Illegal use of portable chain mills destroying forests

THE TIME has come for portable chain mills to be licensed as one means of controlling the indiscriminate felling of trees in the nation’s forests on State lands. This is the view of environmentalists Dr Ernest Hazelwood and Peter Leotaud. Dr Hazelwood practises alternative healing while Leotaud is an estate owner. Portable chain mills are being sold over the counter at hardware outlets nationwide to individuals who go into protected forested areas and illegally cut down trees and sell the lumber for profit. Leotaud disclosed that these portable chain mills were gas operated machines and could be easily carried by one man going into the forest.

He also revealed that these chain mill operators usually operate in small crews and were part of a larger, organised network of illegal loggers. “The law also needs to be amended to prevent the reckless felling of trees on private properties,” said Leotaud. Dr Hazelwood stated that in the nation’s rural areas, the illegal cutting of trees with portable chain mills has become one of the causes of flooding, landslides and widespread land erosion.

Both he and Leotaud noted that these chain mill operators could  easily cut the felled trees into smaller boards which were used to supply the hard wood market. These boards could then be sold to furniture makers. It was also disclosed that operators made huge profits by cutting down only choice trees like teak, cedar, mahogany, samaan, poui and acoma. Besides licensing these portable chain mills machines, Dr Hazelwood and Leotaud also said illegal operators should face heavy fines.