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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Amazon
Timber Stewards Busted for Bribes
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives & Portal
10/14/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Corruption
is rife within the tropical timber industry.
In the
latest
example, Brazilian timber inspectors have been filmed taking
bribes--surely
illustrating only a small part of the problem.
Much
of the
tropical log industry is predicated on illegal activities to
access
large areas of pristine rainforest resources at the cheapest
cost,
doing whatever is necessary to get out the cut. The incentives
are so
great, and the penalties so few, that 80% of the logging done
in the
Amazon is estimated to be illegal. The
ecosystem disruption
caused
by this wanton destruction is morally reprehensible and
threatens
our Planet's and its occupant's well-being.
Forward
thinking
governments, NGOs and citizen advocates must demand and then
implement
policy to stop the illegal plunder of our ancient
rainforests.
g.b.
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Title: Amazon timber stewards busted for
bribes
Source: Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network
Date: October 11, 2000
Byline: By Robin Eveleigh
Video
evidence documents IBAMA officials accused of accepting bribe
to log
Brazilian forest area.
Three
forest guardians working for the Brazilian government were
suspended
from their jobs and face a prison sentence after being
filmed
taking bribes from an Amazon timber company.
The
trio was charged with extortion based on video evidence provided
by
Avelino de Dea, owner of the timber company Dea Industrias. The
perpetrators
could be jailed for up to eight years if found guilty.
Jos,
Mavan, Jos, Alcy Freitas and Pedro FranOa Dias, who work for The
Brazilian
Institute for the Environment and Natural Renewable
Resources,
commonly known in Brazil as Ibama, were on a two-day
inspection
of Dea Industrias based in Marab in the Amazon state of
Par .
The
trio was secretly filmed by Dea asking for $2,500 to "forget" a
$25,000
fine for illegal logging. Dea bargained the bribe down to
$1,500,
receiving a promise that his fine would be reduced to around
$2,500.
"Mr.
Dea has been the victim of extortion in the past, and he knew it
would
happen again when he was told his company was up for
inspection,"
said Orlando Martello, the Brazilian attorney
prosecuting
the case.
"He
filmed the inspectors over the two days every time they came into
his
office, and then brought the tape to me in August. Following our
investigation,
the three employees have been charged and removed from
their
posts."
According
to a report by Greenpeace, 80 percent of all logging in the
Amazon
is illegal. "For the most part, forest management plans are
not
followed but are used merely to satisfy a legal requirement," the
report
notes. "Logging is highly wasteful, with two-thirds of all
logged
timber ending up as unusable fragments or sawdust."
A
survey conducted by Friends of the Earth International, cited in
Greenpeace's
report, reveals a pitifully low collection rate for
fines
arising from environmental crime in the Amazon region. "In
1996,
it is estimated that only 13 percent were collected," the
report
notes.
This is
not the first time Ibama officials have been accused of
corruption.
In May, one of the Amazon's most prominent defenders,
Paulo
Castelo Branco, was snared by Brazil's Federal Police for
allegedly
taking a bribe worth almost $1 million from Japanese timber
company
Eidai.
In his
seven months as head of Ibama's base in Par 's capital, Belem,
Branco
achieved a state record with seizures of illegal timber
totaling
60,000 cubic meters. He had been removed from his post in
April
pending inquiries into his own corruption claims against
colleagues.
He is still awaiting trial.
Branco's
successor, Selma Bara MelgaOo, said a complete review of
Ibama's
timber inspection procedures is ongoing.
She
said she knew of the latest corruption scandal more than a month
ago
after receiving a transcript of conversations between her
employees
and Dea. "There was nothing I could do until the
investigation
was complete," she said. "All our procedures are being
reviewed.
They make it too easy to demand bribes."
Martello
said he could not rule out the possibility of more Ibama
workers
facing corruption charges. "We've had a lot of
denunciations,"
he said. "Some of them we have not been able to
prove,
and we're still looking at others."
"It's
impossible to find a timber company here that's 100 percent
clean,"
he said. "Such a thing does not exist."
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