Merrily, Merrily, A Logging We Will Go!...

Chinese logging in Jumbe, Eastern Province

Mrs Mbewe, the Chairperson of the MMD in Chipata, has– with Chinese partnership, and through her company Macram Mining Enterprises, applied formally for a pit saw licence to cut a min of 40 trees and a max of 60 trees in Jumbe district a month, proposing to take out a total of 18,000 hardwood trees. At least 150 trees had been cut before formal issue of any licenses, which should disqualify Macram immediately from any logging. Despite calls to the Forestry Department and the Environmental Council of Zambia to stop the activity, it continued due to the inaction of some junior officers: a junior ECZ officer had failed to report the matter to his superiors, who have now dispatched a team to investigate, and a similar junior lethargy had affected the Forestry Department ranks, though - now that he knows about it, the Principal Extension Officer, Mr Wiseman Sangulube has promised he will follow the matter up and pursue prosecution for illegal cutting and for taking the trees into Malawi without papers.