Illegal Amazonian Timber Trade Exposed

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

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.

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Title: AMAZON Illegal Timber Trade Exposed

Source: Environment New Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/, via

ForestWorld http://www.forestworld.com/

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.

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