INTERNATIONAL - Tanzania aims to bring large-scale logging to the Selous Game Reserve, one of Africa's most celebrated wildlife areas and already earmarked by the government for a hydroelectric plant.
The country's forest service (TFS) intends to sell standing trees with a volume of almost 3.5million cubic metres, according to a tender document issued on April 25. The Unesco-designated reserve, in Tanzania’s south-east, is home to elephants, lions, rare birds and other species. Authorities are also moving ahead with a plan to build a 2100MW hydro plant on the reserve’s Rufiji River, which flows into the Indian Ocean - despite concerns from conservationists over the project's impact on the animal population.
The logging tender will be opened tomorrow at the TFS office in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, according to the document.