Record Seizure of Mahogany in Para
Copyright 2001 Financial Times Information
Abstracted from O Globo in Portuguese
November 2, 2001
Ibama, the Brazilian environmental agency, has seized more than 7,000 cubic metres of illegally extracted mahogany in the south of the state of Para. The record seizure shows that Ibama is closing in on the country's biggest mahogany exporters.
The timber (about 200 mahogany trees) was found in farms and sawmills located in an area known as Terra do Meio, in south Para, after investigations by Ibama and Greenpeace. According to Ibama, the mahogany would have been exported to the US and Europe through the Paranagua port, in the southern state of Parana. Illegal mahogany trade in Brazil has caused unprecedented destruction of the forests in northern Brazil.