Chinese ‘mafia boss’ turns to timber in Namibia - Oxpeckers
▻http://oxpeckers.org/2017/02/xuecheng-hou-and-timber
Evidence shows Xuecheng Hou and other timber traders are taking advantage of a legal loophole that allows rural Namibians to harvest slow-growing species such as African rosewood, mukula and bloodwood trees for their own use.
They harvest most of the logs in south-eastern Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), countries that have banned the export of raw logs, and then transport the timber by truck to Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia.
Using Namibia as their backdoor, they are exporting raw logs from the region at a rate of thousands of trees every month.
Currently, an estimated 250-300 containers of raw timber are leaving Walvis Bay for China every month, representing a region-wide decimation of a resource valued for its medicinal and nutritional properties. At around US$35,000 to $40,000 per container, this illegal trade is worth between $8.75-million and $16-million per month.
Smuggling route
The wood-smuggling route is the same as that followed by the illicit trade in rhino horn, ivory and pangolin scales and skins, among others. Containers of illicit timber are often used to hide wildlife contraband, as a recent bust of one such trader with three tons of pangolin scale hidden in a container packed with wood from the DRC showed.
#bois #bois_précieux #contrebande #extinction #Chine #Namibie