Pemba

Maputo – The number of logs seized from the Chinese- owned timber company MOFID in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has risen to over 1,100, reports Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

MOFID was attempting to export the logs from the port of Pemba, the provincial capital. Alerted by an anonymous tip-off to the likelihood that much of the cargo was illegal, inspectors looked exhaustively at the 50 containers used by MOFID. They found that 1,154 logs were of precious hardwoods that, under Mozambican legislation, cannot be exported unprocessed According to provincial governor Lazaro Mathe, the containers also held almost 400 cubic metres of other tree species which can be exported as logs.
But rumours that other forbidden products, such as ivory, were also in the containers proved untrue.
MOFID has been fined 276,745 meticais (about 10,700 US dollars), and has been ordered to store the logs until they are sold at public auction, with the proceeds reverting to the state.
For the logs to enter the port in containers in the first place, there must have been connivance on the part of staff in the provincial forestry and wildlife services. Mathe announced that proceedings have been started against the forestry inspectors involved.