China’s exponential expansion into Africa is well known and has been the subject of numerous reports. But China’s environmental footprint on the continent has not yet been fully addressed. And this is becoming an increasingly hot topic within Africa.<\/p>\n
Examples abound where Chinese companies have been caught flouting conservation<\/a> laws and collaborating with criminals in the exploitation of Africa’s natural assets. While western agents also do the same, the lack of a powerful environmental lobby within China that can effectively critique Beijing’s actions in Africa \u00adis a real worry.<\/p>\n In Gabon<\/a>, the activities of the Chinese state-run oil company Sinopec<\/a> have stimulated public outrage. In 2002, Gabon selected a quarter of the country as a nature reserve<\/a>, protecting 67,000 square kilometres of mostly virgin rainforest<\/a>. But it has emerged that Sinopec has been prospecting for oil in one of Gabon\u2019s national parks. The company has been charged with mass pollution, dynamiting<\/a> areas of the park and carving roads through the forest. And all of this was illegal, as the environmental impact study Sinopec was forced to conduct has not yet been approved. A Gabonese government delegation visited the park and corroborated that Sinopec was guilty of a whole variety of environmentally-damaging practices.<\/p>\n The scandal has sparked disquiet among Gabon’s international donors, while Gabonese activists charge that corrupt local officials have been personally profiting as they look the other way. After considerable pressure, the national parks council finally directed Sinopec to stop its exploration activities. But a massive ore-mining<\/a> project is soon to get underway in northern Gabon, also run by a Chinese company. There are real fears that further environmental damage may be caused by resource-hungry Chinese companies, facilitated by corrupt government agencies in Gabon. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n There is also growing evidence that China’s strategy is based on protecting the country from further environmental damage, while obtaining resources from other parts of the world. After the Yangtze River floods of 1998<\/a> (which caused 2,500 deaths and billions of dollars in damage), the government directed that logging in the country had to be seriously regulated. Tree planting and the protection of forests was the new policy<\/a>. Illegal logging was also cracked down on.<\/p>\n However, China still needs wood for construction<\/a>, pulp mills<\/a> and furniture manufacturing. And it is now getting huge amounts from overseas \u2013\u00ad particularly from Africa. Much of this is illegally harvested. Imports of industrial wood have more than tripled since 1993 and China now trails only America in wood consumption.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to GlobalTimber.org.uk<\/a>, China is sourcing huge amounts of wood from forests in Cameroon<\/a>, Congo<\/a>, Equatorial Guinea<\/a>, Gabon and Liberia<\/a>. What is worrying is the illegal nature of this trade, as well as the concomitant environmental damage.<\/p>\n Half of all wood imported from Cameroon into China is harvested illegally, while only 10% of wood exported from Congo-Brazzaville to Beijing is legal. The figure for Equatorial Guinea is the same. In Gabon, 70% of wood exports to China are illegal and, incredibly, 100% of the wood that China gets from Liberia is illegal, as timber exports are banned. It has been widely acknowledged that China’s imports of Liberian timber helped fuel the bloody civil war<\/a> there.