Chinese loggers charged with environmental crimes

Did our journalism just make a difference?

Good afternoon. We have a good news story to see us into the holidays: Notícias reported today that the two Chinese businessmen named in a Zitamar investigation earlier this month into the illegal timber trade, have been charged with environmental and other crimes by the police in Sofala province.

SEE: Chinese businessmen in Sofala export thousands of tonnes of illegal logs, data shows

The investigation, made possible by trade data supplied to Zitamar News by the US investigative non-profit organisation C4ADS, found that Jiye Zhuo and Kaman Lau Ming were involved in the export of thousands of tonnes of unprocessed native wood which cannot legally be exported from Mozambique.

We will probably never know if the charges against the two men were provoked by Zitamar’s reporting. However, the coincidence of the charges — and hopefully arrests, if the authorities can track down the suspects — gives us cause to believe that our reporting has had an impact. A great feeling to take into the holidays.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the final Daily of the year. Thank you to our readers and especially our paying subscribers for your support in 2022 — allowing us to do journalism which makes a difference.

And a heads-up to those who don’t yet subscribe: next year we are planning changes to the pricing that will make some subscriptions much more accessible. Watch this space.

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From the Zitamar Live Blog:

The UK has updated its travel advice for Mozambique, now advising against all but essential travel to the whole of Cabo Delgado, including the capital Pemba, and all travel to Palma and Afungi

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Today’s headlines:

• Mozambique to keep fighting Manuel Chang extradition

• Chinese businessmen wanted for environmental crimes

• Mozambique added to EU's list of high-risk jurisdictions

• Government expects 10m tourists by 2025

• A hundred households in Beira receive early warning radios for extreme weather