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Sierra Leone: Chinese May Evade Govt Ban On Logging
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Concord Times (Freetown)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Tanu Jalloh
Some 230 miles away from Freetown, Gangama, Taetima, and Mesima communities in the Bonthe district have raised concerns over possible illegal exploitation and extraction of forest trees in complete contravention of government ban.
This claim was verified by a recent assessment report done by Green Scenery, a national non-governmental organization with objective to promote education and awareness on the country's environment in general and in particular the conservation of the country's biodiversity.
As a way to dealing with the alarming rate of deforestation, Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) put a ban to all forms of commercial logging and exporting in November 2007 and reinforced this ban again in early 2008, the report stated.
However, investigations revealed that a main interest group, a Chinese commercial interest, has been stockpiling logs in the Ngongokama forest so that it can be exported when the ban is eventually lifted.
Having seen evidence of the felled logs from Gbongokama Community Forest, and from concerns raised by the communities over the logging of trees from the forest, it was only but necessary to undertake this quick assessment to give an insight to the team as to the level of damage already caused.
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We also want to ascertain the claim of the communities about the existence of the forest, raise the awareness of the communities about the national ban on forest exploitation, to open up dialogue with the communities on the way forward for their forest and to facilitate discussions on the need for conservation and the importance of forests to man.
The communities claim that the forest is over a century old and has served as source of common resource pull for generations past and present but recent spate of deforestation around the country seems alarming. The activity increased to a critical level when interest for the purchase of high density wood by certain commercial entities intensified.
The tree species that has attracted loggers attention in the community forest bears the trade name Cam wood; in local dialect it is called Mbundoi (Mende) with biological name Baphia nitida. In its natural environment, the tree resembles other species thus making these species vulnerable to the loggers. In real terms, many trees that are not Cam wood have been felled in the forest and were abandoned.
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