© KEYSTONE/AP/GEORGE OSODI
The Guinean authorities banned logging from Monday throughout the territory of this West African country with its rich biodiversity attacked by massive deforestation, they indicated on social networks.
This decision follows clandestine slaughter operations which have caused a stir in recent weeks in the regions of Mamou or Faranah (center).
“After noting the abusive cutting of wood in our forests and the illegal exploitation of forest resources in general, the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests prohibits the cutting and transport of wood throughout the national territory as of Monday, June 14, 2021 and until further notice, “indicates a statement from the ministry posted on its Facebook page and dated June 11.
The ministry prohibits the administration from issuing cutting and transport permits.
“Unbridled deforestation”
Guinea, nearly six times the size of Switzerland, “is one of the countries with the fastest rates of deforestation in the world,” the ministry said on its website in an article titled “unbridled deforestation”.
From 14 million hectares in the 1960s, the forest cover fell by the end of the 2010s to less than 700,000 hectares, making Guinea “one of the bad pupils” of forest conservation, says the text, despite the reforestation efforts undertaken. Even the “few fragments of classified forests (…) are not spared”.
A variety of factors are cited: the expansion of cocoa, coffee or palm oil cultivation, slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by a growing population, demographic pressure from a population that has doubled. in forty years, mining activities, logging, legal or clandestine, for himself or for other activities such as the extraction of salt or the smoking of fish.
This deforestation impoverishes biodiversity and impacts populations, faced with soil erosion and acidification, according to specialists.
Illegal cutting
National television reported a few days ago the discovery of considerable quantities of wood, mainly so-called rosewood, illegally felled in the Mamou region.
“According to the information we have, this wood is exported to Sierra Leone (a neighboring country) and drained to Asian countries,” said Colonel Layaly Camara, national director of Water and Forests.
“We were neither closely nor remotely informed by the population,” said Kaba Keita, local sub-prefect.
The authorities have announced the suspension of several senior officials of the administration and forestry services following these cases of illegal logging.