WEBVTT - Episode 7: The Tree That Bleeds 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:04.600 School of humans. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.960 Pterocarpus tinctorius is a slow growing evergreen native to the 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:20.320 heart of southern Africa. It goes by many names padoucta, frek, barwood, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:26.760 and belle, and in Zambia locals call it micula. Micula 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:31.520 is a defining feature of Zambia's landscape. It attracts pollinating bees, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.120 provides leafy greens for chips and columbus monkeys, and is 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:40.160 a major source of shade in rural villages. And its wood, 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:45.080 as my friend Alan Schwartz has told me, is undeniably beautiful. 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.519 The thing about that janctorius is it's intensely red. It 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.320 really really is bright, and that bright red color losts 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:55.480 for a very long time. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.160 That beautiful red makes micula an attractive material for luxury furniture, 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:02.639 cabinets and floors. 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:08.120 It is extremely desirable in China and Vietnam. The price 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.360 of it is insanely high. 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.160 But the tree's desirability has been its curse. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.280 I don't think there's any left of it in the 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:22.000 north of Nigeria or Cameroon. In the far north of Mozambique, 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.640 on the border with Tanzania, there will probably no more 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.040 than about two thousand cubes of standing timber, and literally 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:31.760 within one season all of that was gone. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.240 And what's extra creepy about it is that when you 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.840 cut down a micola, beads of dark red sap ooze 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:42.640 to the surface. 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.479 Mokula means the tree that bleeds, the. 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:53.480 Tree that bleeds. For Laggers, rosewoods are like gold. In fact, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.040 the UN estimates that between two thousand and five and 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.040 twenty fourteen, about thirty five percent of the place and 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:08.680 its seized wildlife was rosewood, not ivory, not tiger bone. Rosewood. Today, 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.840 Lagger's eyemacola as the next big thing. Within the past decade, 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.560 they flocked to groves in Zambia. Just a few years ago, 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.160 you only had to drive thirty miles outside of Zambia's 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.239 capital city of Lusaka to find towering patches of mikula. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:32.560 Now the closest large population is more than six hundred 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:38.960 miles away. The Zambian government has tried to stop illegal cutting. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.760 They've enacted a series of on again, off again restrictions 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:47.000 in hopes of saving the tree. Now, Alexander von Bismarck, 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.800 the guy from the last episode at the Environmental Investigation Agency. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:56.639 Explains Zambia responded to to really public pressure by implementing 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.400 their own zero export quota or effectively a. 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.400 Ban, but it didn't stick. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.400 Those bands were not worth the paper they were written on. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.680 Container after container was flowing out of Zambia to China 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:15.040 for their demand for this red wood for redwood furniture 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:16.760 and China. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.799 In a twenty seventeen speech, one government official stepped up 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.079 to ask why. 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:27.040 The GOVERNMENTI has a putt sit regent recitrication in place, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.520 but it was a surprise. The logging and continuous. Who 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.880 does the government te think is the many cow pretty 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:36.760 in activity? 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:43.880 That is a good question. So in twenty seventeen, the 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:49.680 Environmental Investigation Agency went undercover. They cooked up aliases pretending 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.280 to be investors and timber traders. They wore secret cameras 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:57.080 and microphones, and they plunged into the forest and snuck 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:04.600 around high rise offices. They found shocked everybody. I'm Summer 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.880 rain Oaks from School of Humans and iHeart podcasts. This 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:19.680 is bad seeds. To understand what's happening in Zambia, you 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.640 have to know about an event that rocked China twenty 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:27.279 five years ago. It's nineteen ninety eight and the forecast 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:36.560 calls for rain. First comes El Nino and then without 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:41.400 any break, La Nina. As rain pours, sheets of snow 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.279 on the Chinghai to bat Plateau start to melt, draining 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:50.400 into China's rivers. The yank Sea, sung Hua and Nintiyong 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:56.880 rivers swell, and for the next sixty days, floods swallow 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:10.440 farmland and destroy homes, hospitals, and schools. More than thirty 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.560 seven hundred people die, fifteen million are left homeless, just 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.919 as many farmers lose their crops, and a total of 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.279 two hundred and twenty three million people. Then a fifth 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.960 of China's population is affected. But when it comes time 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.960 to assess the damage, Chinese officials do not blame the 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.919 excess rainfall. They look to the past. Because for the 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.400 previous half century, China had clear cut its woodlands. In 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:45.120 some parts, fifty percent of the forest had disappeared. The 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:50.560 deforestation caused soil to erope. Vast blankets of silt drained 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.160 into the waterways and settled, making rivers more shallow. The 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.480 country's waterways couldn't hold as much rain as they used to. 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:09.279 In other words, had helped cause the floods. The government 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.200 swiftly banned logging in the country's natural forests. They started 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.800 a major replanting program, and they restricted logging to a 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.280 handful of state owned farms. It was one of the 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:26.480 most dramatic conservation policies ever enacted, but it had consequences 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.919 because the country's thirst for timber did not diminish. It 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.640 soon became the world's top importer of wood. 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:35.640 Now. 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.840 In the words of forest Trends in Ngo, the vision 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.960 for a greener China may end up exporting environmental damage 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.640 to other more vulnerable countries, among them Zambia. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:53.600 Demand from China for the Mukula tree was overwhelming and 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:59.240 was devastating that population of tree, and that it was 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.599 clear that it wasn't going to be long before it 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.719 would be economically extinct and ultimately biologically extinct. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:13.400 In Zambia, trees are a big economic driver. The forestry 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.480 sector employs one point one million people and contributes to 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.880 more than five percent of the country's GDP. It's such 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.520 a big deal that in Andola, the Premier League soccer 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:32.720 club is called the Forest Rangers. The fees collected from 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.360 forestry are important too. They help build hospitals and schools 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.720 and keep the economy humming. As a result, most people 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.320 in Zambia understand that it's important to harvest trees at 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.760 a healthy pace. Overlogging could destroy all of this economic 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.440 momentum because no trees means no money. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.320 The concern is that it really threatens the economic future 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.240 of the country. Deforestation is identified as one of the 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:08.520 major threats to zambia sustainability, to agriculture, to ecosystem services 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:10.720 that are given to everybody by the landscape. 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.520 Preventing deforestation is an economic priority and one of the 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.640 groups responsible for helping that mission is the Zambia Forestry 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:24.080 and forest Industries Corporation, better known as ZAFFACO. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:29.280 That is a longstanding company in Zambia that was really 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.920 controlled by state officials. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.000 Zaffaco employs thousands of people and manages fifty thousand hectores 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.800 of plantations where it grows pine and eucalyptus, making things 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:46.120 like utility poles and fences. On their website, a slick 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.880 corporate values page states we put Zaffaico's obligations above our 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.360 personal interests and conduct ourselves in a manner that is 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:59.920 beyond reproach. Now around twenty sixteen, Zaffaco was on the 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:05.240 forefront of stopping the illegal theft of micula. The Zambian 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:10.240 government had banned logging micula. When the FED seized illegal shipments, 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.880 they handed it over to Zaffaco, who auctioned off the logs. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.560 The thinking went, if we catch you cutting micula, we'll 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.560 take those logs from you. You'll get no money and 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:26.600 then we the public will enjoy your profits. As one 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.360 Zambian politician. 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.040 Put it, the people need to benefit from their trees. 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.360 They just can't experience the deferstration for nothing. Let mukula 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.080 revenue build hospitals with mantilla doings. 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.440 Zaffaco reported that they made four point three million dollars 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.400 from the first seizure, all of it going to important 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.280 state services. 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.320 To where it is desperately needed, to schools, to hospitals, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:51.559 to infrastructure. 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:55.600 In twenty seventeen, the country tightened the clamp even more, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:00.400 banning movement of micula locks. In a speech, ze Mbia's 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.960 Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Jean Kapita, made it clear. 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.640 Zambia is not going to allow any transit of mukula 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:11.200 logs on each soil. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:16.640 The borders suddenly choked with trucks hauling timber. Once again, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.120 the same story played out. The logs were seized, Zaffago 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.000 gained control, it auctioned them off for the people's benefit. 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.559 In government, Minister Kapita rejoiced in the ban. 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.320 The Mukula tree is too valuable to be left to 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.599 a small part of the population to reap the benefits. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.720 Many Zambians applauded the effort too. They didn't know that 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:46.280 undercover agents with the Environmental Investigation Agency had discovered that 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.679 Zaffago was engaged in a cover up. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.760 We just heard the alarm calls four years ago or so, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.280 and there was really outrage on the ground by the 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.920 people for what was having happening to their forest. 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.199 Just listen to one of their secretly recorded conversations. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.400 If you really follow the trained in Zambia, individuo Chinese 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:15.679 companies of quoting export paymits. Now the ones that are 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:20.839 responsible in the facilitation of these export paymits, it is 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.480 afficos just some very well to some mixed I must conface. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:26.720 It's just this Smoka. 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:31.640 Taio Zaffaco was quote a small cartel. In the same 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.880 secret recording, the source had even harsher. 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:38.560 Words and that you felt it all comes as just 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.720 the contuit of crime. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:47.079 A conduit of crime. The state had a dirty secret. 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.360 Zaffaca wasn't just seizing a legal locks. Zaffaca was also 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.520 cutting them down and then sneaking them into the stockpile 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:59.000 of seized locks. Zaffaco, in other words, was using the 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:00.439 seizures as a cover. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.640 It was the chief mechanism for getting the wood out 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.640 of the country to China with a veneer of legality. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.280 So much for that slick company values page saying they'd 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:18.400 put their obligations above their personal interests. The question agents 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.079 had was who in government was behind the cover up. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:35.920 To find out, they would have to go deeper. In 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:41.520 twenty seventeen, undercover sleuths from the Environmental Investigation Agency began 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:47.240 tapping into Zambia's illegal macula trade. Understandably, Von Bismarck couldn't 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.280 give us too many details of how exactly his agency 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.960 managed to infiltrate the illicit logging operation. 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.200 We have to protect our sources, particularly in the cases 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.400 where the corruption is so serious that it is really 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:06.520 very dangerous for anybody that speaks up. But generally an 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.840 investigation like this we tend to go undercover to talk 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.960 to people along the supply chain as fellow. 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:19.520 Traders, pretending to be an interested buyer. An ei A 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.840 agent sat down with the macula trafficker with of course 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:24.840 his trustee recorder rolling. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.920 So what you're here? First, you trotter par so work. 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.080 The agent's voice is obscured for his safety, which is 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:40.880 why it's kind of hard to understand. 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.320 We're concerning broke. Is that off or is utigal or legal? 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:47.040 It is illegal? 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.600 I bet this is h Sursport Sylvie. 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:52.880 Now it's over people. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.360 The trafficker tells the agent that macoola trading is his 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:04.520 business and although it's illegal, it's open. The EIA would 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.800 have many more conversations like this, such as this one 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.559 with a Chinese trafficker. We had some actors translate. 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:16.400 Are there still a lot of macola trees out there? 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.600 If we keep logging like this? In two years all 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.640 mcoola trees will be logged in North Province. 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:25.480 So they're almost extinct. 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:31.040 Almost five years ago you see mcola everywhere East Province, 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.640 everywhere you go. Basically now there is nothing. 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.000 It's interesting when you're just having a conversation with traffickers, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.520 you know, it's kind of shooting the breeze. Business to business, 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.840 you do often find people who are conflicted. We had 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.200 traffickers talk about that it's very clear that that species 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.560 is going to be gone very soon. So in the 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.640 context of those kind of conversations that were recorded, the 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.880 truth from really multiple well placed sources, meaning traders, people 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.080 doing the work, the truth became pretty clear. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:13.000 Indeed, as the agency crept through the underworld, they discovered 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:17.720 all the ways Zaffago laundered illegal wood. One way was 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.040 through phony permits. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.520 If you are a corrupt official, there are a lot 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:29.120 of ways you can use permits. Even when theoretically cutting 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:33.000 is not allowed, you have the ability to use all 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.600 kinds of paperwork to allow that wood to move. Hey, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.000 you've got a band in place, but this is an 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.280 exceptional permit or a special permit, or it is covering 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.240 maybe a fallen wood from a storm. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.360 In the words of one trafficker whose testimony is in 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:54.680 the EIA's final report, Zaffago was even in charge of 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:55.440 some logging. 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.080 It's always their own locked wood. They'll handle the logging. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.400 After you paid, you go to their concession and load 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.000 your trucks. They will handle the exporting permit and you're 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:06.440 good to go. 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.040 The report says that Zaffaco was quote allowing anyone with 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:17.480 enough money and high level connections to secretly export freshly 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:22.040 cut makola logs out of Zambia. The anyone with enough 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.440 money bit is key. Another trafficker stated. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.160 If you are not willing to pay, I won't be 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.920 able to get you this permit. Mukula itself does not 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.280 cost a loss of money, only five thousand dollars per container. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.800 Transport costs another eight thousand US dollars. The rest is 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:43.840 government fees. 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.240 By fees, he means bribes. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:53.200 Getting those permits ended up costing around fifteen thousand dollars, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:58.119 so more than half of the value of a container 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:03.400 was spent on getting these illegal permits. Making payments to 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:09.960 officials to cover for entirely illegally stolen. 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.119 Would and there was really only one way to even 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:14.200 pay those bribes. 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.960 If you have connections with higher level relations, you can 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.560 get an export permit with Zipico. 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:29.639 You needed to know people with high level relations. Zaffaco, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.080 in other words, was not just a government agency that 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:38.399 had gone rogue. The fake permits were coming from higher up, and, 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.560 as one trafficker described, only for special people. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.240 You could hold you with higher. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.600 Help you of course number three number. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:54.280 Or meeting. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.280 That audio is tough to hear, so if you missed 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.480 any the traffickers justs that you have to be connected 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:08.600 to the country's third highest government official, Zambia's then Justice minister. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.720 That's when von Bismarck realized something that the bans on 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.320 Micula were part of an even greater conspiracy. 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.359 Controls were simply used by the most powerful to control 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.040 the trade, rather than to actually stop the trade. It 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.080 was being used really as a way to limit the 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.000 trade to the most powerful. 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.959 The EIA realized if it was going to get to 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.600 the bottom of the Mcula heist, its agents would have 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.719 to work their way up to the highest rungs of 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:45.119 Zambia's government. It started by finding a foot soldier among 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.719 the country's political elite. 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:49.320 I am in the system. 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.879 I wake in the system, I wake in the governments. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.920 The government worker offered agents help with paperwork, export permits, certificates, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.399 all of it illegal, and he didn't stop there. The 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.640 worker explained how the logs would be shipped, where they'd 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.760 be shipped, the corrupt customs agent they'd meet at the port, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.199 and how to properly misdeclare the wood on documents to 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:16.600 trick clean agents, but you still needed approval from higher up. 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:23.280 You had to pay so called fee. When agents talked 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.359 with a Chinese trafficker, they got some helpful advice on 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.159 who exactly to talk to. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:30.480 How did you get the logs out? 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.439 We are one of the three exputters who got the 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.879 permise there. We were able to get containers out of 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:38.640 Zambia since then. 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:40.640 So you've been shipping out for a year. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.120 Yes, we had been in this business for over ten 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:45.560 years in Zambia. 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.159 Did you mention last time that you were partnering with 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:53.080 the Minister of Land and Natural Resources? Yes, female minister. Yes, 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:54.520 her name is Capita. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:20:01.520 Yes, Jeane Capita, the Minister of Land Lands and Natural Resources, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:04.879 the same person who you might remember gave a speech 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.840 in Poland celebrating the mccoola band calling the wood quote 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.760 too valuable for just a small part of the population 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.720 to reap the benefits. It turns out that small part 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:28.879 of the population she was a part of it. I 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.400 want to share two numbers with you that are going 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.439 to make you see the world a little differently. Fifteen 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:40.800 to thirty. That is fifteen to thirty percent of all 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.640 the wood on the market right now is illegal. 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.040 Throughout human history, for as have been a real problem 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.480 because they're difficult to know what's going on inside them, 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.679 and when you have huge demand on one side of 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.960 the world for a certain tree in a deep forest, 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.600 it still becomes pretty easy to steal it. 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:05.400 Corruption is everyone. In Romania, the police tasked with monitoring 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.960 illegal logging, that is, the group designed to track corruption, 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:15.040 are themselves allegedly corrupt by organized criminals. In Eastern Russia, 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.400 mafioso's were recently caught supplying a legal hardwood to Americans, 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:23.560 eventually selling stolen wood to your local lumber liquidator's store. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.000 The stories go on. A governor in Peru, the vice 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:32.320 president of Gabon, the environment minister in Brazil. According to 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.160 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, most government 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.760 workers who get caught committing wildlife crimes are just foot soldiers, 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:47.280 a third are police, nineteen percent work in administration, and 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:53.600 seven percent are elected officials. To von Bismarck, he could 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.080 understand why someone on the lower rungs might be seduced 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.840 by illegal logging. They need the money. 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.520 I think you have different motivations, and you have different 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:03.680 situations along this. 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:08.359 Chain, but it's those with power, those with money, that 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.280 he's most disappointed by. 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.680 Those are the decision makers in that chain that are 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:18.679 particularly tragic, that have the power to say no and 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:19.399 don't do it. 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.720 In Zambia, high level government, while giving speeches about the 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.000 dangers of the makola trade, were not only in direct 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:34.920 talks with the traffickers, but we're extorting them. EIA agents 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.119 talked to one Chinese trafficker who complained that the bribes 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.360 were so high that only wealthy traffickers could afford them. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:48.840 The export permit is very expensive, actually, to some extent, 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.639 is more expensive than buying the product and bringing it 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:57.720 here to Lusaka, because that's how Zifhko has done it. 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.679 If they are telling you to produce fifteen thousand dollars, 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.800 where do I get that money? It means they are 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:10.000 telling me don't do the business. That it is for 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:11.440 the big boys. 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:14.320 So fifteen thousand dollars is the price you have to 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.199 pay for the document? Yes, okay, So does the government 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:20.919 actually have that money, Does that go into the country 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:22.280 or does it just get pocketed. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.800 That's for the big boys. They want to make money themselves. 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.919 It's not for everyone. It's for them, the big boys 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:33.600 and the big girls. 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:37.119 Are there just a few big people or many a few. 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:43.200 I think just five, just five people all the way 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:47.400 at the top, making fifteen thousand dollars per illegal permit. 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:50.960 So agents kept plugging to see if they could get 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:55.320 names besides gen Kappata and the Justice minister, and they 0:23:55.359 --> 0:24:01.080 got one Lungu Tasila lunguores. 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:07.800 Everything. 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:14.840 The mccula scheme was far bigger than Zaffago and much 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:18.639 bigger than a few dirty ministers. It went all the 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:22.040 way to the top, to the President's daughter and to 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:26.719 the President of Zambia, Edgar Lungo himself. According to these 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:31.200 MKULA dealers, the daughter was allegedly the glue of the operation, 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:35.880 the vital person linking most traffickers with the highest level 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:38.600 of government, including the president. 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.520 They have Mukula take it devided by the dutta of 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:44.600 the man, the dutta of the president. 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:47.480 Whatever comes, she gets faced. 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:50.240 Or fists, so someone pays to the president. 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:54.560 The answer, they alleged was yes, I don't. 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:58.000 Give money to the president directly. I bred those who 0:24:58.040 --> 0:24:59.800 are above minister's. 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:02.560 Level, above the ministers, so you don't have to pay 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:03.200 the ministers. 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:07.080 I have a good connection with people around president who 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:08.560 collect money for him. 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:12.400 According to a report by the Zambia newspaper News Diggers, 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:16.840 the president allegedly surrounded himself with people who collected money 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:21.880 on his behalf, people who acted quote like the president's housekeeper. 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:26.600 Another person in the conspiracy who worked in government, explained 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:31.080 it succinctly, quote we are protected by the party, by 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:31.720 the government. 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:35.520 The corruption was so high level that the paperwork could 0:25:35.560 --> 0:25:41.400 be really seem pristine enough to get through even neighboring 0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:44.080 countries that are supposed to not allow that trade. 0:25:46.240 --> 0:25:49.600 So here's a fun fact. In Zambia, you could go 0:25:49.640 --> 0:25:53.480 to jail for three years for criticizing the president. The 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:56.720 country's libel laws are a strict clamp on the freedom 0:25:56.760 --> 0:26:01.480 of the press, preventing everybody from opinion call to TV satirist, 0:26:01.640 --> 0:26:06.639 even regular citizens from criticizing the head of state. So 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:10.080 when the EIA's report came out, they got sued. 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:14.720 A few individuals ever mentioned in the report sued us 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:19.240 for libel and we made clear that we stand entirely 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:24.760 by the evidence that is very plainly available in the report. 0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:29.320 Since then there's been more evidence, evidence that has been 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:34.479 presented that really corroborates the findings. 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:39.919 Zaffaco has denied any wrongdoing. Gene Kapita, who currently is 0:26:39.960 --> 0:26:44.879 being investigated under corruption charges, has called the EIA's report fake, 0:26:45.960 --> 0:26:49.120 and to Sila Lungu, the president's daughter who is reportedly 0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:51.960 at the center of the cabal, stated I have not, 0:26:52.160 --> 0:26:54.880 at any juncture been involved in either of the alleged 0:26:54.960 --> 0:27:00.679 criminal transactions. And beyond putting Zambia's political leaders on the defensive, 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:06.960 EIA's work sent shockwaves elsewhere too. In twenty nineteen, it's 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:13.800 reporting helped make mcuola an internationally protected species. Unfortunately, the 0:27:13.840 --> 0:27:19.480 illegal trade appears to continue. For every micuola tree Zambia 0:27:19.480 --> 0:27:25.040 claims to send, China receives about six and those numbers 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:26.680 just don't add up. 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:32.199 The demand is still there, so the motive is not 0:27:32.760 --> 0:27:36.280 entirely removed, and so the question is do we put 0:27:36.359 --> 0:27:38.400 the mechanisms in place to be able to. 0:27:38.359 --> 0:27:39.359 Stay on top of it. 0:27:40.440 --> 0:27:43.760 The micuola trade in Zambia brings in an estimated seven 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:48.159 point five million dollars in bribes every year. To stop it, 0:27:48.520 --> 0:27:51.480