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Illegal logging

Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.

Illegality may also occur during transport, such as illegal processing and export (through fraudulent declaration to customs); the avoidance of taxes and other charges, and fraudulent certification.[1] These acts are often referred to as "wood laundering".[2]


Illegal logging is driven by a number of economic forces, such as demand for raw materials, land grabbing and demand for pasture for cattle. Regulation and prevention can happen at both the supply size, with better enforcement of environmental protections, and at the demand side, such as an increasing regulation of trade as part of the international lumber Industry.

A joint UK-Indonesian study of the timber industry in Indonesia in 1998 suggested that about 40% of throughput was illegal, with a value in excess of $365 million. More recent estimates, comparing legal harvesting against known domestic consumption plus exports, suggest that 88% of logging in the country is illegal in some way.[54] Malaysia is the key transit country for illegal wood products from Indonesia.[55]

[53]

In Brazil, 80% of logging in the violates government controls.[56] At the core of illegal logging is widespread corruption. Often referred to as 'green gold', mahogany can fetch over US$1,600 m-3. Illegal mahogany facilitates the illegal logging of other species, and widespread exploitation of the Brazilian Amazon. Recent Greenpeace investigations in the Brazilian state of Pará reveal just how deeply rooted the problem remains. No reliable legal chain of custody exists for mahogany, and the key players in its trade are ruthless.[57]

Amazon

The estimates that 80% of logging operations are illegal in Bolivia and 42% in Colombia,[58] 10 while in Peru, illegal logging constitutes 80% of all activities.[59]

World Bank

Research carried out by International[60] in 2002 shows that in Africa, rates of illegal logging vary from 50% for Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea to 70% in Gabon and 80% in Liberia – where revenues from the timber industry also fuelled the civil war.

WWF

estimates that illegal logging in Russia is at least 20%, reaching up to 50% in its far eastern regions.[61]

WWF

A 2012 joint study by the and Interpol states that illegal logging accounts for up to 30% of the global logging trade and contributes to more than 50% of tropical deforestation in Central Africa, the Amazon Basin and South East Asia.[62]

United Nations Environment Programme

Between 50% and 90% of logging from the key countries in these regions is being carried out by organised criminal entities.

[63]

A study conducted by found that 93% of all timber exported from Mozambique to China in 2013 was done so illegally.[64]

TRAFFIC

As of 2020, states that every year 10 million hectares of forest are lost to illegal logging across the globe. They also state that the illicit wood sector is worth almost $152 billion per year and up to one-third of all wood furniture is made from illegally sourced timber.[65][66][67]

Interpol

The scale of illegal logging represents a major loss of revenue to many countries and can lead to widespread associated environmental damage. A senate committee in the Philippines estimated that the country lost as much as US$1.8bn per year during the 1980s.[49] The Indonesian government estimated in 2002 that costs related to illegal logging are US$3bn each year.[50] The World Bank[51] estimates that illegal logging costs timber-producing countries between 10 and 15 billion euros per year. This compares with 10 billion euros disbursed as EC aid in 2002.[52]


In March 2004, Greenpeace carried out actions against a cargo ship transporting timber from the Indonesian company Korindo, which was being imported into France, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Korindo is known to be using illegal timber from the last rainforests of Indonesia. In May 2003, an Indonesian Government investigation confirmed that Korindo was receiving illegal timber from notorious timber barons known to obtain timber from an orang-utan refuge – the Tanjung Puting National Park.[68][54] Tanjung Puting National Park is a 4,000-square-kilometre conservation area of global importance. It is recognized as a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations and forms the largest protected area of swamp forest in South-East Asia.

It prohibits the placing on the EU market for the first time of illegally harvested timber and products derived from such timber;

[69]

It requires EU traders who place timber products on the EU market for the first time to exercise 'due diligence';

[69]

Once on the market, the timber and timber products may be sold on and/or transformed before they reach the final consumer.

[69]

To facilitate the traceability of timber products, economic operators in this part of the supply chain (referred to as traders in the regulation) have an obligation to keep records of their suppliers and customers.

[69]

Deforestation and climate change

Environmental impact of roads

Environmental Investigation Agency

European Anti-Fraud Office

Environmental vandalism

Illegal logging in Madagascar

List of environmental issues

(REDD)

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

Timber mafia

United Nations Forum on Forests

Teak in Myanmar

Monbiot, George (1991). . Michael Joseph. ISBN 0349101620.

Amazon Watershed

EIA and Telapak Indonesia (September 2001). (PDF). Environmental Information Agency.

"Timber trafficking: Illegal Logging in Indonesia, South East Asia and International Consumption of Illegally Sourced Timber"

Ravenel, Ramsay M.; Ilmi M. E. Granoff; Carrie A. Magee (18 January 2005). . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-56022-117-3.

Illegal logging in the tropics: strategies for cutting crime

Sheikh, Pervaze A., ed. (9 June 2008). (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2011.

"Illegal Logging: Background and Issues"

Tacconi, Luca (2007). . London: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-348-1.

Illegal logging: law enforcement, livelihoods and the timber trade

Illegal Logging and Related Timber Trade - Dimensions, Drivers, Impacts and Responses

from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme

with links to FLEGT Regulation (adopted in 2005) and EU Timber Regulation (adopted in 2010)

European Commission page on illegal logging

Forest Legality Alliance

on investigations related to illegal logging

Environmental Investigation Agency page