Norsudtimber is Congo's main timber extraction and export company but, according to international NGO Global Witness, logging on 90% of its concession areas is illegal.
Norsudtimber controls more than 40,000 square kilometres of tropical forest, the size of Switzerland. The company, based in the ‘no questions asked’ tax haven of Liechtenstein, is run by three Luso-Angolan brothers - José Albano, João Manuel and Alberto Pedro Maia Trindade.
Global Witness reports that Norsudtimber’s operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is ‘trafficking with European Union connivance,’ with illegal timber entering Europe, mainly via Portugal and France.
The explosive Global Witness report, ‘Total System Failure - Exposing the Secret Networks Distroying Forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ shows that the timber business provides the Republic of Congo with about €7 million-a-year in tax revenue, a small benefit when compared to the environmental cost of forest destruction.
The NGO levels accusations against the three timber companies in the Congo. Norsudtimber's operating subsidiaries are accused of lacking the management plans that they are legally obliged to provider and to follow, to the cutting down of trees outside the agreed concession areas.
These three companies, which all deny any illegalities, are responsible for 20 concession areas, of which 18 were signed by the three Portuguese, known as ‘Irmãos Trindade,’ who already have been the subject of a Greenpeace investigation in 2007.
This new report, some 11 years later, again claims these companies are accused with a litany of illegal operations with only two concession areas being run in accordance with the law and their contracts.
Breaches in the contracts require the land to be handed back to the Congolese State.
Between 2013 and 2017, 78% of the timber was exported to Vietnam and China and 11% to Europe, entering almost entirely through Portugal and France. Almost 60% of the timber exported comes from endangered or vulnerable tree species.
Global Witness is highly critical of the way in which both European countries have managed to avoid the issue of these shipments being a part of the international illegal timber trade, a banned activity in the European Union.
Alexandra Pardal, coordinator of the investigation, admitted to journalists that Norsudtimber, run by the three Portuguese brothers, has continued illegally to trade as supervision had failed.
Pardal said that, "they are allowed to operate with impunity, because the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has not properly enforced its laws. But shockingly, the authorities in the European Union, including Portugal, one of the largest importers of timber, also have failed to enforce European legislation that bans the trade in illegal timber and should have prevented companies like this from trading in Europe."
Global Witness stressed that its report gives Portugal all the information it needs to ensure that illegal timber traders are punished.
"The Portuguese authorities must take action against illegal timber imports and those who, knowingly or unknowingly, may be facilitating Norsudtimber's illegal activities," added Pardal.
Reacting to the damning Global Witness report, three subsidiary companies, Sodefor, Forabola and La Forestière du Lac* denied the allegations, but did acknowledge that some management plans were lacking and that those responsible for the companies were “in discussions with the Congo Environment Minister.”
While all this is going on, Norway and France are planning to fund an US$18 million programme to expand industrial logging in the Congo and supports Norsudtimber. This directly contradicts both countries’ climate and forest protection goals.
Expanding industrial logging in DRC’s rainforest could generate 35 million tonnes of extra CO2 emissions per year, thereby accelerating climate change.
See the Global Witness report ‘Total Systems Failure’
* Norsudtimber is a private limited, Portuguese-owned company registered in Liechtenstein. The company’s status is however unclear, with some sources suggesting the firm has gone into liquidation. Regardless, Sodefor remains one of the largest companies operating in the forestry sector in West Africa.
Sodefor (Société de Développement Forestier) is the largest logging company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with concessions of over 2 million hectares. The company harvests timber from its concession areas and processes timber for the production of sawn wood and plywood.
Sodefor and three other major forestry companies in DRC, Societé Forestiere et des Matieres Ligneuses Africaines (Soforma), Compagnie Forestière de Transformation (CFT) and Société Forestière et Agricole de la M’Bola (Forabola), are all linked via a common shareholder (Norsudtimber S.A.), however are managed separately.
These are among the most significant forestry companies in the country. Soforma operates the third largest area of concessions and oversees around 996,000 hectares of forest in the Cuvette Centrale region, while Forabola and CFT rank fourth and fifth respectively, in terms of area under concession.
