The amount of timber smuggled out of Mozambique and imported by China, lined up end-to-end in 20-foot shipping containers with a capacity of 20 cubic meters, would stretch more than 44 miles, according to a new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency.
The report, which compiles EIA research, undercover investigations and analysis of the illegal logging and timber smuggling in Mozambique, found that 93 percent of logging in Mozambique in 2013 was illegal and that about 76 percent of timber exports were cut illegally. From 2007-2013, 93 percent of illegally cut timber exports went to China.
"The staggering level of illegal logging and timber smuggling for the Chinese market has put harvesting volumes way beyond sustainable levels, despite claims to the contrary by Mozambican officials," said EIA Forest Campaigner Jago Wadley in a statement.
The "epidemic of crime and environmental mismanagement" in Mozambique, Wadley said, has resulted in $146 million in lost tax revenues since 2007.
"[C]ommercial stocks will largely be depleted during the next 15 years," he said.
The EIA, in the report called First Class Crisis, calls for Mozambique to suspend all timber exports until the country can guarantee harvests, consumption and trade of timber products are sustainable.
