Illegal Loggers Devastate Mocuba Forests

28 June 2011

Maputo — Three community leaders in Mocuba district, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, have been sacked for their connivance with illegal loggers, who are devastating the forestry resources in the district, reports Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

In certain parts of Mocuba, such as the Mataia area, large areas of forest have been cleared by the loggers. The number of trees above the legal diameter for logging has declined drastically, and the loggers are now cutting down immature trees.

An NGO, the Panos Institute, alarmed by the situation, took a group of journalists to Mocuba to see for themselves. They found that illegal logging takes place in broad daylight, but the logs are then taken in trucks to the provincial capital, Quelimane, at night.

The reporters interviewed two men, Alves Ricardo and Horacio Franque, who use chain saws to cut down the trees in Mataia. The men who purchase their illegal services pay them 100 meticais (about 3.5 US dollars) per log. When they are taken to Quelimane the same logs are sold for about 3,000 meticais each.

The head of the Munhiba locality, which includes Mataia, Maria Isabel Sebastiao, recognised that illegal logging is devastating the area. She said that the weaknesses in forestry inspection allow the loggers top commit their abuses.

She said that three community leaders in Mataia and the nearby area of Juliao have been removed from their posts because of their collaboration with the illegal loggers. She said that they had no idea of the real value of a resource they were selling for a pittance.

In Munhiba, there are just three legal timber operators. Last year they paid 47,000 meticais to the local communities – this is the 20 per cent fee that all forestry and wildlife operators should pay to communities.

But there is no sign that this money is being put to good use. The journalists noted that “almost everything is lacking” in Munhiba. In an area rich in timber, children in fifth grade still study in the open air, and have never sat behind a school desk in their lives.

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