Illegal Logging Undercuts Controls
4/22/97
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Headline: Illegal Logging Undercuts Controls
Source: The Environment News Service
Date: 4/22/97
The Environment News Service is exclusively hosted by the EnviroLink
Network.
Copyright 1997: ENS, Inc.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Apr. 22, 1997 (ENS) - Illegal
logging is decimating forests and wildlife in Brazil,
Cameroon, Ghana and Paraguay, a new study released today
by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) demonstrates.
The two year investigation in 1995 and 1996 found legal
logging serving as a cover for the movement of illegal
logs.
Elias Diaz Pena, one of FoE Paraguay's projecct co-
ordinators said, "At the current rate of illegal log
trafficking from Paraguay to Brazil, there will
be no commercial wood left in Paraguay in about five
years. This traffic is also linked to the smuggling of
endangered animals, stolen automobiles and drug traffic."
FoEI recognizes that such practices do occur in many other
countries, on all continents. These four particular
countries were selected for study because of relationships
between FoE International and organizations in those
countries.
Participating organizations were the FoEI - Amazonia
Programme in Brazil, Enviro-Protect in Cameroon, Friends
of the Earth Ghana and Sobrevivencia in Paraguay. Except
for Enviro-Protect, these organizations are members of
Friends of the Earth International, a federation of non-
governmental organizations from over 50 countries on all
continents, uniting nearly 5,000 local grassroots groups.
With the results of these two years of investigation now
in hand, FoEI is urging continuous independent monitoring
of logging and the timber trade.
Illegal logging is a threat to the development of
sustainable forest management, warns Rob Glastra, project
co-ordinator of the FoEI Secretariat. "Rampant illegality
creates unfair competitive disadvantages to timber
companies willing to respect laws and pay taxes, let alone
to those wishing to having their products certified as
coming from sustainably managed forests."
The case study in Brazil showed that timber concessions,
mostly for the extraction of mahogany, seem to serve as an
instrument to legalize timber coming from illegal sources,
including indian reserves and other protected areas.
Partly as a result of NGO pressure and press coverage, the
Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso suspended the
granting of new mahogany and virola concessions in the
Amazon for two years, and ordered an unprecedented audit
of concession management plans. This audit revealed
that at least 71 percent of these plans were illegal.
Roberto Smeraldi, the FoEI coordinator in Brazil, said,
"In less than three decades, the Amazon region will become
the principal world center for the production of tropical
timber. The FoEI study shows not only that timber
production is not managed on the basis of sustained yield,
but that the whole timber sector is operating outside or
against the law. On top of that, percentages of paid fines
per Brazilian state vary in range from less than 1% to a
mere 17%".
Smeraldi also cautions against the recent, almost
anonymous establishment of East Asian timber companies,
many of which have extremely negative environmental and
social records.
The Ghana study estimated that about one-third of the logs
are harvested illegally, with timber volumes still
increasing. Illegal chainsaw operations are the main
factor, often backed by people with political connections,
and by timber processing companies. Only 18% of all
chainsaws in the country are registered. Foreign exchange
losses as a result of illegal logging are estimated at
over US$ 600,000 each month. If wood prices remain low and
exploitation continues as in recent years, the twelve
species most in demand will become extinct by 2006.
The replacement of traditional by modern land tenure
systems and the fact that the benefits from commercial
forestry hardly reach the local population have seriously
undermined the forest stewardship role that these
communities have traditionally played.
Theo Anderson, Director of FoE Ghana, said, "The
significant growth of the forestry sector's contribution
to Ghana's GDP has been achieved by overcutting the forest
at unsustainable rates, with high wastage, wood priced
below its real value, and forest-dependent communities
suffering the social and economic costs".
The project in Paraguay involved a one million hectare
illegal colonization scheme in the Alto Paraguay area,
with land speculation involving top government officials,
violations of indigenous land rights and illegal logging.
All of this took place within the context of the Hidrovia
industrial waterway scheme, a megaproject involving five
countries and two river systems.
In another case, further south, illegal logging and cross-
border log trafficking to Brazil were exposed. Arrest
warrants were issued to some high officials, and a
parliamentary hearing was held on the involvement of
the Minister of Agriculture and other government
officials.
The project in Cameroon concluded that contradictory and
sometimes impracticable legislation plus totally
inadequate enforcement resources and wide-spread
corruption were the main reasons for thriving illegal
practices in the timber sector. Cameroon's dramatic
economic crisis since the late 1980s and harsh economic
adjustment schemes pushed by international aid agencies
and financial institutions are essential underlying
factors.
Resentment among the local population in Cameroon against
logging companies in the main timber producing province in
the south-east is growing. They consider the granting of
concessions by the state as a handing over of their
ancestral lands to foreign interests, without any
meaningful compensation or benefits.
An alarming side-effect of logging is the depletion of the
region's unique animal diversity as a result of large-
scale poaching and bushmeat trade, in which logging
employees and truck drivers play a crucial role.
The case studies have demonstrated the importance of
continuous independent monitoring of logging and the
timber trade, the implementation of regulatory mechanisms,
and of the potential for successful lobbying of policy and
decision makers, the FoEI report concludes.
There is an obvious role to play here for NGOs, who can
form alliances with well-meaning officials and government
departments, and with involved local communities that are
committed to sustainable forest use alternatives.
To address some of these problems FoEI recommends:
* a global assessment, within one year, of the extent of
the illegal international trade in timber and other forest
products.
* international assistance to governments in improving
national legislation, strengthening enforcement agencies
and involving NGOs and local communities in the prevention
and monitoring of illegal logging.
* a critical review of existing international instruments
applying to the trade in forest products. Whether reforms
of such instruments are an effective answer to the problem
should take priority over the question of whether they
restrict the freedom of trade.