Southern Africa's booming industry in wood carvings may be coming at a high price: the destruction of the region's hardwood forests. Environmentalists say the largely unregulated activity has almost wiped out the African Blackwood in Malawi, a hardwood coveted by carvers for its colour and texture.

Photos: ForestPress 

And as forests vanish in densely populated Malawi - one of the centres of the trade - they fear an unsustainable demand is being sparked for hardwood species in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Zambia. "As you are losing forest cover, if your wood carving industry is to survive, it has to rely on timber resources from further afield," said Tom Milliken, director of the East and Southern African branch of TRAFFIC, which monitors the trade in wild plants and animals. "The resource is under severe pressure and Malawian carvers are turning increasingly to other sources of wood from Mozambique and Zambia."
A TRAFFIC report in 2000 on the situation in Malawi painted a bleak picture. "Preference for durable, heavy, dark woods with a beautiful grain, has resulted in the depletion of numerous indigenous hardwoods (in Malawi)," it said. "Exploitation of forest resources continues unabated, with the result being extreme depletion of selected species."
South African demand





Many of the finished products wind up in South Africa. In 2002 and 2003, almost R2.3 million worth of curios came through Johannesburg International Airport from Malawi - a total of 446 326 items, according to customs figures.
Customs data also shows that South Africa imported more than R9 million worth of wood products in total in 2003 from Malawi compared to R8.8 million in 2002. Illicit supplies, which slip through the border, have obviously not been measured but some conservationists fear they could be substantial.