Typical tactics against others. Counter with facts and figure is different from personal name calling and insulting others..
And when u call out them. These so called righteous people will claim insult and name calling are part of free media.
Illegal Chinese Logging is destroying Africa's forests
- Thread starter denel
- Start date
And when u call out them. These so called righteous people will claim insult and name calling are part of free media.
ApparentRaceTraitor
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Why just blame the Chinese? Sure they are beyond unethical, shady and downright bullies like the dumbfuckistanis but it's the people's own fault for electing unethical leaders.
There are tons of unethical people everywhere, just that East and South Asians dominate that category by virtue of being the largest population groups doesn't excuse the victims from looking at what caused it all at the homes in the first place.
There are tons of unethical people everywhere, just that East and South Asians dominate that category by virtue of being the largest population groups doesn't excuse the victims from looking at what caused it all at the homes in the first place.
newb3e
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you sound more and more like an indian sir! this whole world progressed on western powers exploiting poor nations amd now they are left behind and they are crying! its not just chinese that are exploiting western cooperations continue to destroy the earth! please stop this one sided nonsense!
He will try to act as he is neutral but deep down we all know he is working hard for the west against China. Do he really care about poor of africa? But is he really concern about agenda against China? Yes, he is.
China is doing what western will never wish for african.
newb3e
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cutting trees or destroying nature is what chiense will also do and i am sure are doing we humans are stupid for economic benefits we are ready to destroy our home Earth! the oil spills that western "ethical" cooperations have caused have destroyed the oceans and marine life but our cute indian friend wont talk about it,if he was actually concerned about nature he would have also highlighted how west has and is destroying the planet and also what china is doing to destroy the planet!
and atleast Chinese are not chaining Africans ajd shipping them to their fields and making the slaves!
vi-va
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@wazoccrp.org is supported by grants by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
This org is set up by US government, CIA to be specific, to overthrow East European countries, color revolution to be specific.
Try harder next time.
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
@denel keep spreading CIA propaganda. Please keep an eye on him.
Krptonite
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It's not an excuse, simply an observation.
If something exists in a periodic cycle lasting centuries then there exists a much fundamentally deeper issue that needs to be resolved first. If the self is capable then the other cannot hope to corrupt or alter it.
Anyone getting exploited is deplorable and against standard values, but this instance is merely another one in a long list dating back centuries.
What's happening is devastating, yes; surprising, no.
mike2000 is back
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To be honest, I'm quite familiar with the African continent and it's a continent I have grown to love during all my visits there and the people are the most simple minded and welcoming i have encountered anywhere in the world.
I must say that we can't only blame the Chinese . This issue has been going on in Africa for as long as one can remember . The problem with Africa is with it's leaders/rulers, they tend to have no accountability towards their people. In fact they don't even seem to know that being elected in a position of authority means you should be serving the people. They instead believe (like for real) that the people are there to serve them and that they got there by their own means so they have to get as much benefit and embezzlement from the system as much as they can. In short they have no real sympathy for their own people or country per se. That's the least of their issue. They couldn't care any less. They care only for them and their family and that's it. So it's up to African leaders to demand the kind of contract they want to sign with foreign companies (not just Chinese but European and american ones as well). Afterall,
no foreign power will say no to getting the most out of you. You think if i met somebody tomorrow who was stupid enough not to demand much from me in return for me taking their property then i will say No? Lol. Of cours not , i will gladly take it. Lol.
So african leaders need to get their act together and try and get the best deals they can get when negotiating with foreign companies. Very few African countries have competent leaders who do this, other than Paul Kagame of Rwanda and the one in Tanzania, Bostwana. Those are the few i can think of who really are striving to get the best deals for their Country the cast majority of subsaharan African countries are ruled by despots who could care less as long as their pockets are filled and interests taken care of. Lol
I must say that we can't only blame the Chinese . This issue has been going on in Africa for as long as one can remember . The problem with Africa is with it's leaders/rulers, they tend to have no accountability towards their people. In fact they don't even seem to know that being elected in a position of authority means you should be serving the people. They instead believe (like for real) that the people are there to serve them and that they got there by their own means so they have to get as much benefit and embezzlement from the system as much as they can. In short they have no real sympathy for their own people or country per se. That's the least of their issue. They couldn't care any less. They care only for them and their family and that's it. So it's up to African leaders to demand the kind of contract they want to sign with foreign companies (not just Chinese but European and american ones as well). Afterall,
no foreign power will say no to getting the most out of you. You think if i met somebody tomorrow who was stupid enough not to demand much from me in return for me taking their property then i will say No? Lol. Of cours not , i will gladly take it. Lol.
So african leaders need to get their act together and try and get the best deals they can get when negotiating with foreign companies. Very few African countries have competent leaders who do this, other than Paul Kagame of Rwanda and the one in Tanzania, Bostwana. Those are the few i can think of who really are striving to get the best deals for their Country the cast majority of subsaharan African countries are ruled by despots who could care less as long as their pockets are filled and interests taken care of. Lol
denel
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Friend, man, from being called all kind of racist slurs by the ccp bots and now being labelled as an indian to cia agent.
I will be putting both sides of the issue- it is never one sided. What I take offense to is these bots coming out in a denial of issue. then to be subjected to racial slurs, to personal attacks which never seem to raise an eye brow to PDF members.
Really friend.... do you know the situation of labour force abuse happening in Zambia?
Destruction of our ecology is a serious issue. There is insatibable looting happening. It is fueling also armed gangs and exchange of drug trafficking. Take Northern Mozambique - the issues are related.
Alas - not a single valid argument to what was posted has been validated; except for personal and conspiracies.
Last edited:
denel
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Mike - my bru... how are you doing .
Long time. Glad to see you ok and happy to hear from you.
Absolutely, our continent's management has been a sell out and nonexistent- this vaccum been exploited. It is now at unprecedented levels. Right now thankfully covid has been a blessing where borders have been shut and these illicit activities have slowed down substatially.
Rosewood timber has been seriously impacted and all of it has been heading to the east.
We have been badly affected by climate change and now decimating of forests adds to the problem'
ILLEGAL CHINESE TIMBER BUSINESS IS DEVASTATING AFRICA'S FORESTS
| SEPTEMBER 05TH, 2018 | |
|---|---|
| topic: | CONSERVATION |
| by: | Bob Koigi |
| located in: | China, Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa |
| tags: | Africa, China, CITES, EIA, environment, Environmental Investigation Agency, forest, logging, timber |
REPUBLISH THIS ARTICLE
Every year Africa loses an approximate $17 billion to illegal logging activities with the demand for timber now at an all-time high, exacerbated by an international smuggling racket with China at the heart of this trade. This, despite millions of livelihoods in Africa that rely on forests having been displaced and endangered species now facing extinction.
China is the number one importer of logs globally to sate a burgeoning demand for luxury furniture among its middle class. Antique-style furniture manufactured in China also find their way to Europe and North America. And with commercial timber stocks in the country depleting, the country has been looking for cheaper alternatives. This has led it to Africa, home to some of the most globally sought after tree species. Africa exports up to 75 per cent of its timber to China yearly, according to the International Institute for Environment and Development.
But while this trade may seem genuine at face value, numerous investigations have pointed to a well-oiled international network that has been circumventing local and international laws to fell trees at unsustainable rates and evade taxes with complacent African government officials facilitating this illegal trade.
“One of the reasons this trade has flourished for so long is because Chinese businessmen have identified legal gaps in the protection of forests and timber trade in many African countries and capitalised on that lacuna. This has also been aided by corrupt government officials, some of them in very senior positions that authorise wanton destruction of African forests,” said Dr Mohammed Faizan, an environmental lawyer based in Nairobi Kenya.
From Nigeria in West Africa, Congo basin to Mozambique in South Africa, the rapacious Chinese appetite for unprocessed timber has left a trail of destruction and even death, yet the trade continues unabated.
In one of the most elaborate investigations that lifted the lid on the undercover trade, dubbed ‘the rosewood racket,’ the Environmental Investigation Agency, EIA, late last year revealed how 1.4 million illegally harvested logs in Nigeria with a market value of $300 million were laundered into China. This, while using irregularly acquired Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, CITES, permits. More than $1 million in bribes was paid to Nigerian government officials.
The African Rosewood, also known as Kosso in Nigeria, is one of the most endangered species and is protected by CITES. But due to its unique traits and international demand, smugglers have always misdeclared and falsified official documents to smuggle the timber. In West Africa, the Chinese traders exploited the rosewood in Benin and Gambia leaving the country with no single tree before moving to Nigeria.
“Even the CITES convention on protecting endangered species is increasingly becoming difficult to enforce as these international rackets beat the system and with no political will to implement the law, bringing the culprits to book becomes complicated,” Dr. Faizan said.
Rosewood trade has surpassed wildlife crime as the most lucrative illegal trade according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. Between 2005 and 2014, the cumulative value of seized illegal rosewood was higher than the seized rhinos, parrots, marine turtles and pangolins combined, the institution said.
“The opaque kosso supply chain connects the remote forests of northeastern Nigeria to chic boutiques in Shanghai. It relies on well-defined roles between actors and a domino effect financing system that has its roots in the government-led fiscal policies in support of the largest importing companies,” the EIA report reads in part.
Further South in Mozambique, by 2013, up to 93 per cent of all logging was illegal before the government decided to tighten the legal framework as once lush forests were reduced to deserts. But enforcement is still a challenge and deforestation still goes on despite an export ban on all raw timber logs.
In Gile National Reserve, one of the most preserved gems of biodiversity in Mozambique and home to a host of endangered species, there are more loggers than tourists with the illegally logged timber being sneaked out of the country undetected as organised rackets increasingly perfect their game.
In Congo Basin that spans six countries including Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Gabon and Cameroon, up to three million cubic meters of timber are exported to China with a big percentage being illegally logged according to a report by environmental NGO Greenpeace.
The impacts of the logging to the Congo rainforest, dubbed the second lungs of the earth, and the second-largest forest in size after Amazon are severe in a region that is still recovering from decades of war.
As China’ demand for timber and products balloons, with the imports estimated to hit 60 million cubic meters by 2025, it is likely to sustain its obsession with African forests. This, even as Africa remains the continent that will be hit the hardest by climate change with its fall back being an elaborate forest cover. “Protecting Africa’s forest cover should be a matter of utmost importance actively driven by governments. It is only political will that will save these forests especially because the demand for African timber by the Chinese is at an all-time high, and they will do anything to get it,” Dr Faizan added.
We all have been seeing the impact of cyclones to Mozambique.
Chinese Illegal Logging Leaves Mozambique Vulnerable to Cyclones
AFRICA
Chinese Illegal Logging Leaves Mozambique Vulnerable to Cyclones
BY ANDREW MAMBONDIYANI
July 2, 2019 Updated: July 2, 2019
biggersmaller
MUTARE, Zimbabwe—Illegal logging, mostly by Chinese companies, in Mozambique has left a trail of destruction, with the altered landscape leaving many people vulnerable to devastating cyclones, environmental experts have said.
Between 2001 and 2017, the U.S.-based Global Forest Watch—an online platform that provides tools for monitoring forests—said Mozambique lost 2.88 million hectares (7.1 million acres) of tree cover, amid growing demand in China for valuable hardwoods such as rosewood. The loss of tree cover was equivalent to 212 million tonnes (234 million tons) of carbon emission into the atmosphere, the Global Forest Watch revealed.
In 2018, Imede Falume, Mozambique’s deputy director of forestry, told Reuters: “[Logging] is dominated by Chinese people who go to the bush and convince the poorest people to cut the logs.”
Forests in Mozambique contribute significantly to the country’s GDP but illegal logging, dominated by Chinese companies, has had some significant side effects, including rampant deforestation that has drawn increasing local and international scrutiny.
Allan Schwarz, an environmental expert and founder of Mezimbite Forest Centre in Mozambique, told The Epoch Times that the ferocity of the devastating Cyclone Idai that hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi was a result of massive deforestation in the region.
Idai, which ravaged the three African countries in March, left more than 1,000 people dead, affected more than 3 million others, and caused about $2 billion in damage.
“The lack of tree cover causes an immediate increase in temperature,” Schwarz said. “This contributes, along with the release of the carbon stored in the timber and soils, to the global phenomenon. Increases in temperature mean changes in air pressure, with the consequence that the cyclone is effectively sucked into the interior [of the country] at an accelerated velocity. So the cyclone brings higher winds and more water further into the interior.”
Flooding in Beira, Mozambique. in this file photo. (Andrew Mambondiyani/The Epoch Times)The Mezimbite Forest Centre, a community-based forest conservation and restoration organization, which Schwarz founded 25 years ago, was flattened—trees and all—by Idai.
The ferocity of the storm was caused by the lack of forest or sustainable agriculture cover, which reduces absorption of the rain, meaning more water in the natural water courses, Schwarz said.
“It is our own fault. It is a logical consequence of the greed of our political leadership who oversaw the destruction of our forests and who, when nationalizing farms, did not provide sufficient agriculture training to the people who they were responsible for,” he said.
In an effort to curtail the illegal export of crude timber, the Mozambican Parliament passed a law in November 2016 banning the export of unprocessed timber logs.
The law came into force in 2017, but an investigation by Oxpeckers revealed that there were still many cases of “timber looting” for export from Mozambique, most of which was destined for China.
A recent research report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) stated that after decades of growth in China–Mozambique economic relations, China is now responsible for 93 percent of timber exports from Mozambique.
“Meanwhile, an alarming loss of forest cover has raised concerns over the impact of this trade on Mozambique’s forest and rural development,” the report states. “How can the China-Mozambique timber trade foster better stewardship of forest resources in Mozambique and benefit poor men and women?”
Schwarz warned that storms are likely to get worse if people don’t do something about it now.
“What can we do? [We should] re-establish our indigenous forests,” he said.
The re-establishment of indigenous forests, Schwarz said, would assist in providing a moderated local climate that reduces the differentials in pressure, thus lowering the intensity of a storm.
“[It will] absorb some of the force of the storm, creating shelter in the wind shadow; reduce runoff and assist in the absorption of water, so less severe flooding; and also less severe droughts as the groundwater levels are also restored,” he said.
A Damaged house due to flooding in Beira, Mozambique in this file photo. (Andrew Mambondiyani/The Epoch Times)Schwarz emphasized that there is still hope to recover from the deforestation.
“Most important is to remember that we helped cause the problem, so it is ours to help resolve,” he said.
He said there’s a need to establish organic agroforestry, especially with subsistence farmers, as the agriculture of choice.
“Most of the benefits of reforestation include more resilient agriculture with consequent improvements in food security, more diverse crops, adding to both resilience and to a more nutritious diet and greater profits,” he said.
In February, Mozambique signed a $50 million Emission Reductions Payment Agreement with the World Bank that rewards community efforts to reduce carbon emissions by tackling deforestation and forest degradation.
“Avoiding deforestation and restoring our forests are essential to a safer, climate-resilient and more prosperous future for communities around the world,” said Laura Tuck, World Bank vice president for Sustainable Development, in a press statement after signing the agreement. “These payment agreements are game changers as they provide financial incentives for communities to manage their forests sustainably.”
denel
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Stripping Africa’s Forests - Africa Defense Forum
Through bribery and lax enforcement, Chinese businesses are taking billions of dollars’ worth of rosewood ADF STAFF China’s growing middle and upper classes have developed an inexhaustible demand for expensive, handmade rosewood furniture — and Africa is paying the price. The country’s fondness...
adf-magazine.com
Stripping Africa’s Forests
By ADF Last updated Mar 11, 2020
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Reading Time: 7 minutesThrough bribery and lax enforcement, Chinese businesses are taking billions of dollars’ worth of rosewood
ADF STAFF
China’s growing middle and upper classes have developed an inexhaustible demand for expensive, handmade rosewood furniture — and Africa is paying the price.
The country’s fondness for rosewood furniture is nothing new. China has banned logging in its own natural forests and has been getting its rosewood from Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia. But China depleted the available resources in Asia and began logging in Africa about 2010, according to the U.S.-based charity Forest Trends. Now, a rosewood species native to West Africa is listed as endangered due to a fifteenfold increase in trade between 2009 and 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The extent of China’s logging — most of which is illegal — is astonishing. From the island nation of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean to Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia on the western edge of the continent, Chinese merchants are bribing officials to look the other way while loggers remove trees from forests that have never been touched by man.
A worker walks through a storage area at a logging operation in Mozambique. AFP/GETTY IMAGES“Smart Chinese businessmen are exploiting a lax regulatory and enforcement environment, loopholes in existing laws, lack of government policy and direction as well as official corruption by government officials to drive an illegal trade in and export of the country’s forestry resources,” reported the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, after research on illegal logging in Nigeria.
Environmentalists say replacing the rosewood is difficult, if not impossible, because it takes decades for rosewood trees to grow to a commercially useful size, and centuries for the trees to fully mature.
The Environmental Investigation Agency, a nongovernmental organization, examined the undercover logging sales in Nigeria and reported in late 2017 that over the course of four years, illegally harvested Nigerian logs valued at $1 billion had been secretly shipped to China. The agency reported that loggers paid Nigerian officials more than $1 million in bribes and concluded that the rosewood trade may have benefited the terrorist group Boko Haram. The report also said that the Chinese consulate may have been involved in the illegal shipments of wood.
Nigeria has been described as the most excessively deforested country in Africa. Less than 10% of the country is wooded, and only 20,000 hectares of the country is primary forest, which refers to untouched, pristine forest.
Across the continent, African nations lose $17 billion each year to illegal loggers, with most of the smuggled wood going to China. The International Institute for Environment and Development says that Africa exports up to 75% of its timber to China each year, where 40% of the world’s furniture is made.
Engineers with the Cameroonian Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife inspect a logging operation near the border with Gabon. AFP/GETTY IMAGESAs China strips Africa of its hardwoods, it is protecting its own woodlands. In 1998, China’s communist government began restricting logging in the nation’s forests. The logging stripped mountains, polluted rivers and caused floods. The total value of China’s timber imports — rough logs, timber or wood pulp — has increased more than 10 times since China began restricting logging at home, reaching $23 billion in 2017, the highest ever, according to the IHS Markit’s Global Trade Atlas.
“One of the reasons this trade has flourished for so long is because Chinese businessmen have identified legal gaps in protection of forests and timber trade in many African countries and capitalized on that lacuna,” said Dr. Mohammed Faizan, an environmental lawyer based in Kenya. “This has also been aided by corrupt government officials, some of them in very senior positions that authorize wanton destruction of African forests,” he said, as reported by the journalism platform FairPlanet.
PILLAGING MADAGASCAR
In Madagascar, the fourth-largest island in the world, illegal loggers hide their harvested rosewood in the sand while waiting for ships to come collect it. Reporters Sandy Ong and Edward Carver, writing for the online magazine Yale Environment 360, said the loggers also store logs underwater, which prevents rot. The water around the submerged logs turns a telltale blood red.
In addition to protecting the soil and other plants, rosewood trees serve as nesting areas for many of Madagascar’s animals, including its crested lemurs. As the trees are wiped out, so are the lemurs — the loggers sometimes kill and eat them.
Madagascar banned rosewood logging decades ago, and yet the logging continues. As in most countries, the best and most valuable logs are long gone. An American timber dealer inspected some of Madagascar’s stockpiled wood in 2018 and told Ong and Carver that some of the logs were only “four to five inches in diameter.”
The loggers put the logs on boats, which in turn take them to a container ship anchored offshore. From there, the ships will often use complex routes to disguise their cargo’s point of origin. Their tactics include forging country-of-origin permits, labeling containers of rosewood as some other product and bribing inspectors.
“We know that most of the logs are illegally felled, but when they enter China with the ‘right’ documents, they become legal,” timber researcher Xiao Di told the two reporters.
Workers load furniture made from African rosewood outside a shop in Beijing, China. THE ASSOCIATED PRESSLOSING FORESTS
Not only Nigeria and Madagascar are suffering at the hands of corrupt loggers; other countries are affected as well:
CAMEROON: According to Global Forest Watch, Cameroon lost 657,000 hectares of forest to illegal logging between 2001 and 2014, with the annual rate of loss rising to 141,000 hectares in 2014.
CÔTE D’IVOIRE: During the 1960s and 1970s, the forest sector was of major economic importance to the country. However, heavy logging over the past 50 years has taken its toll, with only 2% of the country now covered by primary forest.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: Trade documents analyzed by the group Global Witness show that timber exports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Vietnam more than doubled from 2017 to 2018, to nearly 90,000 metric tons.
GABON: In April 2019, the BBC reported that more than 350 containers of kevazingo timber were discovered in the Gabonese port of Owendo. The valuable wood, which is similar to rosewood, was ready for export. Reuters said the wood was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and was found in depots belonging to Chinese companies. News reports said the wood was falsely labeled, supposedly bearing official Gabonese documentation. The containers later disappeared, but about 200 were eventually recovered.
THE GAMBIA: After Nigeria, The Gambia is West Africa’s second-largest exporter of timber to China, according to the crime research group ENACT. Between 2010 and 2015, the country’s export of rosewood to China was worth an estimated $238.5 million. Considering that The Gambia has few remaining forests, this is a huge amount, suggesting that the country may also be a shipping point for illegally harvested logs from Senegal.
GUINEA-BISSAU: In 2012, a coup pushed Guinea-Bissau into chaos. Without an effective government there, Chinese loggers stripped the country’s rosewood forests.
The Environmental Investigation Agency reported that at the peak in 2014, timber exports from Guinea-Bissau to China reached 98,000 metric tons — about 255,000 trees in one year.
Despite calls for the shipments to China to stop, customs data showed that more than 7,000 metric tons of rosewood — about 300 shipping containers full of logs — were imported from Guinea-Bissau to China for the first three months of 2019, Reuters reported.
MOZAMBIQUE: Between 2001 and 2017, Mozambique lost 2.88 million hectares of tree cover amid the growing demand in China for valuable hardwoods, Global Forest Watch reported.
The Mozambican Parliament passed a law in November 2016 banning the export of unprocessed timber. The law went into effect in 2017, but an investigation by the environmental group Oxpeckers showed that there were still many cases of “timber looting” for export from Mozambique, most of which was destined for China.
NAMIBIA: Despite the government’s efforts to ban logging and lumber sales to China, a report in May 2019 shows that 10,000 blocks of rosewood — enough to fill 65 logging trucks — from northern Namibia had been shipped to China and Vietnam in less than seven months.
The Namibian reported that the export of Namibian timber to China increased nearly tenfold from 2015 to 2019. Officials believe that timber cargos have also been used to conceal illegal wildlife products, including rhino horns and elephant tusks.
SENEGAL: Senegal’s Casamance region has lost more than 10,000 hectares of its forests to illegal logging, representing an estimated 1 million trees, the Institute for Security Studies reported in early 2019. The Casamance forest area covers 30,000 hectares and is known for its rare tree species, including rosewood.
SIERRA LEONE: After years of widespread logging, only 5% of the country’s original forest cover remained in 2018. In particular, illegal loggers targeted African Rosewood. A grassroots movement to “bring back the nation’s forests” led to a decision by the Sierra Leonean government to temporarily suspend logging concessions in 2018. The government has pledged that future logging will be done “in a responsible way,” Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Joseph Ndanema told the BBC.
What is Rosewood?
ADF STAFF
Rosewood lumber comes from a group of trees in the Dalbergia family. These small to medium trees get their name from the sweet roselike scent they give off when cut or sanded.
Rosewood is prized for furniture and musical instruments because of its density and deep colors. Some species of rosewood are in such demand that they are on the verge of extinction.
The industrial design magazine Core77 said trade regulations restrict two types, the Brazilian rosewood and the Madagascan bois de rose, from crossing international borders in any form. Despite the trade restrictions, loggers continue to illegally harvest both woods.
Because of its density, rosewood is resistant to rot, water damage and insects. Since the trees are small and grow slowly, they produce relatively modest amounts of lumber. Products made from it are expensive.
In Africa, one type of Dalbergia is called Kosso, or African rosewood. Kosso logs shipped to China have eclipsed all other rosewood species, according to the international Environmental Investigation Agency.
Daming video:
Video Exposes Shocking Extent of Chinese Logging in Mozambique. Exclusive Interview - SA People
A video, filmed on 19 July 2017 in Mozambique, shows a massive logging operation taking place in the country by alleged Chinese companies... exporting
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Video Exposes Shocking Extent of Chinese Logging in Mozambique. Exclusive Interview
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SAPeople Contributor
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Aug 3, 2017
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https://www.sapeople.com/2017/08/03...nese-logging-mozambique-exclusive-interview/#
A video, filmed on 19 July 2017 in Mozambique, shows a massive logging operation taking place in the country by alleged Chinese companies… exporting truckloads of juvenile trees (identified by their small diameter) which could lead to the “extinction of many tree species happening before our eyes”.
So says Andre Swanepoel, who uploaded the video to Facebook, where it has been viewed in a couple of posts almost 1 million times in just a few days. Watch the video here and then read Andre’s exclusive interview with SAPeople below.
Watch the never-ending yards of Chinese logging trucks at just one (of five) ports in Mozambique:
1. Where was the video filmed?
This Video was taken at the Vanduzi checkpoint, Manica province, by a colleague of mine in Mozambique. This was only “One day” of trucks. It is happening every day at four different routes to the various ports in Mozambique: Nkala, Pemba, Quelimane and Beira.
2. How do you know they’re Chinese logging trucks?
This is general knowledge in Mozambique… and the official export figures speak for itself (see stats graph below).
The drivers are generally Chinese and the “juvenile” logs on the trucks are (in this case) Mopani timber. Only the Chinese – there are many many, logging accumulation yards along the E4 and other port roads in Mozambique – buy this species.
I will be posting on google maps the satellite pictures of all the Chinese Log yards in due course.
3. Do you know where it’s being sent?
Generally 99.9% of this timber ends up in China or, more recently, Vietnam (other species).
See below Published Graph of Official Mozambique Export Stats vs Official Chinese Import Stats.
What the graph reveals is that the Exporters to China are under-declaring their Quantity M3 in their containers.
4. Do you know what the wood is being used for?
This information I do not know. (According to other sources from other parts of Africa where similar massive logging operations – often illegal – have been taking place, apparently wiping out vast areas of wildlife habitat, the wood is often used for making furniture: both traditional Chinese furniture – which requires hardwoods like the Mukula tree, which is most similar to the traditional Rosewood – and the ‘made in China’ cheap furniture items which have become popular around the world.)
5. What is the impact on the environment/wildlife with the removal of all these trees from Africa?
I am not an Environmental expert, but uncontrolled exploitation and over harvesting of any finite resource has to surely change the ecosystem drastically. See Government published Forest cover projection below.
I am in the Timber trade in Mozambique and concentrate on manufacturing “Value added” timber products “in Mozambique” for local and export markets. We only utilise (selected) “mature” trees that have already seeded for many years and by their selective harvesting, open the canopy for the juvenile trees to flourish…
Our family has been involved with this in Mozambique since 1954. I cannot give you our company name, as this article will result in us being victimised by the relevant authorities/individuals in Mozambique who are benefiting from this abhorrent reality.
7. What does the Mozambique government say about the logging?
Many, many meetings have been held with the Minister over the years, where the Authorities always say the “right things” to the press and those at the meetings, but, unfortunately on the ground their promises of controlling the corruption, are not being borne out.
8. You’ve set up a petition – “Stop Chinese Forest Genocide in Mozambique”
Those of us in the industry in Mozambique are hoping that the petition will galvanise the Minister of Environment to establish a sustainable forest platform and get rid of the corrupt officials under his watch. Please see the link below and help us TRY stop this genocide.
Sign the Petition here, and help save Africa’s trees
Exposé: How illegal rosewood logging robs Ghana in multiple ways | Africanews
The other resource that is threatened is illegal logging which effectively affects Ghana's forest cover as people under the cover of deceit and of official collusion fell endangered trees and ship the
www.africanews.com
Exposé: How illegal rosewood logging robs Ghana in multiple ways
By Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban
Last updated: 11/02/2020
GHANA
Intro: Ghana, a resource rich nation with twin threats
Ghana, the West African country sandwiched by French speaking Togo to the east and Ivory Coast to the west, is one of the endowed nations in terms of natural resources.
The Gold Coast, going by its former name, rings a resource bell. Gold. Beyond that, Ghana has diamond, bauxite, manganese and timber. Ghana also has cocoa, in fact it’s one of the largest producers at the global level.
Its numerous water bodies snaking across the length and breadth of the country experienced heavy pollution due to the activities of illegal mining, known in local parlance as galamsey. The pollution triggered a media campaign against galamsey forcing the government to induct a taskforce to combat the scourge.
The other resource that is threatened is illegal logging which effectively affects Ghana’s forest cover as people under the cover of deceit and of official collusion fell endangered trees and ship them out of the country.
Inside a journalist’s mission to save rosewoods up north
But for journalist Emmanuel Dogbevi, the managing editor of the Ghana Business News, a boiling issue of illegal logging of rosewood was a hot issue that required extra attention. He undertook a two-week investigation travelling to Ghana’s most hit zones to tell the story.
Across Ghana’s arid north, his findings showed that forests were being depleted with careless abandon as ill-equipped state officials look on helplessly, some times hamstrung by official complicity authorizing them to give illegal loggers ‘right of passage.’
“When the final stock is eventually taken, the illegal logging of rosewood would be found to have left a deep scar on Ghana and mostly its vulnerable people and communities.
“The level of illegal logging of the precious tree species for export has left a gaping hole in the savannah forests of the country’s northern regions, largely poor and far behind on the development index,” wrote at the beginning of his final report.
He chronicled how bans by successive governments have been sidestepped as logs are felled and transported out of the area on trucks that make the journey all the way down south to Ghana’s industrial hub of Tema where they are shipped out.
Investigative report: Ghana and the rosewood curse
He exposes crucially how a key natural park, the Mole National Park is threatened largely by the logging. Further how a river is drying up and multiple instances of abandoned logs in parts of the forest and wildlife – warthogs – left stranded in arid conditions.
Loggers he discovered often used deceit by exploiting the ignorance of local authorities to log illegally under the pretext of having necessary authorization. Plus the worrying instance of fatigue on the part of young people who end up more often than not joining the illegal logging business.
The impact of over logging has taken a climatic effect as observed by local authorities he spoke to whiles on the field. Rainfall patterns have been altered and storms continue to ravage homes that hitherto were insulated.
On the climatic impact he wrote: “We trekked to the Kpri River, over which a bridge has been built. We found it drying up, and lying not far from the banks of the now vanishing river are felled rosewood that could not be exported because loggers for some reasons among others, the smaller girth sizes, could not move them. We counted some 300 logs wasting away!”
2019, Ghana’s rosewood year and its controversies
Last year saw rosewood related news dominate news headlines in Ghana, from the arrest of a high-profile Chinese rosewood merchant, a report by a group implicationg government officials of complicity in illegal logging and controversy over missing rosewoods.
A BBC report said the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) had exposed how the illegal trade and felling of rosewood trees had led to the loss of about six million rosewood trees, most of which were exported to China.
The report said in part: “Since 2012, over 540,000 tons of rosewood – the equivalent of 23,478 twenty-foot containers or approximately six million trees – were illegally harvested and imported into China from Ghana while bans on harvest and trade have been in place.
It added that their probe uncovered “a massive institutionalised timber trafficking scheme, enabled by high-level corruption and collusion.”
The Chinese merchant above referred to is one Huang Yanfeng also known as Helena Huang, local media had actually described as “queen of rosewood” after she was arrested in May, jumped bail and was rearrested as she transported two trucks of the wood on a major highway.
Like her fellow Chinese Aisha Huang who was also arrested due to illegal mining activities, she was deported after government failed to push forward with their prosecution. A senior minister’s comments on the reasons she was let off without charge was received with anger and revulsion on social media.
A ministerial investigative body on the EIA report submitted its findings to the sector minister late last year but the details have yet to be made public.
Rosewood curse: Ghana’s loss, China’s gain
In exposing the Chinese link to rosewood logging, the investigator outlines how even during export, there is gross under-invoicing on the Ghanaian side as compared to available figures that are received in China.
The main export route is via “the Tema harbour for export, mostly to China. Available records show that China is the leading destination for rosewood from these parts of the country.”
Export figures indicate that close to a half of the total amount shipped off was missing on the books in Ghana. The export figures are lower than the import figures reported in China.
A typical case in point was how in a space of eight years (2010 and 2018) Ghana recorded 506,199 cubic meters of rosewood export yet Chinese records show that the country imported 953,827 cubic metres from Ghana, leaving an unaccounted 447, 628 cubic metres of rosewood.
“While the country appears to be earning from the export, the communities from which the trees are logged do not get much,” the report stressed.
Investigative report: Ghana and the rosewood curse
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denel
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You are getting paid to do this work; it is not free.
You mean the housing? Free? Nobody claim its free. But some will resort to claim it as exploit... or taken advantage of..
denel
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if you want to discuss housing, start seperate thread. Otherwise stick to this topic of illegal logging.
newb3e
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i agree with what you said! but your criticism is one sided you have made yourself look like a tool sorry to say! western cooperations and capitalism have destroyed earth china is late to the party and carrying on the work and advancing the destruction!
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