For ordinary Mozambicans, desperate for any form of income, a simple license has been a road to success, no matter how they got hold of one. Four years ago, Claudia Palha, a 40-year-old in Quelimane, approached a Chinese buyer who lent her funds for a license and equipment on a 12,000-acre plot. She would pay him back in timber. Within two years, she had 15 employees and was selling 10 truckloads a day. Palha expresses concern that Mozambique's precious resources are being shipped off to China but shrugs it off as a "paradox." She wants "the timber from our province to stop going away," but her family needs the money. "This country has many resources," she says, "but many schools here have no desks, no chairs, and children are sitting on the floors."
The government of Mozambique has taken some steps recently to try to stanch the bleeding in its forests. A national ban on the export of certain popular species has technically been in effect since last June. But cynics say the Chinese (and their powerful protectors) inevitably maneuver around such limits. Indeed, a recent amendment to the ban allows the export of "planks" with no edging required. In plain speak, this means "the Chinese can buy a log, put two cuts through it, and clear it for export," says Mozambique-born Nicolas Kassimatis, one of Zambezia province's largest sawmill operators. "The crooked politicians destroy any law that comes out."
To make matters worse, the Mozambican government recently stopped issuing new simple licenses -- sparking massive local protests -- and is instead pushing "concessions," which few locals can afford. These are larger tracts of land available also to foreigners; they are issued for a period of 50 years, with requirements that they have a sawmill operation (to spur local processing) and a management plan for sustainable cutting. But those rules, too, are easily skirted. In Zambezia province, Kassimatis estimates that as much as 90% of conceded land is now held by Chinese interests. "To someone driving in, it's a great big forest," he says. "To someone who knows, there's nothing left in it. It's too late."
Blaming China for all of this is easy, but China is following an economic model that has long worked in the West's favor. Everyone knows the earth's forests are shrinking, but few realize the net loss is now 12 million acres a year, roughly the size of England, according to the UN. Even fewer people know just how much China has utterly transformed the timber business -- or how America benefits.
"Personally, I think the Chinese are bad," says Alima Abdul Kadir Issufo, the head of Mozambique's Forest Department, in her office in Maputo. "I'm not happy with the way they do things. They are -- how can you say it? -- thirsty?" She laughs. But then her tone turns grave: "To understand others, you have to understand you, America. If you stop buying Chinese products made from our wood, then we can conserve our timber more. You will make a difference. We are all part of the problem."
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Recent Comments | 26 Total
May 25, 2008 at 4:59am by Frank Lowe
China buy from everyone, not only from Africa. Australian have been busy digging up what have you all over their continent to sell to china. Similarly American and Canadian gurard their export of agricultural and farm products zealously. They even secretly financed research to smear their competitors from the third world to get ahead.
The real problem in Africa is the meddling of westerners who don't allow the African to learn their lesson one step at a time. while the west took two hundred years to move from savagery and slavery to segregation/apartheid to equal right, they expect the african to change overnight.
The solution in Africa is stop meddling the politic there, stop export of weapons, no smeaky support of agents provocateur. Let them decide where they want to go, anyhow its their continent.
June 3, 2008 at 4:04pm by James Belle
I fear for africa, just as it struggles to recover from the exploitations of colonialism here comes the Chinese to deliver some more exploitation.
June 3, 2008 at 4:54pm by Christopher Scherer
Africa is in a very difficult spot. The need for money, jobs and some sense of security far out ways the fear of losing their natural resources. Hopefully, articles like this can shine a spotlight on the region and call more attention to what is happening there before it is too late. Maybe the will of the UN, the African Union or the Southern African Development Community, all of which Mozambique is a part of, could stem the tide of what appears to be a lopsided trading agreement.
June 4, 2008 at 2:37am by Long Pan
I was a Fast Company subscriber for a year and stopped doing that because of the poor quality of the articles. This one is no exception. There is no solid facts. Simply just a collection of highly biased second hand materials, which have no relation to his personal experience in Africa whatsoever. I don't even bother to comment on his amateur writing.
Fast Company editors, if your goal is to provide trash, congratulations, you are getting there!
June 9, 2008 at 10:28pm by sanch indigo
China Supplies America's demands. America's appetite for inexpensive poor quality products transformed China as the New Colonial Power in Africa. The Chinese are doing exactly what the europeans did, rape africa of her natural resources to develop there our country. Its a cycle the chinese didn't start it , they are just beating the Europeans at their our game. Lets all be socially responsible consumers and investors ,that will solve the problem. Americans cant afford to boycott chinese products, Gas price is out of control, Cheap Chinese goods is all we have left. We cant afford to buy products made in america , thanks to Nixon and Bush. The Flag on White House is made in China , not America. So the cycle will continue until africa saves herself or its natural resources go dry and when that happens there's Mars waiting to be exploited
June 19, 2008 at 4:42pm by Darrick Smith
Long Pan, you shouldn't be commenting on anyone's "amateur writing", given the multiple errors in your post.
September 4, 2008 at 12:58pm by Patrick Keller
Africans are so stupid. Can't they see that history is repeating itself. The same thing that happen during the The Renaissance and the Commercial Revolution of Europe in the 15th-18th centuries is happening again. It is just a repeat of the transatlantic slave trade. Human flesh then was a great resource that outsiders such as Europe and the Middle East were taking advantage of to grow their wealth and power. Now China is taking the rest of what is left of Africa. Africa continues to settle for sin(corruption, greed and violence) as it did before by selling their own people to the Europeans. They need to acquire wisdom, understanding and knowledge unless they perish.
June 5, 2009 at 1:46pm by M Claxton
I have noticed a lot of shrill China bashing in the western press these days. It seems to make western European based people's uptight to see non European descended people getting together , working out deals and approaching their level of development. I remain highly skeptical and suspicious at the emotional manipulation that is implied in these articles. To equate China in Africa and the Chinese with the Euro Americans is really ridiculous. When did China commit a Holocaust like the middle passage? No European descended person can point a finger, and after all of the years of Africa's suffering from this group what does it have to show for it? China is bring some of its money to set Africa up and plug it into the world development chain. That is a good thing.