Mozambique: 37.6 cubic metres of precious timber seized

Mozambican authorities have seized 37.6 cubic metres of precious timber at an illegal sawmill located in a forest in Tete province, central Mozambique. “We have just dismantled an illegal sawmill [where] we found precious timber species, Chafuta and Umbila, amounting to 37.6 cubic metres,” Joaquim Laquene, delegate of the National Agency for Environmental Quality Control (AQUA) in Tete province, said yesterday. According to Laquene, the forest where the timber was seized was being used to store logs that would later be transported for illegal export, at a time coinciding with the closed season, he added.

“During this closed season, there is a shortage of timber in the markets, and poachers tend to intensify these actions. We will continue inspections at all points,” said the Aqua delegate, assuring that the agency has sufficient resources to carry out these monitoring operations. The Mozambican government approved in February a quota of 555,000 cubic metres (m³) for timber harvesting this year across all provinces, an increase compared with limits set in previous years.

In December, Lusa reported that Mozambique loses an estimated US$500 million (€427.4 million) annually due to “unsustainable” practices in the forestry sector, such as illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Deforestation in Mozambique affected 875,453 hectares between 2019 and 2022, hitting mainly Niassa and Zambézia provinces, according to a report by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which noted that in 2022 deforestation – across various types of forest – fell 31% from the previous year, to 209,464 hectares. The peak of deforestation was recorded in 2021, with 303,689 hectares lost, including 264,999 hectares of tropical forest, 29,258 hectares of semi-evergreen forest, and 99 hectares of mangrove, among others.