Sat, 03 Jun 2017 12:44:39 +0000
BY BENNIE MANDANDO
SECURITY personnel that have been put to protect the Mukula tree by Government should desist from harassing businesses with valid licences for trade in other timber products failure to which they will cripple the timber sector unnecessarily, the Zambia National Association of Sawmillers (ZNAS) has said.
ZNAS president William Bwalya told the Daily Nation that it was not in order for security personnel to unilaterally disregard concession licences and suspend and confiscate legally harvested timber when the SI was clear on what they needed to look for.
Mr. Bwalya said his association was alive to the fact that illegal logging of timber had a very negative impact on the economy and ecological systems of optimal forest management but that the stance taken by the security personnel of grounding the operations of timber business in the name of protecting the Mukula tree was destructive.
“Illegal logging generally focuses on high value species such as Mukula currently and results in a selective clearing of certain species. As a result of this selective illegal logging, certain endemic species are depleted from the forests. This is the case for Mukula. However, the manner in which instructions have been given to the soldiers to break the law in the name of curbing illegal logging is unfortunate.
“The move by soldiers to disregard concession licences and pertinent documents in the absence of an SI from the minister to suspend and confiscate legally harvested timber is unlawful and the minister needs to move in. If soldiers in their mop-up exercise end up killing people, the fault will lie directly on those issuing wrong instructions and abusing the Forest Act and procedure,” Mr. Bwalya said.
He reiterated that there was nothing wrong with protecting the nation’s natural forests as it was evident that illegal logging robbed Government and local communities of significant revenues and benefits, damaged eco-systems, distorted timber markets and forest resource assessments but that the role of the soldiers in the exercise needed to be clearly stated to avoid unnecessary confrontation.
He wondered why there should be any controversy in the operations of the soldiers and the forestry department when all of them were wings of the same Government which had seen fit to come up with measures to protect the Mukula tree.
“The SI to appoint ministers and giving them responsibility is sane as the one empowering the security forces to obey the Commander-in-Chief. Why are soldiers refusing documents issued by officers appointed by the President to run the forestry department under his hand?
“The Ministry of Finance has written to the forestry department to explain why they have failed to raise revenue from timber in the first quarter of 2017. The reason is that the soldiers and forestry department have suspended production licences for timber without any corresponding SI,” he said.
