Rufiji forests under threat as traders defy logging ban
 
2005-07-12 07:55:25
By Deodatus Mfugale, Ikwiriri

	Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism officials inspect vehicles laden with logs at Kibiti in Rufiji District last weekend. (Photo: Omar Fungo)

Illegal logging is rife in Rufiji District forests despite the ban imposed by the government last year.

Investigations by The Guardian have established that loggers are taking advantage of the government’s decision to allow businessmen to collect the logs that were cut last year before the ban came into force to do rake in millions of shillings.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism announced early this year that it would give permits to businessmen to buy old logs and process them in local factories for export.

We have established that businessmen are securing permits for old logs, which they use to fell trees.

We witnessed first hand last Saturday at least seven lorries, four of them trailers, loaded with logs heading to Dar es Salaam from Ikwiriri in Rufiji District. Some of the logs were distinctly fresh.

Asked if there were any old logs left in the holding yards or in the nearby forests, Nyamwage village chairman, Sufiani Matimbwa said there were few, if any.

’’There are no logs in the yards. There are also none in the forest because business men have been collecting them for the past three months,’’ the chairman said. Nyamwage used to be a holding yard for logs awaiting shipment to Dar es Salaam.

Pressed to shed light on where the lorries get their consignments, Matimbwa said that most of the logs are fresh, but are left in the sun to dry and change colour.

’’Barks are removed to make the logs appear old. The logs that were left here could not last for all these months,’’ he said.

Illegal logging has caused controversy among village officials. When a lorry full of logs was recently impounded, the officials were divided on what action to take against the owner.

’’The village committee thought the owner should have been fined heavily. However, the chairman of the Village Environmental Committee opted to let the businessman get away with it,’’ he said.

The chairman of the Village Environmental Committee, Omar Mteta, was not in the village to give his side of the story.

Citing another incident, Matimbwa said the village recently confiscated chain saws from illegal loggers after the owners ran away.

Commenting on the spate of illegal logging in the area, the Village Executive Officer, Bakari Matimbwa, said that there were isolated incidents of illegal logging. ’’But it is not easy to arrest the culprits as they ferry the logs at night,’’ he said.

The VEO conceded that, there were none left in the forests surrounding the village.

’’I also don’t think there are any left in the neighbouring villages – Mbwara, Nambunju, Kitapi and Mihiru,’’ he said.

The villages were in the past known for illegal logging before the government had banned the business.

The Guardian also spotted a seven-tonne lorry loaded with logs that were destined for a sawmill in Ikwiriri.

Another consignment of fresh logs had been abandoned near the office of the Zonal Mangrove Project in Kibiti about three months ago after employees of the Ministry of Natural Resources impounded them, according to villagers.

Commenting on the situation, a Senior Forest Assistant at Kibiti, Christopher Yegela, said the businessmen carry old logs.

He conceded that some traders removed the barks of logs ’’to conceal the species of the logs and not so much as to conceal fresh logs,’’ he said, adding that they impound such logs upon identifying them.

In July last year, the government suspended the harvesting of logs from natural forests and banned indefinitely the export of unprocessed logs.

The measure was taken after it was discovered that the exporters had violated regulations governing trade in prohibited tree species.

The ban was meant to give local manufacturers an opportunity to process logs and export wood products to earn more money.

It was also intended to give the government time to review logging laws and come up with a new foolproof system to tame illegal logging in the country.

• SOURCE: Guardian