Mozambique places temporary ban on all logging activity

MAPUTO: The Mozambican minister of land, environment and rural development, Celso Correia, has announced a ban on all logging for the next three months, as part of a drive to save the country’s forests.

This follows the ban on all exports of logs, passed by Mozambique’s parliament – the Assembly of the Republic, last December – and inspections of timber operators codenamed “Operation Trunk”, which showed massive illegalities in the sector.

Speaking after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, Correia estimated that illegal timber operations were costing Mozambique up to $200 million (R2.7 billion) a year. The ban on all logging would give the government time to reorganise the timber sector.

“We want to continue our reforms, by reassessing all logging licences, because we feel that what is happening is daylight robbery,” said Correia.

There is a huge differential in prices paid for timber in Mozambique and what the wood is worth internationally. Correia said that on the domestic market a cubic metre of wood could be purchased for just 350 meticais (nearly R69), but resold for more than $300 (R4 100) on the international market.

During “Operation Trunk”, Correia revealed, the government brigades had seized 150 000 cubic metres of precious hardwoods. The figure could rise still further.

“We found situations in which much of the wood had been logged in protected areas,” said the minister.

As television footage of “Operation Trunk” showed, many of the logs seized had come from immature trees.