The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an activist organization, has recently released a report, which established an unholy nexus between high level officials and timber mafia. The alleged persons in the report include President Edgar Lungu and his daughter Tasila.
The report has received widespread attention from Zambian citizens and international media, though the allegations levelled against the high- level politicians have to be established. The officials dismissed EIA’s report as a smear campaign willfully orchestrated by rival political camps and others. Countering the allegations they reaffirmed their commitment to combat the illegal trade in mukula- a threatened species of rosewood. This is a protected tree under the Zambian forest Act. Now, protection to this tree is also granted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). That enables, the Zambian government to resort to immediate zero export quota on mukula and can inform all CITES-Parties of their decision. More than 180 countries are party to this Convention, which has proved highly effective in putting an end to the illegal trade of endangered tree species in the recent past.
Zambia also stands among the world’s top 10 greenhouse gas emitting countries due to deforestation and degradation, though the Southern African country has a good forest cover. The UN has also referred to the fast depleting forest cover of the country. According to the revelation by the EIA, traffickers in collusion with highly placed political leaders fell the tree transport and export of mukula (Pterocarpus tinctorius), bypassing the regulations.
The report of EIA has sparked an outcry among the public, though no one can vouch for the outcome of the report. But a few feel that it presents an opportunity for the Zambian government to act very strongly against the timber mafia leveraging the provisions of the international agreement to stop harvest, felling and export of Mukula. The major consumers of the timber are China and Vietnam – both are CITES member nations.
For instance, the trade suspension imposed on Nigerian rosewood under the international Convention helped in completely eliminating the international trade in the species between November 2018 and November 2019.
