Brazil Slaps Fine on Mahogany Logger
10/5/99
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Title: BRAZIL Slaps Fine on Mahogany Logger
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 5, 1999
BRASILIA, Brazil, October 5, 1999 (ENS) - Illegal logging of mahogany
trees in the Brazilian Amazon has been punished by the first
important application of the country's new Environmental Crimes Law.
The Brazilian Environmental Institute, IBAMA, announced Monday that
it has fined the Carvalho timber company US$366,000 dollars, the
largest fine yet levied under the new law that allows fines and civil
lawsuits to be brought against illegal loggers.
Authorities seized 1,300 cubic meters (45,500 cubic feet) of mahogany
that was cut illegally. Carvalho's owner, Armando Carvalho, told
police he had a license to cut mahogany and vowed not to pay the fine
and to regain the seized wood, according to a report in Agence France
Presse Monday.
Officials acknowledged that they had given Carvalho a cutting license
for a location 30 kilometers (18 miles) from where his company was
logging the mahogany. The license stated Carvalho was not allowed to
cut mahogany.
The Brazilian mahogany tree (Swietenia macrophylla) takes about 100
years to mature. The deciduous tree has an umbrella shaped crown
reaching up to 40 metres (130 feet) tall, topping the rainforest
canopy.
Brazilian mahogany is listed in Appendix III of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This means it is
listed for classification purposes only. Forest conservation groups
have waged a long, as yet unsuccessful, struggle to have Brazilian
mahogany protected from international trade.
Jose Lutzenberger, former Brazilian Minister of the Environment in
the early 1990s, said in an open letter to consumers, "By buying
Brazilian timber you... are threatening many of the Amazon's
indigenous species with extinction... The cutters are not only
ransacking the forests in these protected areas to supply you with
kitchens and lavatory seats: in many places they are also killing
Indians... Though timber-cutting inside reserves is illegal, timber
traders in many parts of the Amazon wield more money and power than
most government departments."
Monday's action by IBAMA is an attempt to strengthen the hand of the
Brazilian government against illegal loggers and timber traders in
accordance with a new policy announced by the government earlier this
year.