Chinese demand for wood could strip bare tropical hardwoods from the Mozambique province of Zambezia within 5-10 years, a study claims.
The four-month forestry investigation by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), conducted between November 2003 and October 2004, accuses Chinese traders, local businesses and members of the government and forest services of “colluding” to export valuable logs to China.
IUCN says the last published inventory set the annual allowable cut of marketable species in Zambezia at 18,000m3, but 28,000m3 a year had actually been cut for the last five years, while the quota for 2004 was nearly 50,000m3.
The report proposes an immediate moratorium on log exports, a suspension of logging by small operators, a freeze on further concession approvals and a review of existing forest management plans.
It also calls for international action to put pressure on the Chinese government to take responsibility “to ensure that its own economic boom does not rob poor, vulnerable countries of the resources they need for their own development”.
