Hope for Defeating Tree Poaching Grows at CITES

Last week representatives from 180 countries met in Geneva for CoP18 on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wilf Fauna and Flora (CITES). A new EIA report highlighted the highly destructive trade in ‘mukula’ wood in Central and Southern Africa. Asian timber traffickers have been plundering forests for years, despite bans that have been issues in both Zambia and the DRC.

The Environmental Investigation Agency’s forest campaigns Deputy Director noted: "CITES Parties need to seize this opportunity to help African countries protect the mukula tree from ongoing illegal plunder and to ensure its survival for future generations. According to our investigation, if nothing is done now, it will be too late in three years at CoP19."

Malawi has proposed listing Mukula on Appendix II of the Convention, allowing for legal harvest and trade of the timber in sustainable volumes.

The DRC and Zambia – two main producers of mukula – have issued on-and-off bans to stop illegal logging of the tree and prevent its commercial extinction. However, well-connected traffickers have ensured continued access to the region's fast-disappearing forests through bribery and schemes. Some of these traffickers told EIA undercover investigators that despite the bans and restrictions, mukula harvest and trade has "never stopped." Several pointed out that mukula has already become rare and will likely go extinct in three to five years at most.

In Zambia, EIA investigators found that the State-owned company Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation Limited (ZAFFICO) has been used for at least two years as a cover for well-connected Zambian and Chinese businessmen to export thousands of freshly cut mukula logs, despite the ban in place. 

Civil society organizations, regional community and religious leaders as well as parliamentarians have been denouncing the harmful impacts of the illegal mukula trade for years, as rural communities see their natural resources disappear without benefitting from it in any way.