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Luapula Province has seen a reduction in the illegal harvest and movement of the mukula tree, the Zambia National Service (ZNS) has said.
And government has announced that it will soon start disposing off the Mukula which has been illegally harvested.
ZNS Commanding Officer at Luamfumu Camp Brian Chibuluma, said his team was working closely with the forestry department in the area to curb illegal harvest of mukula tree.
He said this when Green Economy and Environment Minister Collins Nzovu visited ZNS Luamfumu Camp in Mansa to see the Mukula that was illegally harvested and confiscated in the province.
“From the time we started this operation, we have worked very well to ensure we curb the illegal harvest and movement of Mukula tree in the province.
“The movement of illegally harvested Mukula trees has gone down in the province because of our operations. We will continue working with the Ministry,” Chibuluma said.
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And Nzovu said government would soon be disposing off the Mukula which had been illegally harvested.
“Very soon we will be announcing the mechanism on which we will dispose this Mukula,” he said.
Nzovu also said the collaboration between ZNS and the Ministry through the Forestry Department had helped curb the vice.
Going forward, Nzovu said, the government could only ask for more collaborations to ensure that trade in Mukula benefited the local people.
” We are rarely seeing and hearing of impounding of trucks which (in the past) were freely moving with illegally harvested timber particularly Mukula,” he said.
Nzovu said government wanted to grow this industry within the law.
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