Angola’s forestry area is estimated at 69 million hectares (690,000 square kilometres), the national director of the Forestry Development Institute (IDF) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry recently said in Luanda.

Simão Zau also told Angolan news agency Angop that the forest area represents about 56.3% of the country’s land area.

The national director of the IDF reported that large-scale logging is concentrated in the provinces of Cabinda, Uige, Bengo, Kwanza-Norte, Moxico, Lunda-Sul, Kwando Kubango and Huambo, while small-scale logging occurs in the provinces of Zaire, Malanje, Huíla, Bié and Lunda-Norte, all with a variety of tree species.

The annual forestry campaign as a general rule begins on 1 May and ends on 31 October.

This year the forestry campaign was opened only on 14 August, due to measures taken to discipline logging activity, within the scope of the approval and publication of the new forestry regulation, construction of logging warehouses, definition of reference prices and the obligation of prior deposit of foreign exchange in Angolan banks for timber exports. (macauhub)