Corruption in the Forest Sector.

Villagers and leaders of Somanga ward in Kilwa district have expressed their deep concern over wide spread of corruption in the forest sector in the district.

 

 They said district forest officers are facilitating illegal logging in three reserved forests of Marendego, Mpakilwa and coastal mangrove forest in the area.

Mangrove Forests

 

They said that illegal logging in the three forests is taking place at very high speed such that existence of the forests which provide rains, water and other resources are in trouble. 

 

Omary Mohamed said that the illegal loggers have formed a big network and if the network will not be stamped out, reserved forests and its associated resources would disappear.

 

‘The licenses are not checked regularly, because one can go into the forest and cut down trees as long and as many logs as he can without supervision. We have never seen district officials monitoring and patrolling the forest” he said.

 

He said that despite their efforts to protect the forest, they never benefiting from the forest products adding that they even don’t know how much the district is getting from the revenues accrued from the forest.

Musa Hassan explained that they do arrest a number of illegal loggers but when reports reach the district, they never get back to them adding that such tendency has discouraged some volunteering villagers who work around the clock to rescue the forests.

 

“The villagers have a very high spirit and they usually volunteer to work around the clock to protect the forest from illegal loggers but their efforts are  discouraged by lack of cooperation from the district forest office.

They add: there are no follow ups from the district, after all we have never seen the forest officials coming to support us for many years. This is very discouraging” they said.

 

When contacted for comments, DED for Kilwa district Adolf Mapunda, apart from admitting that there were weakness in the forest department of the district, he said the district has a plan to change forest officials by transferring them to other areas of the district in the region.

 

“Yes, I have heard such complaints several times and in recent months, we impounded illegal logs which are at my offices, if you come to my offices you will see them” he said.

 

In another development, the DED said that that from July 1 this year, the district has a comprehensive plan to make sure that every vehicle carrying logs that pass through the entrance gates would be inspected first before allowing it to proceed.

 

“The vehicles will be required to unload all the logs. The logs will be counted to verify whether the number is correct” he said.

 

On lack of equipments that have paralyzed effective patrols in the forest reserves, he said that that the district was working on the problem and so far the district has contributed 5 million shillings to facilitate participatory forest management. 

  

By Erastus Malilo