Kevazingo : Enough is enough for the representatives of Chinese forestry companies in Gabon

After a new scandal of illegal trade in Kevazingo wood, the federation that represents Asian forestry and industrial companies in Gabon, UFIAG, has decided to take measures.

The Gabonese customs have seized 5.000 m3 of sawn Kevazingo wood, in the Owendo harbour (Libreville) last 28 february.

The capture has again caused an international scandal caused by a company from Chinese origin. While waiting for the results of judicial research, the government, through the Minister of Forests and Environment, has taken strong measures in order to immediately avoid export of other illegal wood products. Currently all export of wood products is forbidden, and the harbour is saturated with wood packages and containers filled with wood. It’s also forbidden to fill containers with wood products outside of the harbour of Owendo.

Regardless the results of the judicial research to unroll a network of traffic in this wood species (which is an Annexe 2 listed CITES species), the federation of Asian forestry companies in Gabon (UFIAG), has decided to anticipate and clean up their ranks. It has communicated two principle measures:

It will exclude each federation member that will be judged for illegal activities;
It will denounce amongst the Chinese community the names of forestry related companies that have been judged for illegal activities, whether they are members or not of UFIAG.