East African Community countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are beneficiaries of timber trafficking from the DRC, an investigation has shown.
The probe by The Africa Report in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center Rain Forest Investigations Network also established that other than benefiting from the timber trafficking, the countries are also “flagrantly” breaking their environmental pledges.
“The illicit trade is facilitated by ‘big men’ close to security services and politicians across the region, who ensure the border controls fail,” the report says.
Taking advantage of the ongoing multiple conflicts in the north-east of the DRC, the cartels are stealing protected hardwoods, paying loggers and truckers and bribing their way across the border checkpoints, “where fake certificates of origin are produced for a large fee”.
The investigation also found that hundreds of millions of dollars of protected African hardwoods have been looted from the DRC and smuggled into Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda over the past two decades.
“Kenyan business people are the major winners in Congo timber trafficking, taking 10 times more contraband timber than neighbouring Uganda…
Over 90% of the timber traded through Congo Park had no legal logging permits, according to the Center for International Forestry Research,” the investigation done through interviews, satellite imagery and on-the-ground reporting found.
DEFORESTATION IN DRC
The Global Initiative Against Transactional Organized Crime in December 2022 reported that deforestation rates in the DRC almost doubled in the last decade, with the country reporting a loss of over one million hectares annually between 2010-20.
This, the report said, was the third highest rate of forest denudation in the world behind China and Brazil.
“One source of deforestation is the illicit trade in timber and charcoal, which entails illegal harvesting of trees and production of charcoal outside concessions or inside nature reserves, as well as illegal trade involving tax avoidance or forged certificates.
“Given the high levels of violence and corruption in the region and the presence of armed groups, due diligence along the trade chain is often limited or even impossible. Consequently, much of the logging activity is presumed to be illegal,” the report said.
It added that the illicit timber and charcoal trade had attracted a variety of actors, including violent armed groups, underpaid military personal, corrupt politicians, local traders and poor civilians, as it is lucrative.
The Africa Report said the smuggling rackets are wrecking the ecology of the Congo basin and its contribution to the fight against uncontrolled global warming.
And despite official protection for species such as the African mahogany under international conventions, the lack of scrutiny at borders like Lia allows for a seamless flow of the timber, often at a great cost to the environment and local communities.
EUROPEAN COMPANIES ACCUSED
A 2019 report by Global Witness also showed 10 European companies trading in timber had sourced wood worth $2.26 million from a company engaged in illegal logging in the DRC.
The Buyers Beware: How European companies buying timber from Industrie Forestière du Congo risk falling foul of EU laws report said the timber in question was cut and exported by logging company Industrie Forestière du Congo (IFCO), the DRC’s second biggest timber exporter.
“Cotrefor had been the subject of numerous reports of illegal logging, as well as allegations that it was controlled by known Hezbollah financiers named on a US Treasury sanctions list.
“After looking into the company’s vast concession near Baulu in the province of Tshuapa, we uncovered serious concerns related to the legality of IFCO’s logging operations,” said the report.
The research into IFCO’s international timber business showed that European companies based in France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Poland together placed over 1,400m3 of IFCO timber, with a value of approximately €2 million, on the EU market between June and October 2018.
Significant quantities of IFCO timber were also exported to buyers in China, Taiwan and Vietnam
Under the 2013 European Union Timber Regulation, companies must be able to show they have taken clear steps to reduce the risk that timber imported to the EU has been illegally harvested.
The world’s second largest tropical rainforest is in the DRC, which plays a key role in sinking world’s carbon emissions.
