Alfred Futuyo Karaba ordered all timber dealers and companies to register with the state Ministry of agriculture, Forestry and Environment as of Monday 04 April, 2022.

This, according to the governor, will help avoid illegal logging and also help regulate companies to obtain licenses for operating in the area.

In a state order issued on Monday, Governor Futuyo directed the Police, CID and the National Security to immediately implement the order.

The dealers and companies are asked to register their logging machines with the state Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment not later than 15 May, 2022.

The order cited that anybody who defaults on this state order his or her machine will be confiscated.

The process also meant to find out those who are illegally cutting Mahogany and Afzilia Africana trees and others without the approval of the state ministry of agriculture.

However, there is no data of the number of companies or individuals obtaining the automatic logging machines in the area.

Alex Digi, the press secretary in office of the governor Alfred Futuyo says the order is to stop illegal logging in the state.

“The purpose is to make sure that this illegal cutting of the trees like Mahogany and the Abzilia trees in the state should be stopped,” Digi explained to Eye Radio on Wednesday.

“The purpose of the order is so that no one should just come and enter the bush and start cutting trees without permission from the government because the ministry is there.

“They [comapanies] are supposed to go and register and the ministry will look at the number of the trees that the person is going to cut.

“The ministry will also look at the impact of how it is going to affect the environment, for example; in the ministry we understand that there is a plan about if you cut one tree you plant five, so these are procedures that the ministry will look at.”

According to research done by South Sudan Council of Churches and the UK Peace-building Opportunities Fund, the types of trees being logged in Western Equatoria, include, teak, mahogany Afezilia and mvule.

Economists said illegal logging in South Sudan is persistent in the heavily wooded areas bordering Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The practice is common around Yei River, Western Equatoria and parts of Eastern Equatoria states.

In 2019, the Washington-based research group examined trade data to document the export of around 100,000 tons of South Sudanese teak from January 2018 to March 2019.

It found that corruption and a poorly regulated logging trade mean that the government, the military, and other armed groups are skimming profits off South Sudan’s portion of the global teak trade, which is worth more than $500 million dollars annually.