Officially, Mozambique bans the export of raw timber in an effort to protect what’s left of the country’s rapidly shrinking forests. But whatever laws are in place are largely disregarded as more than 500,000 tons of timber leave the country each year — 90% of which goes to China, according to a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency.
This illicit timber trade is also very lucrative, generating more than a billion dollars that helps to fund a deadly insurgency ravaging northern Mozambique.
