Thousands of cubic metres of rare and protected hardwood timbers continue to be smuggled across Central and East Africa. These timbers, often the proceeds of conflict, are then exported to China, manufactured into plywood, and sold as doors, ceiling, wall panelling, marine plywood, and guitars across Europe, North America, and beyond.
It comes after Wood Central last week reported that the US government was concerned that the trade in illegal minerals and timber in the Congo was making it increasingly difficult to tame arms flow in the battleground—echoing a UN panel of experts that has raised the alarm on the trade.
Now, New Vision, a Ugandan environmental news agency, reports that the volume of Okoume hardwoods now being cut and transported from the Congo through Uganda is part of a multi-million dollar trade racket aided and abated by government officials.
“Okoume is one of the most harvested tree species in DR Congo and occupies a little less than a million hectares of forests,” New Vision said yesterday, adding that “the dwindling pattern justifies the outcry over the depletion of trees in the Congo basin, expressed by the United Nations, which worries that Ugandan authorities are not doing enough to mitigate trafficking of Congolese wood.”
A popular door skin, applied over hollow pine and cardboard frames, Wood Central last year reported that the world’s home improvement chain, Home Depot, was caught out selling millions of timber doors connected to oppressive regimes in the African Basin – including Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.
In April, the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network, in collaboration with The Africa Report, exposed Uganda’s role in fueling the surge in timber trafficking.
“Key East African Community economies, including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, benefit from this illicit trade…at the heart of this shadowy network are influential figures linked to security services and politicians across East Africa, including Uganda,” the report said.
Officials “play a pivotal role in ensuring the failure of border controls, allowing this illegal trade to flourish,” adding that “corruption is rampant, with loggers and truckers greasing the wheels at border checkpoints and acquiring falsified certificates of origin for substantial fees.”
For their measure, the Uganda police, government, and forest authorities have all denied knowledge of the illegal trade in Congolese timber—despite studies estimating that 90% of logging in DRC is illegal and, more recently, reports showing that the trade of illicit timber is being fueled by “exploitative trade routes”—which has been a significant obstacle to developing a sustainable industry.
“Uganda’s border point of Lia is a focal scene of this illicit trade as night falls,” the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network investigation said, with “stories of hope, despair, and a relentless quest for prosperity” caused by a total absence of legal and regulatory frameworks governing the timber trade in East Africa.
- For more information about how African policymakers are now looking to close illegal trade routes and boost forest production, visit Wood Central’s special feature.
