The Mozambican government is moving closer to its proposal to ban the export of all kinds of wooden logs from 2017 - this through a bill amending the law that was passed in 2010. It will also implement a surcharge on all exports of unprocessed or semi-processed logs, daily newspaper Noticias reported.
The 2010 law, which government now says “failed to achieve any of its goals”, allowed the export of timber logs of some species of tree. But the criminal element amongst exporters merely declared all timber logs were of the allowable species, and authorities were mostly unable to tell the difference between legal and illegal.
The draft bill simply repeals the 2010 law clause that allowed the export of wooden logs, and will allow the government to change the 2002 Rules of the Forestry and Wildlife Law, which also allow the export of timber of second, third and fourth class logs of precious species
The government stressed that the new law aimed to create conditions for a total ban on timber log exports of all kinds.
