Leadway Leads in Deforesting S/Leone
The Government of Sierra Leone under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio is reported to have received $54 Million Dollars as proceeds generated from timber revenue. About 65 to 75% of the said timber was logged in Falaba district and other areas of the Northern part of Sierra Leone. It can be recalled that a sole exporter, the Leadway Trading Company with Mr. Babadi Kamara as the head, was appointed by the Bio led Government to regulate the export of timber from Sierra Leone to the outside world. It is insightful to note the exported timber is transformed into finished products by making upholstery and other furniture a process that could be have been done in Sierra Leone whereby thousands of jobs could have been created for our young people. Looking at the huge amounts of timber that have left the shores of Sierra Leone since his appointment, it is strange that Mr. Babadi Kamara recently told this nation that between June 2018 and February 2020 only a total of eighteen thousand containers of timber had been exported from the country generating a revenue of over one hundred billions Leones. As if to assuage the sensibilities of the communities where the logging is mostly done without much benefit to the people, Mr. Babadi Kamara brazenly announced that they have invested over Le62 billion in reforestation projects which, he claimed, is over 39% of total revenue generated within the period under review. In our investigations we have found out that this claim lacks credibility because a visit to the communities where the logging is done bespeak of abject poverty with lack of basic social amenities like hospitals, good roads, portable and pure drinking water, schools and recreational centres. One glaring example of total neglect of timber logging enclaves are the Falaba and Karene Districts which are touted as the remotest districts in terms of the lack of infrastures and social amenities. It is disheartening to note that timber logging has endangered the livelihoods of the villagers in those communities while it could have served as a very reliable source of income to boost the country’s fragile economy. Pay a visit to these places and see the massive destructions that have been done there with nothing to show for such activities except the environmental hazards that may lead to climate change which can cause more harm to farmers as their crops and animals bear the risk of perishing. Farmers have persistently decried deforestation as the major cause for the change in weather patterns that lead to droughts. Without adequate rainfall, agriculture could be seriously affected, which in turn could have an adverse effect on food production. Where food production is hampered, the achievement of food security would be farfetched; and the resultant effect will be hunger and starvation. With deforestation, the rearing of animals is also seriously hampered as the animals largely depend on the vegetation of plants for food. With the falling down of trees, these animals are also exposed to arid plains that will lead to starvation. Deforestation also dries up rivers and streams leading to the shortage of water for human and animal consumption. It is therefore not surprising to daily see troops of children trekking miles to look for water. It is even more disheartening to see pregnant women and lactating mothers trudging miles to access the few and far flung nearest peripheral health units in these remotes communities. It is therefore very ironical that while the poor, illiterate community people continue to suffer and die for lack these basic social amenities, the Leadway Trading Company only focuses on promoting the deforesting of their bushes in order for the operators and their family members to live decent lives.Perhaps we also need to mention that hundreds of mostly young men have suffered life changing injuries when extracting the logs and particularly during the uploading and offloading of the timber in trucks when the logs normally fall on them and broke their legs or arms which mostly end up being amputated. Sometimes logs even hit the heads of these young men which result in death. Sadly, after all the labour intensive exercise that drains the health and energy of the workers, they are grossly underpaid and without any form of risk and accident allowance or insurance cover. It is this sad of affairs that continue to bemuse the large majority of Sierra Leoneans who continue to wonder , what is the real essence of generating millions of Dollars in the timber sector, deforesting the bushes and depriving the indigenes in the producing areas of the benefits generated from the timber revenue. China Braces for More Ties With Africa The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Wang Yi State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). On 12 October, President Xi Jinping and President Macky Sall of Senegal, the current African Co-Chair of FOCAC, issued a joint congratulatory message to mark this important occasion. Embracing the dawn of the new century and the trend of peace and development 20 years ago, China and our brothers in Africa decided to initiate FOCAC to promote win-win cooperation. Since then, the family of China and African nations has had its own platform for collective dialogue and mechanism for practical cooperation, ushering in a brand new chapter in China-Africa relations. The past twenty years have been a journey of productive cooperation. FOCAC has bolstered high-level interactions and political trust between China and Africa, delivering a leap in China-Africa relations from “a new type of partnership” to “a new type of strategic partnership” and to “a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership”. China-Africa cooperation has made impressive achievements. In 2019, direct Chinese investment stock in Africa topped US$49.1 billion, up by nearly 100 times from the year 2000; China-Africa trade reached US$208.7 billion, 20 times the size of 2000. China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for 11 years in a
