Timber trade in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): effectiveness of timber parks in tackling tax frauds

Abstract

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) shares borders with nine countries and has around 150 million hectares of tropical moist forests. A moratorium on logging titles has been in place since 2002 and infrastructure is very poor. The country plans to lift the moratorium and invest in infrastructure as part of the broader East-African road and railway networks. We present a case-study conducted for thirty months (2020– 2022) on timber trade and export at the first 'timber park' established on the eastern border. Multiple forms of potentially illegal timber trade were detected. In the case of transiting timber, results indicate that 100% of export declarations mention only one, and the same tree species. There also exist several mismatches between declared vs actually exported species (e. g. Mammea africana instead of genus Afzelia, recently listed in Annex II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)). We estimate the potential financial losses for the DRC Government and discuss possible improvements. The model's extension to major border crossings could contribute to both sectoral improvements and better environmental policies. Yet results also indicate that the model's replication, sustainability and effectiveness can only occur and be maintained if interest and political support by provincial governments and their field staff remain strong.