Guinea Bissau to export stocks of seized, rare timber

BISSAU, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Guinea Bissau plans to export its seized stocks of illegally cut, rare timber and use a portion of the proceeds to fund conservation measures, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Guinea Bissau has been plagued by repeated coups since winning its independence from Portugal in 1974, and the political instability has helped make the West African nation a haven for cocaine and timber smuggling.

The government put in place a logging moratorium in the wake of a military putsch in 2012.

The export plan, which was due to launch on Tuesday, concerns around 1,500 containers of logs confiscated between 2012 and 2014, said Mamadu Camara, the country's director-general of flora and fauna.

Most will be shipped to China, Vietnam and India.

The exports are expected to raise 10.3 million euros ($12.6 million) in revenues for the state, 35 percent of which will be used to carry out an inventory of forest species, as well as monitoring and replanting operations, Camara said.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) - an international agreement between governments to ensure the survival of wild plants and animals - considers West Africa's native Pterocarpus erinaceus at risk due to logging.

The species is usually sold as a variety of rosewood and used to make furniture.

According to CITES, Guinea Bissau possesses 24,339 cubic metres of seized Pterocarpus erinaceus stocks.

CITES said in a statement that it agreed to the sale of the timber after Guinea Bissau passed legislation banning all exports of the species logged over the next three years.

Guinea Bissau has a 90-day window to export the logs, it said.

($1 = 0.8157 euros) (Reporting by Alberto Dabo; Writing and additional reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Mark Potter)

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