Maputo, 16 Jun (AIM) – A Portuguese environmental organisation, Quercus, has accused a Portuguese company, the Navigator Group, of carrying out forestry projects responsible for usurping land, water and livelihoods from peasant households in the central Mozambican provinces of Manica and Zambézia.
According to Quercus, cited by the German agency DW Africa, a new shipment of eucalyptus wood from Mozambique of around 100,000 cubic meters is expected to arrive at the Navigator Group’s pulp mill in Aveiro, northern Portugal, possibly this year.
The organization says that it is concerned about the fact that the Navigator Group, a world leader in the production of eucalyptus pulp, has “converted land into a system of intensive exploitation for new eucalyptus plantations in Manica and Zambézia provinces.”
“The problem is having concessions as large as 356,000 hectares”, warns the Quercus report. “The ecosystems are going to be altered and that always has major impacts on what was there, not just the plants but also all the wildlife and the reduction in the agricultural area for the people who live there”.
According to the organization, the active management of territories, in economic, social and environmental terms, must be done with the participation of local players, “therefore we must avoid some of the mistakes made in Portugal in the area of eucalyptus plantations, in order to make Mozambique a powerhouse in this area too.”
(AIM)
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