Illegal Amazonian Timber Trade Exposed
12/11/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Illegal logging is big business. Estimates are that 80% of the
logging in the Amazon is illegal. Global forest sustainability is
going to require clamping down on predatory, unlawful logging
practices-particularly in the handful of remaining large forest
wildernesses. Greenpeace takes a first step, illustrating how
technology can foil the bad guys.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: AMAZON Illegal Timber Trade Exposed
Source: Environment New Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/, via
ForestWorld http://www.forestworld.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 9, 1999
BELEM, Brazil, December 9, 1999 (ENS) - Using ultraviolet technology,
Greenpeace activists Monday identified an illegal supply of logs in
the yard of Eidai do Brasil, a Japanese export logging company, in
Icoaraci Municipality of Para State, Brazil.
Officials from Brazil's environment agency, IBAMA, who were with the
Greenpeace team when they identified the illegal wood, fined the
company and confiscated the logs.
The action was a result of the environmental group's investigation of
Para's timber industry, which started November 12 and has covered
more than 4,000 kilometers.
"This is no longer just another story about timber without proof of
origin. By using this simple technology we have been able to prove,
beyond doubt, that illegality is the trademark of the Amazon logging
industry," said Greenpeace campaigner Paulo Adario.
Last Friday, IBAMA and Greenpeace, returning from a routine visit to
a mill in Para State, stopped a truck carrying seven logs of
"faveira," a type of timber used by the plywood industry.
The cargo was not accompanied by Authorization for Forest Products
Transport documents, and was therefore illegal. In order to track the
logs to their destination, IBAMA agents released the truck after
Greenpeace activists marked the logs with a special dye which is
sensitive to ultraviolet light.
On Monday morning, the truck carrying the marked logs entered the
gates of Eidai do Brasil. A few hours later, empty, the vehicle left.
IBAMA and Greenpeace then attempted to enter the company property but
were stopped by security guards. Only after intervention by the
Federal Police at the end of the afternoon were Greenpeace activists
able to enter the Eidai facility and, using ultraviolet lamps,
located the marked logs.
Under the Environmental Crimes Law recently adopted by the Brazilian
government, IBAMA then fined Eidai do Brasil R$3,600 (US$1,800) for
being in possession of the logs. While awaiting the arrival of the
Federal Police, IBAMA also apprehended and fined another logging
truck delivering faveira timber to Eidai with insufficient
documentation.
Eidai is the largest exporter of processed wood from the Amazon,
controlling major plywood markets in the U.S., Japan, U.K., and the
Netherlands. In 1998, the company exported wood products valued at
over US$35 million and processed 260,000 cubic meters of wood.
"We have shown today that Eidai, like most transnational logging
companies operating in the Amazon, buys undocumented and illegal
timber from third parties," said Adario. "The Brazilian government
themselves admit that 80 percent of the timber logged in the Amazon
is illegal, but has difficulties proving and exposing these
practices. But our action, in co-operation with IBAMA, shows that
even with simple resources it is possible to expose and punish the
destroyers of the Amazon forest."
Paulo Castelo Branco, the new head of IBAMA in Para, welcomed
Greenpeace's support. "Thanks to Greenpeace's intelligence support,
we could prove that Eidai bought illegal timber. This operation shows
that we can ban illegal timber exploitation in the Amazon by
combining political will, support from the federal government, and
public engagement," he said.
The action against Eidai further proves that illegal operations are
common practises of the Amazon timber industry. Only last week
Madeireira Capacio Ltda., in Tome Acu, 196 kilometers from Belem, was
fined US$3 million after an IBAMA/Federal and Military Police raid on
their facilities.
Madeireira Capacio is a regular supplier to the transnational wood
products export companies Eldorado, Nordisk Timber, and Mognolumber.
Para's economy is heavily dependent on timber. About 20 percent of
the state's gross income comes from wood. The Secretary of
Environment of Para registers 2,123 companies dealing with wood.
Greenpeace claims the vast majority of them trade in illegally-logged
timber.
Para produces some 14 million cubic meters of logs a year and
exported US$254.9 million in wood products in 1998. This amounts to
67 percent of the Brazilian Amazon timber exports and 23 percent of
the country's exports of sawn wood, plywood, and veneer.
Brazil is the biggest world consumer of tropical timber. Seventy-five
percent of the wood that leaves the Amazon remains in the country.
Para supplies 40 percent of the Brazilian consumption of tropical
timber.