Copyright 2001 OneWorld US
December 6, 2001
By Jim Lobe, OneWorld US

In a major victory for environmentalists, the Brazilian (news - web sites) government Wednesday announced the cancellation of all but two mahogany logging operations in the Amazon.

The announcement followed dramatic government raids in late October on two illegal operations that had been exposed in a report by the environmental movement Greenpeace.

Greenpeace hailed Wednesday's decision by Brazil's national environmental agency, IBAMA, as a "historic announcement [that] brings an end to the illegal mahogany industry in Brazil."

"The illegal mahogany industry has for years been driving the destruction of the Amazon," said Paulo Adario, coordinator of the Greenpeace Amazon Campaign, who had received death threats over his role in preparing the report. "Mahogany is responsible for thousands of miles of illegal roads opening areas of pristine forest to degradation."

The trade in mahogany--which today is found only in very remote, old-growth tropical forests--has been the subject of environmental and human rights campaigns for more than a decade in the United States and Europe, especially Britain.

The value of the hardwood--used mostly in the construction of yachts, expensive furniture, musical instruments, and coffins--has long attracted loggers deep into virgin forests. Their construction of logging roads has in turn spurred settlers to move into regions which are home to native peoples.

The result has been not only the destruction of the forests, but also the spread of disease to indigenous populations with little if any resistance, and often violent collisions of very different cultures.

Christopher Hatch, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) called the Brazilian government's decision "very bold and very courageous." "This is a really large-scale intervention and much bigger than the U.S. has ever tried to protect its forests," he added.

The government's October raids targeted two major operators who control most of the illegal trade in Para State. The raids netted more than one million cubic feet of illegal mahogany with an estimated value of some US$30 million. It was the largest seizure in Brazilian history.

Using forged documents to make it appear that the logs were harvested legally, they exported logs to overseas buyers, mainly in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany, according to the Greenpeace report which named U.S. companies Ethan Allen Stickley, Henredon, and Georgia Pacific as among the buyers.

Brazil enacted a moratorium on mahogany logging in the mid-1990s, but it was only loosely enforced. After the October raids, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced an immediate suspension of all logging, transport, and export of Brazilian mahogany until IBAMA could complete an investigation of the industry.

Wednesday's announcement makes Cardoso's October order against all illegal operations permanent. IBAMA said it will permit two logging operations that are in the process of being independently certified as well-managed projects to continue and will in the future require certification for all management plans that affect or border Indian lands and conservation areas.

"Of course, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating," said RAN's Hatch, but "at least this will make illegal logging easier to track." Error: Unable to read footer file.