Lusaka – Concerned with the continued rampant poaching of elephants and rhinos, among other endangered species, Germany has set aside 20 million euros to assist curb the practice in the 15 Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries. Part of the funding will be used to train scouts who will be specialised in ensuring that the illegal poaching of these endangered species is stopped forthwith. Germany, on the other hand, will ensure there is stepped up collaboration among all the countries as a protective measure to stop the practice which has robbed the region of various animals, whose products are commonly used for various purposes, including medicinal. Jean Kapata, Zambia’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, expressed concern about the illegal killing of endangered animals, especially rhinos and elephants. He expressed his worry last week at the SADC conference for ministers responsible for environment natural resources, fisheries aquaculture and tourism in Pretoria, South Africa. The financing of the anti-poaching programme by Germany comes at the right time when most African countries are faced with high levels of poaching by uncouth poachers. Each country will have to train anti-poaching scouts and ensure the practice is reduced, a statement from the Zambian Embassy in South Africa and authored by Naomi Nyawali, the first secretary for press, said. Kapata told the meeting that Zambia has placed a total ban on the exportation of all forms of timber logs, including mukula, which has become a source of concern for the government, with many foreign players involved in its logging with impunity. Zambia plans to set up and promote timber processing and manufacturing companies in the country that would add value to the raw materials that were being exported. The move would help the country create jobs through partnerships between the local people and foreign investors. Zambia was previously losing out on the full value of timber by exporting raw timber logs to the Far East. The government has since formulated a plan to plant over one million trees this year in order to curb deforestation. Estimates show that the SADC region is losing an estimated US$16-million per month through the rampant smuggling of the Pterocarpus Chrysothrix trees, or mukula, used for fine timber and medicine mostly in Far East Asia. This financial loss and threat posed to the slow growing species has prompted Zambian President Edgar Lungu to institute a ban on the harvesting and sale of the mukula tree, as it is commonly known in the country. Official data shows that Zambia alone is losing an average 276,000 hectares of land due to deforestation per year, including the endangered mukula tree. Regional countries affected by the illegal exports include Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Namibia. They are now seeking to enact laws to stop the practice. The continued smuggling of the precious tree, which takes over 80 years to mature, has raised eyebrows among the political leadership in the SADC community, prompting the affected countries to seek to halt the illegal trade of the tree, exported in raw logs with an ultimate destination being China, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries in the Far East. In Zambia, authorities have expressed concern over indiscriminate cutting of the trees, chiefly grown in Muchinga province in the north, near the border with Tanzania and DRC. President Lungu has ordered security forces, including the military, to join hands and stop the illegal export of the timber logs. The Ministry of Lands, Environment and Natural Resources and other interest groups have also raised concern over the decimation of the mukula trees – that is being transported to Asia via the Port of Walvis Bay in Namibia. Zambia is not alone in this predicament. The trees are being harvested as logs in south-eastern Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo despite the ban being in place. Smugglers have devised methods of exporting the logs through among other countries Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. They are later shipped to Asia, with China and Thailand being the major destinations. Reports indicated that Namibia is one of the countries being used as a transit where raw logs are exported from the region at a rate of thousands every month. It is estimated that 250-300 containers of raw timber are leaving Walvis Bay for China every month, representing a region-wide decimation of a resource valued for its medicinal and nutritional properties. Reports claim that at around US$35,000 to $40,000 per container, this illegal trade of the 18-metre-tall trees and probably taking 80 years to reach full maturity is worth between US$8.75 million and US$16 million per month. It is believed the species produces one of the best hard wood timber on earth. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 66.5 percent or about 49,468,000 hectares of Zambia is forested. However, FAO’s study shows that in total, between 1990 and 2010, Zambia lost 6.3 percent of its forest cover, or around 3,332,000 hectares. A report following an Integrated Land Use Assessment in 2016 estimated that deforestation rates range from 250,000 hectares per year while FAO in its report put the country’s deforestation rate at 444,800 hectares per year, with others even setting the figure at above 850,000 hectares per year. A study done by forestry and agricultural experts in 2009 showed that Zambia has the second highest per capita deforestation rate in Africa and the fifth highest in the world, with illegal timber production, charcoal production, agricultural, and human settlement expansion being the main drivers.