Extensive teak forests in some parts of its range (e.g. at Mulobezi, Zambia) have been over-exploited by the commercial timber industry.
It had built one of the longest logging railways in the world to serve its sawmill at Mulobezi.
The Mulobezi Railway (once known as the Zambezi Sawmills Railway) was constructed to carry timber from Mulobezi to Livingstone in the Southern Province of Zambia, when the country was Northern Rhodesia.
The south-western border with Western Province runs through the teak forests around Mulobezi which once supported a commercial timber industry and for which the Mulobezi Railway was built.