" The illicit trade with China fuelling Mozambique's insurgency" 15 May 2024

Timber smuggling, estimated to be worth $23m (£18m) a year, from Mozambique’s ancient forests to China is helping to fund a brutal Islamist insurgency as well as a large criminal network in the north of the southern African country. This illicit trade in rosewood is linked to the financing of Mozambique’s Islamic-State linked militants, in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, according to data seen by the BBC from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an NGO that campaigns against alleged environmental crime.

Rosewood is a catch-all trade term for a wide range of tropical hardwoods that are highly prized for luxury furniture in China.

Mozambique’s rosewood is protected under an international treaty, meaning only very limited trade that does not threaten the species is allowed.

However, a four-year undercover investigation by the EIA in both countries has revealed that poor management of officially sanctioned forest concessions, illegal logging and corruption among port officials is allowing the trade to expand unchecked in insurgent-controlled areas. [...]

A Mozambique government report published earlier this year and seen by the BBC - the National Risk Assessment on Terrorism Finance Report - says the al-Shabab insurgents have taken advantage of the illicit timber trade to “fuel and finance the reproduction of violence”.

The report says the insurgents’ involvement in the “smuggling of fauna and flora products”, including wood, and the “exploitation of forest and wildlife resources” is contributing to a “very high level of fundraising” for the insurgency group. It estimated its revenue from these activities amounted to $1.9m a month. Given the challenge in accessing the Cabo Delgado region it is hard to quantify the insurgents’ level of day-to-day involvement in the timber trade but there have been reports of firms paying a 10% protection fee to the jihadist groups to carry out illegal logging in forest areas. [...] Rosewood transported between Mozambique and China is carried by two of the world’s biggest global shipping lines, Maersk and CMA-CGM, according to the EIA investigation. A spokesperson from Maersk said in a statement to the BBC that it is “committed to combatting illegal wildlife trade and will not knowingly accept bookings of wildlife or wildlife products, where such trade is contrary to Cites or otherwise illegal. We request our customers to correctly declare the content of their cargo and we are dependent on customs authorities to verify the declarations and certificates. Shipments can only take place against Cites certificates and authority approval.”

A CMA-CGM spokesperson said it transported goods belonging to customers compliant with local and international regulations and was “not responsible and has no way to control the origin of the goods which are all shipped into sealed containers".The spokesperson also said that “CMA-CGM does not transport unprocessed wood anymore, and has introduced a rule forbidding the reservation of space on board the group's vessels for unprocessed wood leaving Mozambique”.