Industry: Harmonize inspection to prevent illegal timber trade between Kenya, Tanzania

 

Zanzibar, Tanzania: Lack of standardised procedures on inspection of forest products on transit in Kenya and across her borders have encouraged illegal trade in the country.

Illegal charcoal trade and movement of forest products across the borders by use of cheap means such as bicycles and pick-up trucks are some of the reasons that have encouraged the illegal trade on timber and timber products.

Speaking at the third Annual East Africa Timber Trade Stakeholders Forum organized by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Trade and Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC), the Kenyan representative; Alex Lemarkoko the Enforcement and Compliance Commandant at the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) said that poorly kept records on the trade has made it difficult to follow up on progress.

“A recent visit to four Kenya-Tanzania border points revealed that despite regular interagency meetings involving the Kenya Revenue Authority, the police, KFS, the Kenya Wildlife Trade, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and Kenya Bureau of Standards especially at the Taveta border; there is a need to develop a system for regular monitoring and tracking of illegal timber and timber products at cross border sites of Kenya and Tanzania,” he said.

The stakeholder’s forum that kicked off on Tuesday and ends on Wednesday, it aims at addressing growing domestic demand for timber in the region along with growing intra-regional and inter-regional illegal trade of timber and other forest products flowing across mainland Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Mr Lemarkoko pointed out that the recent memorandum of understanding signed between Kenya and Tanzania on combating illegal timber trade between the two countries will work on identifying the most common species of timber being traded in the region.

“We want to build the capacity of our staff to identify the different wood species. This has been a problem in the past in as far as curbing illegal timber trade is concerned,” he said.

His comment comes a few weeks after the intelligence wing of KWS uncovered a multi-million shilling international syndicate at the port of Mombasa involving illegal trade in the endangered Rosewood from Madagascar.

“Our officers are trained in the wood species found in Kenya and a few other East African countries but there is need to do further training on the unfamiliar species.

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