Illegal Export Of Logs Aborted

Illegal Export Of Logs Aborted

Maputo, 30 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican authorities have halted the illegal export from the port of Beira of 45 containers of logs, according to a report by the independent television station STV.

Under current Mozambican legislation only processed wood can be exported, not unprocessed logs. Furthermore, the logs in the containers were from precious hardwood species and special authorization is needed for their export. The exporter, H.J Imports and Exports, had no such authorisation.

According to Morgado Mucuendo, the Beira delegate of the National Environmental Quality Control Agency (AQUA), smuggling this amount of wood would have represented a loss to the Mozambican state of four million meticais (about 63,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate).

The wood had been logged illegally in Manica and Zambezia provinces, and was being stored in one of the company’s timber yards in Dondo, about 30 kilometres from Beira.

This is the second time H.J. Imports and Exports has been caught trying to smuggle unprocessed logs out of the country.
(AIM)
Pf/ (172)