Luanda – Angola raised around USD 19 million and Euros 15 milion in timber export from December 2020 to February 2021.
The data were released Friday by Secretary of State for Forests, André de Jesus Moda, during a press conference, ahead of World Forest Day, on March 21.
The official would not mention the previous quantity and the values raised, but he said that financial grounds prevented the sector from attaining the planned 500,000 cubic meters of timber, through the native forest.
André de Jesus Moda said that Angola exports 80 percent of the wood explored in the country, as it does not have a fine-tuned industrialisation.
He said of 128 firms registered for exploration of timber in 2020, only 116 put into practice this desire, against 300 companies in the forestry campaign of the same period.
He also said that, so far, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has not yet registered the companies that will operate in the next forest campaign, scheduled for May this year.
As for the national reforestation programme, the Secretary of State said that last week the first forest design contract has already been signed.
The objective is to achieve the rational and sustainable exploitation of forests.
This experience, he added, began in the central province of Huambo, aimed at covering the rest of the country, mainly in South and Eastern regions of Angola.
With the Forest Conceptions Plan, prepared by the Angolan Government, in 2018, forestry exploration will be sustainable, as it requires the repopulation of the areas explored, said André de Jesus Moda.
According to data from the first National Forest Inventory, released in 2017, the country has 69.3 million hectares of native forest.
