Our logging industry is unsustainable: Forestry PS
Logging near the Kongulai area.
The country’s current rate of logging is still unsustainable, admits the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Forestry and Research, Dr. Vaeno Vigulu.
Dr. Vigulu made the statement in response to a question from a participant during SIBC’s radio talk back show on Sunday.
He explains, the country’s highest round logs export was made last year which is very unsustainable.
“Round log export we had in 2016 was about 2.69 million cubic metres and then around 2.6 million cubic metres in 2017 and 2018 last year was the history, it’s about 2.73 million cubic metres of round logs were exported,” he said.
“That’s the peak ever in the country’s logging industry and this is very, I would say unsustainable at the moment and so with the sustainable logging policy last year, we are trying to reduce it further”.
He adds, the current rate of log harvesting is ten to twelve times unsustainable.
“At the moment I would say based on three hundred to four hundred thousand cubic metres per annum, the current rate is around ten to twelve times unsustainable”.
By: Rickson Bau.