Tackling Illicit Timber Flows in Tanzania

Strengthening the evidence base on illicit timber flows in Tanzania and identifying opportunities to improve enforcement responses to timber trafficking and related security threats.

Timber production | Flickr

The miombo woodlands are a vast forest ecosystem spanning nearly 2 million km² across Central, East and Southern Africa, supporting rich biodiversity alongside the livelihoods of rural and urban communities across the region. The woodlands face growing deforestation, driven by a range of factors including illegal logging and the laundering of illegally harvested timber into legitimate supply chains to meet rising international demand for miombo hardwoods. This illicit trade threatens biodiversity and local livelihoods alike, depriving communities of revenue from the legal timber trade and undermining sustainable forest management.

Key infrastructure corridors – including the TAZARA railway and TANZAM highway – connect Tanzania with major timber-producing, transit, and trading areas across the miombo woodlands region. These corridors play an important role in legitimate regional trade but have also been vulnerable to misuse by illicit timber networks operating across borders. Evidence on Tanzania’s specific role in these flows, and on the effectiveness of national efforts to counter them, remains limited.

Timber production | Flickr

Aims and Objectives

This project aims to fill that gap by examining the Tanzanian dimension of illicit timber flows in the miombo woodlands. It will strengthen the evidence base on Tanzania’s role as a source and transit hub – including the methods of timber trafficking, associated financial flows, and its convergence with other security threats – as well as the structural drivers that allow timber crime to persist. The project will also assess progress made so far in tackling national and cross-border illicit timber flows, and identify opportunities to strengthen Tanzania’s response.

The project specifically intends to:

Strengthen the evidence base on timber trafficking patterns, modus operandi and financial flows linked to Tanzania’s role in miombo hardwood supply chains.
Assess the extent to which timber trafficking converges with other security threats and forms of organised crime.
Deepen understanding of the structural drivers of timber crime in Tanzania, including corruption risks, legal loopholes and governance gaps.
Identify enforcement and governance progress made so far in tackling illicit timber flows, and opportunities for a strengthened response.