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African foresters want a change in government policies to allow easier trade in timber, taking advantage of available forests and to weed out exploitative trade routes.
They argue that archaic laws are, in fact, fuelling illegal harvesting and sale of trees which in turn cause losses to revenue agencies.
This is because, according to Dr Joshua Cheboiwo, the Director Kenya Forestry Research Institute (Kefri), transboundary timber trade in Africa is dominated by informal operators who often lack the necessary licenses, illegal activities involving under-declaration of quantities at borders, the use of unregulated and unofficial border points, and falsified documentation often result in huge losses in forest resources and revenues.
“Globally, the illegal timber trade amounts to, between US$30 billion and US$100 billion. In East Africa, Kenya-Tanzania illegal trade resulted in the loss of 70 000 hectares of forests and US$10 million in foregone revenue,” he said.
Africa is a net importer of forest products, with intra-African exports only accounting for 8 percent of global timber trading volumes.
“Africa boasts vast forestry resources and exports raw materials for processing abroad. We are almost third in material base in the world. But all we lack is investment in processing.
Africa imports tertiary processed products valued at US$4 billion with only a mere 10 percent intra-African trade,” added Dr Cheboiwo, who was the Keynote speaker during a regional forestry workshop held in Nairobi last month.
Sustainability question
The meeting organised by the African Forest Forum (AFF), a continental lobby for foresters, (July 3-7 2023), brought together 70 forestry stakeholders from 17 African countries to share information and experiences on forest conservation and tree-based ecosystem services for socioecological resilience against climate change. Studies commissioned by AFF on the continent revealed that Africa’s export challenges in the forestry sector are complex. – The East African
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