Branching out

This report focuses on Zimbabwe’s logging ambitions in the DRC – potentially the world's largest ever timber deal. However, it should be remembered that this deal is just one strand of the powerful and intricate corporate web created over the past few years by Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, in an attempt to capture both foreign and domestic state and private assets. This network has presumably been created to enhance the personal wealth of those involved, to maintain Zanu-PF’s power base and to recoup some of the costs of Zimbabwe’s chaotic military intervention in DRC.