using Namibian ports, in particular via Walvis Bay for onward export.

Shifeta further noted that he is pleased to see that the locally-based wood industry is now developing and there are some Namibian timber processors who have taken up the call to process timber at the local level.