The Mozambican authorities on Wednesday seized four trucks containing about 100 cubic metres of illegally logged African blackwood (or “pau preto”) in the northern province of Nampula.
It is believed to have come from the Gile forestry reserve in the neighbouring province of Zambezia.
According to the Mozambique Investor, African blackwood is a species threatened with extinction in Mozambique, and the government recently suspended all exploitation of this species for a five-year period in an attempt to allow reforestation.
Also, the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) recently seized 70 containers (around 175 cubic metres) of mecula wood – valued at the equivalent of R262.5 million - in the port of Beira and on Sofala roads.
It was allegedly about to be illegally exported to China.
