Discussions of wildlife crime tend to focus on the poaching and trade of protected animals — from the capture of primates to the sale of rhino horn, ivory and cat skins, and more recently pangolins.

Just as problematic, however — in terms of both the money involved and ecological damage — is the illegal extraction and sale of local flora.

The scale and impact of such crimes is brought into sharp relief by an ongoing case in Malawi, which follows the largest field arrest by the country’s Department for National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) in November 2016.

In the case, 35 people — 23 Mozambicans, 10 Malawians and two Chinese — stand accused of six charges from entering Lengwe National Park without a permit to the illegal logging of mopane trees (a type of iron wood).

The case began with a tip-off, which led 11 DNPW rangers on a covert operation deep into Lengwe National Park, where there are no roads. About 6km from the Mozambican border, they found several deforested sites with thousands of logs.

They they captured 33 people. Soon after, they arrested Portuguese, Mozambican and Chinese businessmen who the rangers claim offered them bribes to save their workers and equipment.

According to Zitamar News, one of the Chinese nationals also has possible links to ivory smuggling in Mozambique.

The rangers also seized six 4x4 tractors, a road grader, a forklift truck, a bulldozer, a 30-tonne flatbed lorry, several cars, motorbikes and chainsaws. The equipment reflects the scale of the activity and the fact that there are no roads into the area. In turn, the prosecution claims that the loggers created their own roads and paths from Mozambique to extract the wood causing substantial ecological damage beyond the mopane trees felled.

One million trees damaged

According to initial estimates, the arrested had cut down around 240,000 trees, which — at a cost of about $37 per log at source — comes to $8.9 million. However, a subsequent analysis of satellite imagery at 50cm resolution from 2015 and 2016 around the immediate arrest sites by a conservation scientist increased the estimated damage to one million trees and $37 million.

Either way, the figures reveal the amounts of money that can be made from illegal logging. Indeed, in terms of the potential returns, such activities often exceed poaching.

For example, in May 2015, Singaporean authorities seized about 3.7 tonnes of illegal ivory with an estimated value at destination of about $8 million, which had been shipped from Kenya. However, this was a particularly big seizure with others often weighing in at around one tonne — like that found by Vietnamese Customs officials in a shipment from Kenya in October 2016.

Illegal logging is also extremely damaging for local environments. The mopane tree is a protected hardwood species, which is only found in Southern and East Africa, while its reddish colouring and resistance to termites make it popular as a building material as well as for crafts. However, a mopane tree takes hundreds of years to grow to a mature height, and is home to a variety of fauna — from rare birds and mammals to insects.

Mopanes also tend to grow where there is ground water, and are therefore found close to rivers and streams. As a result, the felling of these trees causes huge ecological damage. In the heavy rains this leads to flash floods and soil erosion, which also leads to siltation and sedimentation further downstream blocking major rivers courses, such as the Shire River in southern Malawi.

Arduous journey of arrest

However, the Malawian case also highlights another problem; namely, the challenges authorities face in successfully catching and prosecuting those involved in wildlife crimes.

The Lengwe Park authorities were first tipped off about the logging of mapone close to the Mozambican border in September 2016. However, when the rangers visited the area they found that all those involved had run away.

Then, when they trekked back across the park in November, the rangers had to arrest and then move the 35 prisoners and all their equipment across to the park headquarters. This involved an arduous journey that took several days and required the prisoners to use the heavy machinery to create a makeshift track for the 30-tonne flatbed lorry and other equipment. Indeed, the logistics of the arrest are such, that it has already sparked interest among documentary makers.

Then come the legal proceedings — which, in this instance, began with six witnesses for the prosecution — from those involved in the arrests to customs officials and an environmental expert.

Then, last week, the court heard a no case to answer motion, which saw the defence question whether the accused could be directly linked to the five charges laid.

These include illegal entry into Malawi, being in Lengwe National Park without a permit, smuggling equipment into Malawi, having a weapon in a protected area (the equipment defined as such due to its use for deforestation), and the exploitation of a protected species.

More specifically, the defence questioned who had brought the equipment into the park, and whether the prosecution could prove that it was the accused. Even if it was smuggled into the country by those arrested, were they working under the instructions of their employers or had they, as the defence lawyers suggested, strayed into the park due to the lack of a proper boundary?

Policing and securing of flora and fauna

Did the two businessmen come to bribe the park rangers or did they come to rescue their errant workers? How could the prosecution lawyers prove that the logs found at the site were felled by the team? And how could they prove that the recent felling of trees was only the work of those arrested, and not other illegal loggers and charcoal burners?

In response, the prosecution emphasised how most of the accused were foreigners who were found within a protected forest without park entry permits and entry visas, with heavy lifting equipment clearly associated with a commercial logging operation, and surrounded by thousands of recently cut logs in a newly cleared area that had been pristine mopane woodland just months previously.

Such questions of proof are not unique to this particular case. On the contrary, the policing and securing of flora and fauna is a common problem across the continent, as is the evidence required to reach a successful prosecution. Both issues are exacerbated by the corruption that often allows this activity to take place, or the criminals to avoid justice.

For these reasons, the Lengwe National Park case is of interest to environmentalists both in and beyond Malawi.

If successful, the case — in the context of the allegations made — will provide an example of how criminals cannot always bribe their way out of trouble and will hopefully send a strong message to other current and potential loggers. However, if those accused are cleared of all of the charges laid, then the case will raise questions about the kind of extensive forensic evidence required to bring wildlife criminals to justice.

Gabrielle Lynch, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Warwick, UK ([email protected]; @GabrielleLynch6)