We should curb illegal timber trade

The Congo Basin harbours the world's second largest tropical forest. It is also a major supplier of illegal timber.

At an international forum held in Congo's capital Brazzaville from 21-22 October in 2013, representatives of six African countries - the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon - adopted the Brazzaville Declaration, marking an unprecedented commitment towards the sustainable and legal development of the wood industry in the region.

The Declaration was adopted jointly with timber industry representatives and civil society organizations. It engages partners to implement measures that improve timber tracking, transparency and forest governance.

The Declaration is the outcome of a long term debate among key stakeholders in the forest and wood industry, as well as regional and international partners, including the Association Technique International des Bois Tropicaux (ATIBT), the European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Union (EU) and FAO, in particular through their joint efforts to advance the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process.

In 2003, the EU adopted a FLEGT Action Plan, promoting concrete measures to stem the illegal timber trade. These include technologies to trace the origin of timber, the creation of forest enforcement teams and community forest monitors to observe logging activities, as well as legally binding agreements - known as Voluntary Partnership Agreements - between the EU and timber-producing countries, that establish mechanisms to distinguish between legally and illegally harvested timber.

The Congo Basin is not only home to the world's second largest rainforest after Amazonia. It is also a key resource for stabilizing the global climate.

Recent research shows that Congo Basin tree species are larger in stature on average than their Amazon counterparts, suggesting the African rainforest may be a larger carbon storehouse and a crucial resource for productive and sustainable forest management.

In Tanzania, a special task force has been formed to work on challenges facing the timber industry to curb illegal trade on wood resources in the country.

During during a forum that brought on board forest experts from 62 countries around the global, stakeholders said the illegal timber trade was flourishing at an alarming pace.

Organised by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the forum’s major agenda was to discuss the global strategy to protect forests.

The ‘Zanzibar Declaration on Illegal Trade in Timber and Other Forest Products” was signed at a global gathering on forests in South Africa few years ago.

The declaration involved forest protection agencies in the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Madagascar whom under the deal agreed to step up joint efforts to combat the rapidly expanding trade in illegal timber.

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It is estimated that the world loses approximately 13 million hectares of forest per year or the equivalent of 36 football fields per minute. Tanzania loses approximately 400,000 hectares of forest per annum.

Thousands of people living in Tanzania’s forests are reliant on the forests around them to survive. But deforestation has become increasingly common as people chop down trees for timber, to sell as firewood, and to clear grazing land for their animals.