26 March 2008
Maputo — The coordinator of the Mozambican NGO "Amigos da Floresta" (Friends of the Forest), the prominent sociologist Carlos Serra, has warned that approval of the first mega-projects to produce biofuels will worsen the threat to the country's forests.
In a statement issued on the first anniversary of the foundation of "Amigos da floresta", Serra said that a great deal still has to be done to halt the illegal exploitation of timber in Mozambique, given that the number of forestry inspectors is manifestly inadequate to cover the entire country. On top of this they are badly and equipped, and thus highly vulnerable to bribery.
To complicate matters "there is now a new element in play, which is the approval of the first mega-projects to produce biofuels". Serra claimed that this would involve "hundreds of thousands of hectares of land". (But in fact to date, only one large project has receive government approval. This is PROCANA, which involves planting 30,000 hectares of sugar cane in the southern province of Gaza to produce ethanol).
The government has promised that fertile agricultural land will not be used for biofuels. Instead they will be planted on "marginal land". Serra feared that the term "marginal land" in reality means forests, which will be cleared to make way for biofuels.
He warned that deforestation is an evident reality in Mozambique, and criticized the lack of scientific studies on the real situation of the country's forests. The forest inventory presented last year is not yet publicly available, and logging licences were still being issued on a "doubtful scientific basis".
Serra said that this year "little has changed with regard to illegal exploitation of timber when compared with 2007". But there were "some slight improvements, the result of greater pressure on the part of civil society".
"Amigos da Floresta" is now organizing a campaign of environmental education and awareness on the importance of forests, which will include articles in the press, cartoon strips, theatre and music.
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