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Wood treasure: Gabon is home to rich tropical forests – but its management is coming under close scrutiny by environmental watchdogs. By NICOLAS COTTO (AFP)
Gabon has suspended a logging license issued to a Chinese timber company after a UK monitoring group, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), has accused the company of bribery and human rights violations. forest laws.
EIA, in a report on March 25, said Dejia group "systematically corrupt ministers" in Gabon and neighboring Republic of Congo.
The group has "permanently broken the most basic forest laws, turned timber trade regulations upside down, and diverted millions into unpaid taxes" from both countries, he said.
He added that Dejia's "illegal timber" was entering the European and US markets, as Gulling consumers believed the product they were buying met environmental standards.
Minister Foresty and Environment, Guy Bertrand Mapangou, on March 29 lambasted the report, calling it biased and "inquisitorial" and seeks to "discredit" the country, but said the authorities would conduct an investigation.
In a statement received by AFP on Friday, the ministry said the investigators had probed a Dejia subsidiary in Gabon, the Moanda Lumber Company (SSMO).
"The map data and the facts established on the grounds that SSMO leaders continued to illegally connect two forest sites," he said.
The leaders "would have benefited from connivance" with officials, he added, adding that an investigation into these employees was underway.
SSMO's license to log on to both sites was suspended "as a precautionary measure" and "all the newspapers found (y) were confiscated," the statement said.
Tropical timber is a vital resource for Gabon, accounting for 60% of GDP if we exclude the oil sector, the country's main source of income.
The country sees itself as a guardian of forests, but these claims are increasingly challenged by activists.
On March 6, the Conservation Justice group said customs officers had seized a large distance of kevazingo, a precious timber whose exploitation is banned in Gabon because it is considered sacred.
About 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 feet) of kevazingo – around 30 large container-loads – were confiscated along with other woods in a warehouse at a timber port on the Libreville Peninsula.
The head of the Chinese company owner of the warehouse and two other employees were arrested, said the group.
Marc Ona, head of a Gabonese environmental group called Brainforest, said that without the EIA report, "the ministry might not have proceeded to the investigation" on SSMO.
"It means that within the department, there is no team to check that loggers are following the law," Ona said.
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