Carvers hack down Africa's dwindling forests
December 9, 2004
Johannesburg - Southern Africa's booming industry in wood carvings may be coming at a high price: the destruction of the region's hardwood forests.
Environmentalists say the largely unregulated activity has almost wiped out the African blackwood in Malawi, a hardwood coveted by carvers for its colour and texture.
And as forests vanish in densely populated Malawi - one of the centres of the trade - they fear an unsustainable demand is being sparked for hardwood species in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Zambia.
"As you are losing forest cover, if your wood carving industry is to survive, it has to rely on timber resources from further afield," said Tom Milliken, the director of the east and southern African branch of Traffic, which monitors the trade in wild plants and animals.
"The resource is under severe pressure, and Malawian carvers are turning increasingly to other sources of wood from Mozambique and Zambia," he said.
A Traffic report in 2000 on the situation in Malawi painted a bleak picture.
"Preference for durable, heavy, dark woods with a beautiful grain has resulted in the depletion of numerous indigenous hardwoods [in Malawi]," it said. "Exploitation of forest resources continues unabated, with the result being extreme depletion of selected species."
Many of the finished products wind up in South Africa, which has a huge and fast-growing tourist sector.
In 2002 and 2003, almost R2.3 million worth of curios came through Johannesburg International Airport from Malawi - a total of 446 326 items, according to customs figures.
Customs data show South Africa imported more than R9 million worth of wood products in 2003 from Malawi, compared with R8.8 million in 2002.
Illicit supplies, which slip through the border, have obviously not been measured, but some conservationists fear they could be substantial.
In Johannesburg's Rosebank suburb, a bustling African craft market has close to 70 stalls, where hawkers sell carvings from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and as far afield as Cameroon.
Masks hang from walls while bowls and chess sets are stacked together. Many of the stalls have identical carvings, which are found in other markets across the country, pointing to mass-production operations.
Animal carvings are common, with the big five - elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard - a favourite theme.
"Most of the stuff here is made from mahogany, ebony and ironwood," said Samuel Sithole, a Malawian craft seller, as he gestured at his stall crammed with carvings.
Not all the products are carved from such desirable hardwoods.
One hawker dragging a 4m giraffe said it was made from jacaranda, a South American tree famous for its pungent blossoms. It is a species the government would like to get rid of because it is an foreign plant and uses lots of water.
Sithole said that he must pay R1 600 a month for his stall and that business lately had not been brisk. But some of the price tags are steep and the pieces are not the bargains they once were for foreign tourists, given the recent strength of the rand. - Reuters
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