Illegal loggers of rare tree switch to trading at night

Illegal dealers in Afzelia Africana logs commonly known as afzelia or beyo in northern Uganda, have switched to conducting the trade in the night, Daily Monitor has learnt.
At a bumpy and water-logged junction just after Okawa Trading Centre, Pakelle Sub-county in Adjumani District, Mr Cosmas Buga, seemingly in his 40s, swung fast to direct the district forestry and security officials while they hunted illegal loggers of Afzelia Africana.

Mr Buga, who rode a bicycle, convinced the officers to abandon their southward drive and instead turn eastwards where he claimed to have seen the dealers parking their lorry to load afzelia logs.
Upon driving two kilometres from the junction, the team met Mr Domnic Buga, a local leader in the area who told them that they had made a wrong turn and that they had been misguided to a wrong route.
While combing the forest, a call came in after an hour that the lorries they were looking for were headed towards Atiak corner in Amuru District.

The rider, who misdirected them, was part of a surveillance mechanism used by the dealers who approach by sunset to carry off the logs.
“They deploy their informants who tip them off whenever the police is coming after them. Since the loggers buy the trees from the landowners, the landowners do not listen to us (leaders) anymore. If you try to stop them, they instead challenge you to feed their families on their behalf,” Mr Buga said.
He said the dealers drive in the trucks and cranes for loading afzelia logs at night because they know at such a time, the security personnel would have withdrawn to rest.

Boom in Adjumani
Despite the directive by police to all its units across the country to enforce the suspension, the level of cutting, transportation and trade in afzelia logs in Adjumani District have continued.
The authorities say the dealers now forge South Sudanese documents and bribe officials at border posts in advance before they take out the logs at night.

“After a cat-and-mouse chase in villages in Adjumani with some dealers in February, we netted their trucks in Gulu Town with such documents,” an Environmental Protection Police Unit (EPPU) officer, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said.
He added that they were forced to release another impounded truck and its driver two weeks ago after a high ranking army officer (UPDF colonel), he declined to name, called and warned them that confiscating the truck and its content would cost them (officers) a lot.

“We are baffled because the district has no capacity to enforce the ban. There is no trailer or crane to carry the logs to the police or the district once confiscated. Remember the dealers pay Shs50,000 to any resident for tipping them of where afzelia is and more than Shs300,000 to the owner,” he added.
The officer said the district has in the past three months secured more than 20 convictions of log dealers in court although the dealers were all released upon paying fines of Shs250,000 each.
Mr Harunah Busobozi, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) manager for Kilak, said seeing the army claiming to be on patrol while their trucks are loaded with afzelia logs, was proof that soldiers were behind the trade.

“They would tell us that they are commanded to patrol the forests due to the volatile security status of the area but we would find trucks loading these endangered log species, even when we report it, log dealing remains tricky in Adjumani District,” Mr Busobozi said.
Whereas Mr Busobozi claimed that limited personnel and non-cooperation by sister security agencies made the enforcement of the ban appear weak, Maj Telesphor Turyamumanya, the UPDF 4th Division spokesperson, blamed NFA for not reporting such incidences.
“We are on the ground to support NFA and whatever any soldier does there illegally should be reported to us since we have enough laws in place to handle them. So far, none of these complaints by NFA have been filed with us,” Maj Turyamumanya said.

In February last year, government, in a circular signed by the State minister for Environment, Ms Mary Goretti Kitutu, banned any cutting, transportation and sale of afzelia and shea nut tree logs and their products.
Northern Uganda and West Nile sub-regions are the only areas in Uganda that have the afzelia or beyo.
The reserved tree species are currently on the verge of extinction due to uncontrolled and rampant illegal harvesting and trade in the logs and their products.

URA accused
Mr James Leku, the Adjumani District chairman, said the increased logging is due to failure by Uganda Revenue Authority to play its role in the ban.
Mr Leku said the logs go through more than 14 URA checkpoints without being impounded before they are exported out of the country.
“These are illegal dealers because the South Sudan documents they carry are fake but URA certifies and allows them through yet these are logs from within?” he wondered.

Although the log dealers take advantage of the limited security deployments and patrols to sneak out of the district with the logs, government has continued to allow the afzelia log auction in Kampala operate, he stated.
“Running the Kampala afzelia auction despite the bans implies too much conflict of interest instead of impounding and destroying them but remember the district cannot invest its little resources in a venture that brings no returns at the end.

Mr Jamil Ssenyonjo, URA spokesperson, when contacted on Tuesday, said the illegal dealers now dodge URA’s known checkpoints to avoid interception and confiscation.
“Once these trucks are crossing our known territories, we enforce the ban by confiscating them because we don’t condone these illegalities. But there is a tendency by the dealers to avoid our gazetted checkpoints to avoid arrests because they know they are doing it illegally,” Mr Ssenyonjo said.

However, Mr Leku says: “To a big extent, the ban has never been taken seriously and instead it has promoted more trade in afzelia logs. There is nothing much we can do now since police and army from Adjumani here, Gulu, Karuma, Luweero, Bombo, Kampala, etc do not arrest them while they pass.”
Dzaipi, Itirikwa, Okusijoni sub-counties and Apaa Parish remains the most affected areas where logging is being done currently.

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