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Bishop Martín Lasarte Topolansky of the Catholic Diocese of Lwena in Angola has expressed concern about the escalating environmental destruction in eastern Angola, particularly in border areas with Zambia, where illegal logging and poaching are severely impacting the population.
“Unfortunately, there is illegal exploitation of our forests by foreign citizens crossing the border. What we are seeing is devastating. Rare trees cut, timber smuggled, and wildlife disappearing.” “I saw centenary Mussivi trees cut down, fresh tracks from tractors and trucks clearly coming from Zambia. On the Angolan side, there are no roads for these vehicles. It is obvious where they come from,” he said.
A multinational law enforcement operation codenamed ‘Operation Jungle Shield’, coordinated by the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), has uncovered extensive environmental crimes across the Congo Basin. The operation hit at organized crime groups, seizing 2,111kg of ivory and 34 kg of pangolin scales, rescuing a live pangolin from trafficking, and confiscating 180 pieces of equipment used for criminal activities. 58 suspects were arrested and charged with various environmental crimes. The total value of seizures is estimated at US$11,227,857. Additionally, the operation identified illegal logging and charcoal production activities, which are estimated to have resulted in 213,227 tons of CO2 emissions.
Many of the illegal activities uncovered were found to be destined for Asian markets.
The first high-resolution (5 m) and continental-scale
mapping of land use following deforestation in Africa, including humid and dry forests.
Results show, not surprisingly, that the causes of forest loss vary by region. In general, small-scale cropland is the
dominant driver of forest loss in Africa, with hotspots in Madagascar and DRC. In addition, commodity
crops such as cacao, oil palm, and rubber are the dominant drivers of forest loss in the humid forests of
western and central Africa, forming an “arc of commodity crops” in that region. At the same time, the
hotspots for cashew are found to increasingly dominate in the dry forests of both western and southeastern Africa, while larger hotspots for large-scale croplands were found in Nigeria and Zambia.
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Click here to access the Global Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (ILAT) Risk assessment tool and to download the Forest Trends User Guide describing the functionality of the ILAT Risk Data Tool.
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