Amazon: Feds Bust Illegal Logging Operations
Copyright 2001 Environment and Energy Publishing, LLC Greenwire
November 5, 2001
By April Reese, Greenwire staff writer
Increasing pressure to crack down on illegal mahogany logging in the Brazilian Amazon reached a flash point this week as federal environmental officials and police raided sawmills in the state of Para, uncovering about 30,000 cubic meters of mahogany contraband, a Brazilian newspaper reported last week.
Greenpeace, which accompanied federal agents and photographed the busts, says the team investigated four suspected illegal logging operations in what is known as the Middle Land. Investigators from IBAMA, the Brazilian environmental agency, found illegally cut mahogany stashed in the woods around sawmills, behind a dam on the Carajari River and on a farm near the Iriri River. Two armed men were arrested by police during that operation, according to Greenpeace. Roberto Geoidanich, environmental specialist at the Brazilian Embassy, said the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo (The Sao Paulo State) reported that the 118-person operation used 3 helicopters, 8 boats, 2 airplanes, a Greenpeace ship to confiscate 30,000 cubic meters of mahogany over five days.
Although Ibama has conducted similar crackdowns on illegal logging before, "this is probably the biggest raid they've ever done," Geoidanich said.
The timber companies involved also received fines, with one company forced to pay 10 million Reals, the equivalent of about 3 million dollars, according to the Brazil paper.
The busts came rapidly on the heels of a government freeze on all mahogany logging, transport and export announced early last week (see the October 29 Greenwire). Around the same time, Greenpeace released a report alleging that timber barons in Brazil have been laundering mahogany exports by using legitimate permits issued before a government moratorium on new mahogany logging went into effect in 1996.
"The illegal mahogany trade has for years been driving the destruction of the Amazon," said Brazil-based Greenpeace campaigner Paulo Adario. "After witnessing the rampant destruction of this rainforest firsthand, it is clear to us that the only course of action left to the Brazilian government is to throw these loggers in jail and stop this industry until it can be brought under control."
Geoidanich says he suspects more busts are to come, although he could not confirm that suspicion with Ibama officials in Brazil by press time.