The country is at risk of being banned from international trade in some endangered forest species due to non-compliance with export regulations.

The warning comes from the Scientific Authority of CITES - an international convention that regulates trade in wildlife and forestry products and their derivatives - which points to the proliferation of blackwood in the big markets without any traceability by the Mozambican government.

The information was shared this Monday (28) in Lichinga, Niassa province, at a seminar to disseminate the regulations of the International Convention on Trade in Forestry and Wildlife Products for Sustainable Exploitation.

According to Ernesto Witimane Júnior, from the Forestry department at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), quoted by Radio Mozambique"Blackwood smuggling requires urgent measures to be taken to retain revenue for the state coffers".

Despite being the world's largest holder of pau-preto, which has a high value on the international market, Mozambique has seen outbreaks of smuggling of this forest resource due to weak enforcement.

The country's timber exports have fallen by 75% in the last four years and will total 2 million tons in 2023, according to a report by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The document, entitled Basic Environmental Indicators 2023, reveals that between 2020-23, the quotas for the volume of wood available for felling by species fell progressively. In 2023, the reduction was 12.7% compared to the previous year, with the volume of wood available for felling reaching 49,525 cubic meters, of which 5,369 cubic meters of species considered "precious", such as chacate-preto or pau-preto.

INE points out that this reduction in logging quotas has had a direct impact on timber exports. In 2019, the volume exported peaked at 7923 million tons, but since then the country has seen consecutive falls: 3132 million tons in 2020, 2276 million tons in 2021, and 2649 million tons in 2022.

 

(Photo DR)