Govt constitutes committee to engage stake holders on timber harvesting ban
By Gift Chanda
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 14:20 CAT
GOVERNMENT has constituted a technical committee to consult various stakeholders across the country over the lifting of a ban on timber harvesting.
Lands permanent secretary Daisy Ng'ambi who announced the move yesterday said the committee will consult stakeholders around the country to ascertain the extent holders of timber licenses comply with their provisions.
The government on November 8, 2012, suspended all timber licences and banned harvesting of timber in a bid to protect depleting forest cover in the country.
Zambia is one of the top ten countries in the world with the highest deforestation rates, losing approximately 8,000 hectares of forest a year, government data shows.
"Following the suspension of the timber harvesting by the Minister of Lands, the government has constituted a technical committee to consult stakeholders around the country to ascertain to what extent holders of timber licenses," stated Ng'ambi.
"The committee will hold consultations in the various provinces and make recommendations to the Minster of Lands for consideration before the ban can be lifted."
According to the schedule, the committee is expected to hold meetings in Kabompo, Livingstone, Mongu, Mansa, Luangwa, Isoka and Kasama.
Labels: DAISY NG'AMBI, TIMBER
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Invaders threaten leading timber company
02/01/2012 00:00:00
by radiovop.com
ONE of Zimbabwe’s leading timber companies, Border Timbers is facing closure after scores of
villagers settled themselves in the company’s timber plantations. The company’s
vast timber plantations at Charter estate in Chimanimani have been virtually
turned into small pockets of maize and rapoko fields.“About
2,500 hectares of our estate has been illegally taken over by villagers who have parcelled themselves pieces of land. Our hands are tied because the invasions are being coordinated by politicians,” said an estate manager who refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
The manager said the most affected estates were Zipras, Chinyai and Skyline where the illegal settlers have cleared all the timber and substituted the trees with maize and rapoko crops.
“At Skyline the invaders have also cleared all the indigenous trees which the company had left for soil conservations purposes. The soil in the area is very porous, mountainous and is not suitable for any agricultural activity,” he said.
The manager said repeated high level efforts to engage the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the politicians concerned over the rampant environmental degradation in the area has not yielded anything.
The company’s official also accused the invaders of causing veld fires which has destroyed most of the newly planted trees. The councillor for the area, Micah Chimene said the issue of settlers in timber plantations has sharply divided the Chimanimani rural district council.
“I recently moved a motion in council for the eviction of the invaders from the plantations but our colleagues from Zanu (PF) are against the idea.
About 70 percent of our revenue comes from Border Timbers and if the estate closes down, the council’s coffers will be crippled,” said Chimene.
Labels: LAND REFORM, TIMBER, WAR VETERANS
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Simuusa warns against forest depletion
By Fridah Nkonde in Ndola and Gift Chanda in Lusaka
Thu 22 Dec. 2011, 13:50 CAT
INCREASED timber harvesting without replanting can lead to depletion of forests and timber shortages in the country, says mines and natural resources minister Wylbur Simuusa.
And the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) has called for establishment of a forestry commission in a bid to curb deforestation.
During the Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation Limited (ZAFFICO) 2011/2012 tree planting in Ndola on Tuesday, Simuusa said ZAFFICO would replant over four million seedlings covering about 3,000 hectares of land this year alone.
Simuusa said current demand for timber had increased to unprecedented levels due to a rise in construction and mining activities taking place in the country.
He said apart from replanting on the Copperbelt Province, ZAFFICO had projected to expand the tree-planting programme of establishing and managing industrial plantations in other provinces in the country.
Simuusa said to encourage private participation in the forestry sector, ZAFFICO had raised and offered for sale to the public 800,000 pine seedlings at a price of K2,000 per seedling.
He said the inspiration to revive tree planting could not have come at a better time than now when the entire world was grappling with global issues like global warming and climate change.
Simuusa said the increased demand for timber and the associated environmental needs was a clear wake-up call for all Zambians to double their effort in expanding forest plantation in all parts of the country.
"The forestry sector has the capacity to create employment to our people in all forest activities starting from planting, weeding, pruning, logging and processing of the wood into other timber products. Given the fact that trees are replaced after harvesting, I have no doubt that this industry is a haven for job creation in the country. For instance, ZAFFICO has currently engaged about 1,600 seasonal employees who are working in the plantation in Ndola, Ichimpe, Chati, and Lamba," he said.
Simuusa said the government was worried that despite the enormous job opportunities the forest sector had created, the private sector was not keen on investing in the industry.
He said the Patriotic Front government would encourage and render maximum support to investors who wanted to venture into the forestry sector.
Simuusa appealed to Zambians to change their attitude and take keen interest in the forestry sector.
And in an interview shortly after the launch of a policy brief on forestry on Tuesday, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Reverend Pukuta Mwanza urged the government and all key stakeholders to quickly act and save the country's forest cover from depletion.
He said a study recently done by EFZ revealed that the country's forest cover was under threat due to an alarming rate of deforestation, degradation, erosion, economic activities and unsustainable farming practices.
According to the United Nations' Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 66.5 per cent or about 49,468,000 hectares of Zambia is forested.
But between 1990 and 2010, Zambia lost an average of 166,600 hectares or 0.32 per cent per year.
In total, between 1990 and 2010, Zambia lost 6.3 per cent of its forest cover, or around 3,332,000 hectares.
Zambia was ranked among the top 10 countries globally in terms of deforestation between 2000 and 2006.
"One of our strong proposals to the government is that there must be strong funding towards the forestry sector so that there can be effective monitoring of the forests," Rev Mwanza said.
"In this regard we would like to see the establishment of the proposed Zambia Forestry Commission which should provide necessary regulatory roles as well as the certification process so that enhanced benefits can accrue to the Zambians."
Rev Mwanza said the establishment of the proposed Zambia Forestry Commission would be the surest way of ensuring that the management of forests was more sustainable and cost effective.
Meanwhile, the EFZ also recommended that the forestry policy be updated to provide a clearly defined thrust and direction as well as benefits.
It proposed that the forestry Act be amended to align it with existing monitoring and evaluation policy.
Labels: FORESTRY, TIMBER, WYLBUR SIMUUSA
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Foreign Investors in Timber Industry in Zambia externalizing their profits-TPAZ
TIME PUBLISHED - Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 8:39 am
Zambia is losing revenue from illegal cutting of trees. Mongu district forestry department confiscating timber from unlicensed dealers at Mongu central market during a market inspection exercise in Mongu
THE Timber Producers Association of Zambia (TPAZ) has urged Government to revoke all timber licences because most investors are allegedly externalising their profits.
TPAZ vice-president Charles Masange said the timber industry is currently dominated by foreign investors, hence the need for Government to sort out the issuance of licences to bring sanity in the industry.
Mr Masange said in an interview in Lusaka that Zambia could realise revenue from the export of timber if the necessary measures are put in place for the industry to positively contribute to country’s economy.
He said the policies should be revised in order for both parties to benefit unlike the current situation where only a few are advantaged noting that the timber sector is only contributing one percent to the Gross Domestic Product.
“The timber industry has been performing very badly because it is overcrowded by foreigners,” he said. He said Government should immediately revise the Investment Act under Zambia Development Agency to scrutinise genuine and fake investors and also constitute a Taskforce to monitor and control timbering in the country.
Mr Masange said currently most foreigners buy timber from the locals at a minimum price of K1 million per tonne and resale at about US$10,000 to 12,000 per tonne.
Mr Masange said currently most foreigners buy timber from the locals at a minimum price of K1 million per tonne and resale at about US$10,000 to 12,000 per tonne.
He alleged Zambians will continue to be disadvantaged, if the trend of investors engaged in large hectarge of timbering is left unchecked adding that foreign investors should be allowed to participate in the secondary industry so that they export finished materials instead of raw materials.
He said Zambia does not benefit from its timber as it is directly exported to country of the investors’choice.
“I call them (foreign investors) harvesters instead of investors because they are abusing our timber which is natural resources from which we are suppose to benefit locally,” he said .
“I call them (foreign investors) harvesters instead of investors because they are abusing our timber which is natural resources from which we are suppose to benefit locally,” he said .
He also said the Government should consider funding the wood industry so that it can create jobs, improve people’s livelihood and generally contribute to the development of the country’seconomy.
Labels: FDI, MONGU, NEOCOLONIALISM, TIMBER
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COMMENT - Interesting that Keith Harmon Snow links Jendayi Frazer to Beny Steinmetz and Dany Gertler (who was behind the sale of Zambia's state telco ZAMTEL to the Libyan government of President Ghadaffi's LAP Green investment fund).
Jendayi Frazer, through Wikileaks, who President Mugabe labeled
"a little prostitute", has been shown to have been
behind Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia. Belgian Paratroopers to Crush Rising Congo Rebellion? Part III
By Keith Harmon Snow
Keith Harmon Snow is a war correspondent, photographer and independent investigator, and a four time (2003, 2006, 2007, 2010) Project Censored award winner. He is also the 2009 Regent's Lecturer in Law & Society at the University of California Santa Barbara, recognized for over a decade of work, outside of academia, contesting official narratives on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide while also working as a genocide investigator for the United Nations and other bodies.
Mobutu Sese Seko's Ghosts Brazzaville has harbored Mobutu’s ex-Forces Armées Zaïroises (ex-FAZ) since 1996-1997, and it harbors Rwandan elements that fled the AFDL genocide against Hutu refugees in Congo-Zaire (1996-1997). Sources suggest there are at least 300 ex-MLC and more than 10,000 ex-FAZ troops available for the Dongo rebellion.
Rwandan refugees in Congo-Brazza include civilian survivors of the 1994 exodus from Rwanda and the subsequent international war crimes committed by the Paul Kagame and James Kabarebe and their troops in DRC from 1996-1998. Uganda People’s Defense Forces also helped hunt and massacre Hutu refugees.
Congo-Brazzaville also supports the ex-Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) and their allies, the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), providing a distant rear base for Congo operations directed at liberating Rwanda from the extremist Tutsis and the Kagame dictatorship. 11
Thus many Rwandan refugees in Brazzaville are former liberation fighters hostile to the terrorist Kagame regime for its ‘blame-the-victims’ inversion of the Rwanda ‘genocide’ story and the mass murder of millions of Hutu people from 1990 to the present.
As of 2005, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) counted some 59,000 Congo-Kinshasa refugees in Congo-Brazzaville and more than 4000 Congo-Kinshasa refugees in C.A.R. 12
Sassou-Nguesso, Dos Santos, Ali Bongo and his father Omar, Mobutu, Habyarimana—all of these current and former Central African regimes align(ed) themselves with French and Israeli security and intelligence interests 13—and all seek to counter balance and limit Tutsi extremist expansionism in Central Africa backed by the Anglo-American alliance.
Equateur Province is the site of major untapped petroleum reserves. Belgian, French, Portuguese, German and U.S. families and corporations control vast tracts of land being denuded by rapacious industrial logging. There are also western-owned plantations with modern day plantation slavery involving tens of thousands of Congolese people subject to terrorism by state paramilitary services.
The outside world hears little or nothing about the western-owned logging and plantation concessions producing timber, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, and rubber through modern day slavery. Similarly, the immense untapped petroleum reserves beneath the Congo River basin and its rainforests in Equateur province remain undisclosed by western institutions—including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), USAID, and Care International—involved in possessing and depopulating these rainforest lands for western corporate interests that benefit through the Kabila regime.
According to Congo researcher David Barouski, cassiterite (tin) mined from the bloody Kivu provinces in eastern Congo also passes through the networks of the plantations and logging interests in Equateur and Orientale.
“Outside of Asia, Belgium is the primary importer of Congolese cassiterite. Sodexmines sells to SDE, located in Brussels and directed by Mr. Edwin Raes. SDE is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Elwyn Blattner Group. Mr. Elwyn Blattner, who hails from Bayonne, N.J, owns several businesses in the Congo through his firm, African Holding Company of America. They include logging concessions, transportation, and palm oil plantations. The products [from] these businesses are also imported by SDE.”14
The Elwyn Blattner Groupe has supported all sides in Congo’s wars, bankrolling combatants, police, governors and officials who control the geographical areas where his interests are. The Blattner family—James, Elwyn, Daniel, David—began and expanded under Mobutu and are entrenched with the Kabila regime.15
Assasins target Joseph Kabila Kanambe
Recognizing the growing disaffection amongst his own military and intelligence services, President Kabila is surrounded by trusted elite Angolan Special Forces.
Since Joseph Kabila came to power in 2001, the elite Guard Républicaine (GR) controlled directly by the President outside the military chain of command or any civilian or judicial oversight, has been expanded to some 15,000 elite, heavily armed forces deployed at all strategic locations around the country. Sources in the intelligence sector in Congo-Kinshasa claim that the GR is predominantly comprised of elite Angolan Special Forces, with a token number of Congolese to put a proper face on things.
In 2005, it was reported that Kabila’s closest security detail in the Presidential Guards was a detachment of 50 elite Zimbabwe Defense Forces under the command of Lt. Colonel Richard Sauta, a 5th dan (rank) Tae Kwan Do expert trained in North Korea.16
Kabila has also reportedly moved all ammunitions depots off Congolese FARDC military bases in Kinshasa, though Rwandan FARDC (‘ex’-CNDP) and Angolan troops remain heavily armed and supplied.
The view looking across the Congo River from Kinshasa to Brazzaville, showing Kinshasa’s transshipment port for timber exploitation and export to Europe, Asia & North America. Photo keith harmon snow 2006.
Angolan troops backed Kabila during the deadly battle for Kinshasa against Jean-Pierre Bemba and MLC loyalists in March 2007. Enraged by MLC attacks that claimed some 23 Angolans, including a senior officer, the Angolan forces ruthlessly retaliated, causing massive civilian casualties thousands of bodies were collected and dumped in mass graves and in the Congo River.17 At the time, President Dos Santos convinced Congo-Brazzaville president Dennis Sassou-Nguesso to block ex-FAZ troops in Brazzaville from crossing the Congo River to join the MLC fight.
This time, Sassou-Nguesso has allowed ex-FAZ and ex-MLC to cross the border and join the Dongo rebellion.
Since March 2007, MLC forces that were captured or surrendered to MONUC after the deadly battle were detained by MONUC in Kinshasa ‘for their own safety’. In past weeks, Kabila’s loyalist forces in Kinshasa seized some of the MLC captives in military operations described by Kinshasa intelligence insiders as ‘staged assaults.’
Sources claim that MONUC has collaborated with the Kabila security apparatus in their efforts to seize and eliminate MLC captives. These captives included some 150 former combatants, along with their wives and children. Reports from Kinshasa suggest that these MLC are being systematically eliminated in what amount to extrajudicial executions.
“MONUC tried to get these MLC soldiers ‘integrated’ into the FARDC because they [MONUC] knew that Kabila would have them [MLC] killed,” says an insider in Kinshasa. “In June, officers from MONUC wanted to transfer the Bemba MLC men in secret to Kabila. Bemba’s men refused and took MONUC soldiers hostage and MONUC had to negotiate for their release. Now, Kabila’s Presidential militia have forced the door and arrested Bemba soldiers. MONUC seemed to pretend not to know what was happening. We know that between 80 and 103 people from MLC have been arrested by the Presidential Guard.”
There have been massive arrests and illegal detentions of young men in Kinshasa and outlying areas in the past month. In the past week, Congolese newspapers reported that escaped prisoners had been shot. However, sources indicate that these ‘escapees’ were killed in prison.
Such actions are routine for the Kinshasa security apparatus. Any time that Kabila suspects or discovers a coup, street children and young men are rounded up and detained, often involving intimidation and beatings, by the Presidential Guard.
Sources in Kinshasa also say that Kabila’s forces rounded up scores and possibly hundreds of young civilian men in Maluku, a former Jean-Pierre Bemba MLC stronghold some 70 kilometers from Kinshasa. Kabila is worried that an insurgency against him will come from Maluku.
Kabila has good reason to be alarmed. There have been at least four serious coup attempts against Kabila over the past two years; two of these occurred in 2009.
One recent unreported coup attempt occurred in Kinshasa on May 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm when Kabila was returning from Mbakana, reported to be the Kabila clan’s privately fortified ‘farm’ security compound also some 70 kilometers from Kinshasa.
When the presidential procession set off down the Boulevard de 30 Juin, Kinshasa’s central artery, on May 18 a sniper, lying in ambush, opened fire on the presidential Mercedes Jeep at the intersection of Wangata Avenue. Kabila had switched vehicles and was riding in a Nissan Patrol like those used by members of parliament. Following the attack, Kabila ordered the systematic destruction of all the public kiosks and pavilions along the Boulevard de 30 Juin, and the indiscriminate round up and arrest of young men in Kinshasa. The attack reportedly involved five commandos.
All media inside Congo were forbidden from reporting on the May coup attempt, reportedly on the personal orders of President Kabila. Several media outlets of the Congolese Diaspora reported the events. It is also true that ‘coups’ and ‘attacks’ in Kinshasa have been staged by the Kabila government and by opposition as devices to manipulate public opinion or justify retaliatory action.
In October 12, 2009, Colonel Floribert Bofate Lihamba was arrested in Lubumbashi, Katanga Province, the heart of Congo’s most lucrative western mining operations, and transferred to a prison in Kinshasa. A top security agent in President Kabila’s Presidential Guard Républicaine (GR), and a former member of the Special Presidential Security Group (GSSP) under President Laurent Kabila, Col. Lihamba is accused of planning a coup d’etat.
On October 21, 2009, President Kabila survived the second most recent attempted coup d’etat, another recent pivotal event in Congo unreported by the western press or Congolese media. Informed in advance of the impending attempt on his life, President Kabila had curtailed all public appearances and was reportedly again holed up with Angolan troops on his ‘farm’ security compound outside Kinshasa.
According to Congolese intelligence sources, ex-Forces Armées Zaïroises (ex-FAZ) commandoes crossed the Congo River seeking to assassinate Kabila. The commandoes all reportedly originate from the Mobutu and Jean-Pierre Bemba strongholds around Gbadolite , in northwestern Equateur.
The arrested officers include: four Majors (Yogo, Zwafunda, Mokwesa, Ngombo); five captains (Koli, Nzale, Gbaka, Kongawi, and Salakoso); nine lieutenants (Libanza, Masisi, Gerembaya, Mbuyi, Ndongala, Ngani, Kpdobere, Nzanzu and Sido); and four sergeants (Kongo, Dondo, Lisala, and Lite).
“President Kabila is afraid of the ex-FAZ,” says one Congolese source. “He is afraid of Ngbanda.”
One of the former President Mobutu’s closest advisers, Honoré Ngbanda—the ‘Terminator’—is also rumored to back the uprising in Dongo. Ngbanda held various positions under Mobutu, including Minster of the Interior, Ambassador to Israel and Head of the Mobutu’s notorious SNIP, the National Intelligence and Protection Service (Service National d'Intelligence et de Protection).
Honoré Ngbanda’s ties to other Mobutu era big men likely include the Bongo family (Gabon) and Jewish-American diamond kingpin Maurice Templesman (United States), whose De Beers-affiliated diamond interests were partially displaced when the Kabila regime partnered with Israeli businessmen Dan Gertler and Benny Steinmetz. Gertler and Steinmetz cemented their interests in Congo-Kinshasa through former U.S. President G.W. Bush and former U.S. State Department official Jendayi Frazer.
South Africa is home to several former high commanders from the former Mobutu regime of Zaire. Former Security Police Chief General Kpama Baramoto, former Special Forces Commander General Ngabale Nzimbi and former Zairean Defense Minister Admiral Mudima all now reside in South Africa and are clearly interested in overthrowing Joseph Kabila.
In past weeks, Kabila has attempted to replace Congolese intelligence agents with Rwandans drawn from the CNDP, the extremist Tutsi terrorist network out of Rwanda. This has stirred further anger amongst the Congolese members of the FARDC and the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Congo-Kinshasa’s secret service.
Two young women in a remote village in Equateur province. The average Congolese citizen is innocent of all involvement of war and plunder, never had much of anything for consumer goods, and retains a lovely sense of self, rich with compassion, dignity, truth and courage. These are the victims of the unholy western warfare alliances in Central Africa. Photo keith harmon snow, Equateur Province, DRC, 2004.
“The CNDP is a rebellion that Kagame used, and Kabila allowed, to infiltrate Rwandan soldiers into the Congolese [FARDC] army,” reports an intelligence insider in Kinshasa. “These CNDP are described as Congolese Tutsis but they are Rwandans. The fact that Kabila tried to replace some members of secret services and [FARDC] army by people who came from CNDP [provoked] the anger of many in the Congolese army and intelligence services. Kabila will be captured or killed very soon. TRUST ME.”
To be continued.
Footnotes
11Interviews with Rwandans in the Diaspora, keith harmon snow.
12United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
13See keith harmon snow, “The Crimes of Bongo: Apartheid & Terror in Africa’s Gardens of Eden,” Cyrano’s Journal Online, July 17, 2009, .
14David Barouski, “Transcript of David Barouski’s 10/19/08 Presentation for Congo Week in Chicago, IL.,” World News Journal, October 22, 2008, .
15Elwyn Blattner and his plantations holdings are revealed in the 2008 documentary film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty by Dutch filmmaker Renzo Martens, .
16Wilf Mbanga, Zimbabwe/DRC: Zimbabwean troops guards President Kabila in Congo, The Zimbabwean/UK, August 12, 2005, .
17See: keith harmon snow, “Behind the Scenes: Warlord’s Deadly Battle in Congo,” Toward Freedom, August 19, 2007, .
Labels: BENY STEINMETZ GROUP RESOURCES, DAN GERTLER, DRC, JENDAYI FRASER, TIMBER
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COMMENT - K470,000 ($94,- at K5000/$)is nothing. The state should just pay the police proper salaries, and take it out of a road or import tax.
Bribery between cops, timber exporters worries sawmillers
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Tue 28 June 2011, 08:50 CAT
CONGOLESE timber exporters have found trading in the formal manner unnecessary due to some corrupt Zambia Police officers manning road checkpoints, says the Zambia National Association for Saw Millers.
In a statement in Kitwe, association secretary general William Bwalya said his
members had always received complaints from Congolese traders who pay bribes along the way despite having all the necessary export documentation.
“We had cited internal factors hindering the development of this sector in this paper Post before, among other issues as the urgent reformation by government of the existing Forest Act which is outdated and undesirable,” said Bwalya on Wednesday.
“However, we are citing the Zambia Police to be among the external factors that are undermining the development of the wood and forestry sector.
Following a meeting last week facilitated by the Cross-border Traders Association, Copperbelt chapter, between the timber producers, forestry, veterinary and governmental officials from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Chililabombwe, delegates from both countries recognised the need to formalise the export trade in timber between the two countries,” Bwalya said.
He said the meeting agreed that Zambia ensures that all timber destined for Congo DR and vice-versa has complete export documentations.
Bwalya said the Congolese would also be supplied with import documentations to be worked out by their government.
“The Zambia National Association for Saw Millers incognito last Saturday carried a test export with all export documentations prepared. To the dismay of the officials accompanying the consignment, Zambia Police at all strategic road blocks demanded passage fees in order to provide access to proceed with the consignment to the border. In total, Zambia Police extorted K470,000 for the consignment to reach the border at Kasumbalesa,” Bwalya said.
He said the export documentations cost K1 million which he said were not necessary as far as Zambia Police was concerned.
He said the Congolese said they would rather pay bribes to pass than procure export documentation, which he said did not serve the purpose.
“Similarly, some vehicles used by sawmillers to transport logs are not road worthy and most should be banned from our roads but instead the corrupt officers merely impound these vehicles temporarily until a bribe is paid upon which the vehicles are released,” said Bwalya.
Labels: BRIBERY, CORRUPTION, DRC, POLICE CORRUPTION, TIMBER
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Invest in tree planting, govt challenges sawmillers
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Wed 16 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
GOVERNMENT has challenged sawmillers and timber merchants to urgently invest in tree planting to ensure sustainability of the forest industry because ZAFFICO will not meet their demand in the years to come.
Officiating at a meeting with timber producers, merchants and sawmillers on Monday aimed at finding best practices to manage the forests, Tourism, environment and natural resources minister Catherine Namugala said there was need to address challenges that inhibited the creation of linkages in the forestry business.
“We want you to develop value addition strategies because we can't continue exporting raw or semi-processed timber and yet we import products made out of our timber,” Namugala said.
She said it was important to remember that forests were a strategic natural resource and contributed a lot to Zambia.
Environment and natural resources permanent Lillian Kapulu advised the private sector to ensure optimum utilisation of trees through value addition and less operational wastage.
“We want to see those huge piles of sawdust being turned into finished products like briquettes to be used as alternative energy to charcoal,” said Kapulu.
“And why is Zesco importing transmission poles? Does it mean timber producers and merchants are failing to meet demand? Government wants you to export finished products, thereby avoiding creation of jobs in other countries.”
At the same meeting, Minister of Lands Gladys Lundwe assured that government was ready to expedite the provision of land to prospective investors in the forestry sector since planting of trees was important in national economic development.
ZAFFICO managing director Frightone Sichone said having one supplier in timber business was not sustainable.
“The private sector should come on board and supplement ZAFFICO. It is true that trees take years to mature so people fear they won't get immediate benefits but these are the same people building mansions and yet they are in their 60s,” said Sichone.
Earlier, Association for Saw Millers president Peter Kabamba accused ZAFFICO of squeezing entrepreneurs by reducing their annual wood allocation.
“Reduction of annual wood allocation is affecting saw millers' businesses since we fail to meet demands of our customers,” he said.
Labels: CATHERINE NAMUGALA, FRIGHTONE SICHONE, MILLERS, TIMBER
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COMMENT - Why would the sawmillers depend on donor funds? Aren't they in the private sector?
Pine timber crisis warning
By Abigail Chaponda in Ndola
Fri 19 Nov. 2010, 04:04 CAT
COPPERBELT Saw-millers’ and Timber Growers’ Association chairman Nick O’Conn-or predicts that Zambia will run out of pine timber in the next 10 years.
Speaking at a COSTIGA meeting at Kafubu Inn in Ndola yesterday, O’connor asked the Zambian government to release the $24 million donated by the Danish and Finish governments that it had been holding on to for the past one year for support to the private sector to empower and improve the timber and forestry industry.
“Zambia is facing another grave crisis; ZAFFICO Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation is utilising 1,800 hectares of timber a year, calculated without taking theft into account so it is 1,800 plus, but we are planting less than 1,000. For the past 15 years we have planted much less than we have harvested and we can conclusively say that in the next 10 years Zambia will run out of pine timber and will have to import to build houses,” he said.
O’Connor said 2010 was a difficult year for most sawmillers, adding that apart from being a wet year that made harvesting difficult with the state of roads in the plantation, millers had to contend with serious third-party buying that had been crippling the industry.
He said third-party buying was illegal as the buyers were bribing ZAFFICO staff to steal extra round wood, making a direct loss to ZAFFICO and the country.
“The next urgent issue is the empowerment of the more than 300 small-scale sawmillers who are battling with viability because of the third party buying and because they were under-capitalised at the beginning and could only afford the inefficient thick circular blade saws that create a large amount of saw dust meaning the millers sell less for each tree cut. This is costing Zambia dearly,” he said.
“I commend the Danish and Finish governments for their farsightedness in seeing the need for assistance. They have offered $24 million for support to the private sector to empower and improve the timber and forestry industry.
Unfortunately, these funds are stuck in government, and the private sector cannot access it. We have written to the minister for help and hopefully will be invited to a meeting where we will request that the ministry facilitates unlocking the funds to help our industry and Zambia.”
He said the association had come up with a double plan to mitigate the effects on Zambia in an event that the country runs out of pine timber.
O’Connor said the other plan was for all members of the association to assist ZAFFICO with planting and cultivation to meet the 3,000 hectare per year of timber that Zambia needs.
Labels: COSTIGA, DONORS, NICK O'CONNOR, TIMBER
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COMMENT - If $110 per months is a 60% increase ($110 = 160%), then the present wage is $69,75 per month, or $2,29 PER DAY. The new pay would be $3,66
per day, and employers say
they cannot afford it??? They should be fired, have their licenses revoked or thrown into jail. Apparently it is still legal to steal from working people.
Timber council set to contest 60pc pay rise
Herald Reporter
THE Timber Council of Zimbabwe will approach the Labour Court after an arbitrator awarded its employees a
60 percent salary increment that will result in them earning an average
US$110 a month — a figure employers say they cannot afford.
Addressing the Press last week, TCZ chairman Mr Joseph Kanyekanye said the wages awarded by the arbitrator were far above regional levels.
"The wages are way out of tinker with regional wages, if we are to compare with countries like Botswana and South Africa," he said.
"We seem to be having a system of independent arbitrators to adjudicate for the industrial system and the quarterly increases are suicidal.
"There should be a convergence of views between employers and employees, whereby wage negotiations must factor in permissible factors," he said.
He said there was a possibility some workers would be retrenched.
However, the legal officer for the Zimbabwe Furniture Timber and Allied Trade Union, Mr Ian Makoshore, last week said the arbitrations came after several futile attempts by the National Employment Council to bring TCZ to the negotiation table.
"According to Section 74 and 94 of the Labour Act, after vain attempts to meet either of the parties an independent arbitrator will refer the matter for compulsory arbitration, and this is exactly what was done," said Mr Makoshore.
Labels: LABOUR, SALARIES, TIMBER
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Timber firm embarks on firewood project
Business Reporterer
ALLIED Timber Holdings has embarked on a firewood project that is set to empower urban women to save at least 400 000 hectares of tree cover and reduce deforestation. The project will be run in conjunction with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development involving 70 men and women from across the country.
The participants recently underwent a one-day training on the different needs of the industry. Sales will be conducted from 45 pilot centres around the country. The project comes in the wake of calls to rigorously monitor the process of reforestation.
Early this year Environment and Natural Resources Management Minister Francis Nhema, said it was the duty of every citizen to plant trees to avoid climate change.
Between 1990 and 2005 the country has lost 21,1 percent forest cover, he said.
At a ceremony to officially launch the firewood project Minister Nhema said the initiative would alleviate the shortage of energy in urban areas while helping in the conservation of forests.
Increased power cuts over the past few weeks has increased pressure on the people to look for alternative sources of energy.
Labels: TIMBER
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South African firm purchases Redwood Timber Merchants
Written by Joan Chirwa in Johannesburg
Friday, July 17, 2009 5:07:37 AM
SOUTH Africa's Aurora Empowerment Systems has bought Redwood TimberMerchants and its subsidiaries, one of the region's largest forestry and sawmill operations in Zambia.
Local media reported here yesterday that Aurora Empowerment Systems hoped to develop Redwood Timber and its subsidiaries - Natural Africa Timbers and Zambezi Sands - to meet the high demand for timber in South Africa and export markets.
The acquisition, according to the Business Day, is part of Aurora 's expansion strategy.
The company recently announced plans to take over JSE-listed Cenmag Holdings.
Aurora chief executive officer Zondwa Mandela said the deal included investing in sectors such as tourism and mining in emerging economies, with particular focus on viable projects in Africa.
The company is also finalising details of more investments in mining, which would be announced in the next few weeks.
"We have acquired Redwood Timber Merchants...for R93.5 million. The acquisition is one of a kind as the company owns one of the largest timber concessions in the southern hemisphere and has timber valued at about $130 million covering about 80,000 hectares and equivalent to about 300,000 cubic metres of timber," Mandela said.
Aurora planned to nominate Cenmag as the purchaser of Redwood Timber Merchants subject to JSE listing requirements.
The timber firm owns and operates one of the largest sawmills in the region and specialises in harvesting various tree species.
It also makes finished timber products like flooring, doors, windows and laminated beams.
The company stated in a stock exchange announcement on Tuesday that the acquisition would be the first step towards the proposed consolidation of the regional timber industry.
Mandela said Aurora would therefore increase output of sawn timber to meet demand, which was currently outstripping supply in local and exports markets.
Labels: REDWOOD TIMBER MERCHANTS, TIMBER
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Vora urges measures to reduce waste in timber processing
By Kabanda Chulu
Wednesday April 02, 2008 [04:00]
FALLSWAY Timbers managing director Shyam Vora has said there is need to develop mechanisms that can reduce waste in timber milling and processing.
During the launch of machinery worth K1.2 billion (US $ 320,000) that would turn sawdust into bio-coal (briquettes) products to be used as an alternative source of heating energy, Vora said there had been too much waste in the company’s processing and production lines that must be avoided.
“In sawmilling you have a 40 per cent recovery while 60 per cent is waste in form of off-cuts, sawdust and substandard products hence the need to put up mechanisms to use up the waste,” Vora said. “And it is for this reason that we are introducing bio-coal or briquettes, which are alternative sources of heating energy and this project will consume waste and increase recovery from 40 per cent to about 90 per cent and the total cost of the machinery is US$ 320,000.”
He explained that the bio-coal products could be applied as an alternative source of heating energy for charcoal and consequently reduced on environmental degradation.
“There has been too much waste in our production and we want to preserve and add value to this waste hence introducing the bio-coal that will be used as an alternative heating energy to charcoal and the bio-coal products will have less pollution on the environment,” said Vora.
Labels: SHYAM VORA, TIMBER
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