TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature
Entries in Forestry - timber trade (6)
NGO alliance to tackle illegal logging
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai is presented with TRAFFIC's Tanzanian logging report at the launch of the anti-corruption Mama Misitu campaign. (Left) Blandina Nyoni, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism Click photo to enlarge © Mwanzo MillingaDar es Salaam, Tanzania, 10 April 2008—Seventeen non-governmental organisations today signed a milestone agreement to launch the Mama Misitu campaign, aimed at tackling corruption and mismanagement in Tanzania’s forestry sector.
Professor Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace, formally launched the campaign in Dar es Salaam.
Mama Misitu was initiated following the release of TRAFFIC’s seminal report into the forestry sector in Tanzania last May, which provided evidence that illegal logging and weak forest governance was costing Tanzania billions of shillings in lost revenue each year as well as threatening some of the nation’s unique biodiversity.
Losses of up to USD58 million were estimated in 2005 alone—the equivalent of building 1,933 primary schools—and a culture of corruption has plagued the natural resources sector made worse by low awareness at many levels of the relevant legal and policy tools.
TRAFFIC
in Forestry - timber trade, Conservation awareness
How to separate the wood from the ramin trees
Skill is needed to identify ramin wood correctly—hence the need for a specialist workshop © TRAFFIC. Singapore, 5 November 2007—Nearly 30 Customs officials and representatives of CITES Management Authorities and forestry agencies from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China received training in identification of ramin wood at a workshop held in Singapore in November 2007.
Ramin (Gonystylus), a genus of about 30 species of hardwood trees native to southeast Asia, is listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention in International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)—meaning that international trade is allowed under certain conditions.
Government of Tanzania tackles forestry corruption
The annual loss of timber revenue in Tanzania is roughly equivalent to the cost of building more than 10,000 secondary school classrooms © TRAFFIC Click to enlarge
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 29 July 2007 -- An African Parliamentarians' Network Against Corruption (APNAC) meeting today will discuss corruption in Tanzania's forestry sector. It will be attended by every Member of Parliament in the Tanzanian Government.
The meeting follows a week of intense debate in the Tanzanian Parliament over the ongoing rampant illegal logging that continues to plague the country's forestry sector.
