The 150km Kennet and Avon Canal from Bristol to Reading is one of the most picturesque stretches of water in Britain. Yet it is now at the centre of an international controversy linked to civil war, corruption and arms smuggling in West Africa.
An investigation has discovered that the timber used to make new lock gates along the canal has come from controversial logging in Africa’s rainforests.
The operations have been condemned by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which are angry at the “pillaging of West Africa’s last natural resources”, the destruction of habitats and in some cases the financing of arms deals in the region.
Some of the tropical hardwood used to make lock gates is believed to have been bought from a notorious logging corporation based in Liberia. The firm at the centre of the row, Oriental Timber Company (OTC), has been accused by the United Nations of corruption, illegal activity and using money raised by its logging activities to help fund the civil war in Sierra Leone that has killed thousands of civilians and left countless more maimed.
In 1998 British Waterways, which was supervising restoration of the canal, awarded a contract to the Dutch timber company Wijma to make the lock gates. Traditionally, these are made with wood from European oaks, but Wijma chose a tropical hardwood, known as azobe or ekki, because of it durability.
Greenpeace has photographic evidence that when Wijma was making the lock gates for the canal it had been buying azobe tropical hardwood from OTC. The company is owned by Liberian businessman Gus Kouwenhoven, who was censured by the UN last year. Its expert panel report on Sierra Leone accused Kouwenhoven of being “responsible for the logistical aspects of many of the arms deals” with the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. The report claimed that “through his interests in a Malaysian timber company project in Liberia he organises the transfer of weaponry from Monrovia into Sierra Leone. Roads built and maintained for timber extraction are also conveniently used for weapons movement within Liberia”.
The UN imposed sanctions on Liberia after President Charles Taylor’s government was found to be arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for diamonds. The sanctions included a ban on diamond exports, an arms embargo and curbs on travel by senior Liberian officials. But the logging operations of OTC, which escaped embargo, have enabled Taylor to continue funding rebels in Sierra Leone and to suppress dissent in his own country.
According to the environmental pressure group Global Witness, at the current rate of felling in Liberia the largest virgin tract of tropical forest in West Africa is in danger of being obliterated within six years.
The claims that the timber, dubbed the “logs of war”, has ended up as lock gates in the Avon canal will prove embarrassing for British Waterways. A spokesman for British Waterways said that its contract with Wijma demanded that timber used would come from sustainable sources. He said it would launch an investigation.
Managing director of Wijma’s British operations Brian Passmore was unable to confirm the origins of the tropical azobe wood used for the lock gates. He admitted that it was “possible” the wood had come from Liberia, but said it was more likely it came from the company’s operations in Cameroon.
Andy Tait, of Greenpeace, said: “Whether this timber is from Liberia or Cameroon, it comes from completely unsustainable sources. United Kingdom contractors buying this are fuelling not only the destruction of the last ancient forests, but in Liberia arms trafficking and social repression. British Waterways should cancel their contracts with Wijma.”