SEATTLE — While new policies have been made by the European Union to prevent unsustainable logging and corruption, illegal logging continues across Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Congo’s milling industry employs about 25,000 people and produces more than 35 million cubic feet of wood each year, according to African news outlet, How We Made It In Africa.
About 85 percent of this wood is sold domestically, with the remaining 15 percent being exported to nearby countries. This creates about a $100 million in profit per year from Congo’s milling industry.
The Congolese government instated forestry management policies in 2000 to help protect forests, but these policies do not consider the artisan sector, which are small-scale loggers.
How We Made It In Africa reports that local and international logging companies are using illegal artisan permits to get around the industrial logging requirements of Congo’s milling industry.
There is no concrete way to establish the legitimacy of these permits. This leaves small-scale loggers out of the formal sector of Congo’s milling industry where sustainable methods can be developed and allows illegal logging to take place.
In September of 2015, the national forest agencies of Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania signed a declaration to combat illegal timber trade in Eastern and Southern Africa in order to prevent forest loss, according to a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report.
“Illegal trade in timber is expanding at an alarming rate and this new commitment by governments will greatly amplify efforts to reduce such trade at the regional level,” said Geofrey Mwanjela, Head of the Terrestrial Program at WWF East Africa.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) found that 50 to 90 percent of wood is traded illegally around the world, costing about $30-100 billion each year. Kenya loses about $10 million per year from illegal cross-border trading; Tanzania loses $8.33 million each year, according to the same report.
To fight this corruption, the African Development Bank Group, World Bank and the International Finance Corporation are developing new projects that are selected through national forest investment plans. In addition, two programs regarding the investment phase will be developed to respond to the causes of deforestation and poverty.
Sources: African Development Bank Group, How We Made It In Africa, WWF
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