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topic: Illegal Timber Trade
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Global agarwood trade heavily dependent on wild, threatened trees: Study
- The global agarwood trade heavily depends on wild-harvested endangered tree species, despite international regulations for protection, with significant volumes going undocumented in official trade records, a new study reveals.
- About 70% of the trade depend on Aquilaria filaria and Aquilaria malaccensis, both threatened species, sourced from the wild, raising major sustainability concerns. Meanwhile, there are some tree species that are not even covered by CITES, the global wildlife trade convention.
- Due to discrepancies between CITES and customs data, along with weak enforcement and outdated regulations, researchers suggest the illegal trade is far larger than reported.
- Researchers urge stronger monitoring, updated data, expanded species protection, and a shift to cultivated sources. They also call on consumers and wealthy importers to support conservation and governments to promote sustainable practices.
Fake documents, real deforestation drive global trade in illegal Amazon timber
- A report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) tracked the equivalent of 1,828 shipping containers of illegal wood sourced in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Nearly 3% of this timber was exported to U.S. and European companies, violating commercial rules forbidding illegal timber imports into those markets.
- One of the most coveted species by international markets is ipê, a tropical hardwood whose price increases twentyfold along the supply chain.
- Exports point to flaws in the Brazilian tracking system and impunity for offenders as the main reasons for the persistent widespread illegality of logging.
New dams call into question Cambodia’s commitment to REDD+ projects
- Three new irrigation dams have been approved in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, overlapping with two carbon credit projects
- The new developments join five hydropower projects that are already eating into these same forests.
- Communities in the affected area have described the onslaught of dam projects, from which they say they haven’t benefited, as “a war against the forest.”
- Experts say the approval throws into question the Cambodian government’s commitment to carbon credits as a viable climate tool.
Timber trade watchdog urges Poland to halt imports of Myanmar ‘blood timber’
- Environmental law watchdog ClientEarth is demanding immediate action from authorities in Poland to crack down on imports of sanctioned Myanmar teak into the country.
- Imports of the highly coveted timber into Poland persist, the group says, despite EU sanctions imposed on Myanmar’s state-controlled timber monopoly following the 2021 military coup and brutal crackdown on citizens.
- The imports also flout EU Timber Regulations, as well as risk exacerbating high rates of deforestation in the conflict-torn country.
- The continued imports come as Poland assumes a new leadership role on the European Council and delays to the implementation of the EU’s new antideforestation regulations.
Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Free press advocates are demanding justice for environmental reporter Chhoeung Chheng after he was shot and killed by a suspected illegal logger on the outskirts of a protected area in northern Cambodia.
- Chheng and a colleague were in the region to document illegal forest activities when they encountered the alleged perpetrator on Dec. 4; police arrested the suspect the following day.
- Chheng died in hospital on Dec. 7, making him the latest victim in a broader trend in which covering environmental issues puts journalists in the firing line.
- Advocates say the incident underscores the threats to journalists seeking to cover issues such as logging amid increasing climate-related catastrophes across Asia, and have called on governments like Cambodia’s to ensure journalists can freely and safely report on those issues.
Maker of Jeff Bezos’s yacht fined for using Myanmar ‘blood timber’
Dutch prosecutors have fined the makers of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s superyacht for its use of dubious Myanmar teak, in the latest instance of authorities cracking down on “blood timber” from the Southeast Asian country. Yacht builder Oceanco will pay a 150,000 euro ($159,000) fine under a settlement reached with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service […]
Yacht maker Sunseeker fined in landmark Myanmar ‘blood timber’ case
Yacht builder Sunseeker International has become the first company fined by a U.K. court for using illegally imported timber from military-controlled Myanmar on some of its vessels. The U.K.-based company, which claims to be “the world’s leading brand for luxury motor yachts,” pleaded guilty to three charges of violating the U.K. Timber Regulation (UKTR). The […]
Prosecutors urge suspension of Amazon carbon projects, citing Mongabay investigation
- Brazilian prosecutors asked the Amazonas state government to suspend carbon projects in 21 conservation units.
- According to the lawsuit, the government had failed to consult local communities.
- The filing mentioned Mongabay’s investigation linking some of Amazon’s largest REDD+ projects to an illegal logging scheme.
Parties gutting EUDR received donations from companies tied to illegal deforestation: Report
- The EU Parliament has voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year after strong opposition to the law from EU member states, export countries, traders, and operators.
- It has also approved a series of amendments put forward by the large center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which called for less stringent requirements.
- In a new report, the NGO Earthsight linked donors linked to illegal deforestation and likely benefits from this amendment to EPP member parties in Germany and Austria, which have called for the revision of the law.
- Supply chain analysts and environmentalists said the changes will open up loopholes undermining forest conservation and facilitating the laundering of illegally sourced commodities in the EU.
Brazil researchers boost timber traceability with new chemical analysis
- Brazilian researchers have opened a new front in the search for a reliable timber tracking system by using chemical analysis to determine where a tree was grown.
- The technique relies on identifying a wood sample’s chemical signature, which can then be matched against various known soil profiles to narrow down its origin.
- As the technology evolves, the researchers say they hope to combine it with stable isotope analysis to increase the precision of timber tracking.
- Most timber provenance inspections in Brazil rely on public documents whose information can easily be faked by illegal loggers.
Illegally logged wood from Cambodia likely ending up in U.S. homes
U.S. consumers risk using flooring products made of wood illegally logged from Cambodia’s rainforests, a recent Mongabay investigation suggests. The investigation focused on companies in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SEZ) that manufacture furniture and engineered wood flooring for the U.S. market. One company in particular, Chinese-owned Nature Flooring (Cambodia), sources its plywood cores from […]
Cambodian logging syndicate tied to major U.S. wood flooring supply chains
- Cambodian companies producing engineered hardwood flooring for the U.S. market are getting their timber from a company described as a cartel that’s been repeatedly accused of illegally logging inside protected areas.
- Angkor Plywood is the sole supplier of plywood to flooring manufacturers based in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, and claims the wood comes from its acacia and eucalyptus plantations.
- However, watchdog groups, industry insiders and independent media, including Mongabay, have long documented evidence of Angkor Plywood and its supplier, Think Biotech, felling tropical hardwoods inside Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
- AHF Products, which claims to be the biggest U.S. wood flooring manufacturer, runs a factory in the Sihanoukville SEZ, but denies any protected wood entering its supply chain — a claim industry veterans question, given Angkor Plywood’s notoriety.
Angkor Plywood, the ‘timber cartel’ shipping Cambodian forests internationally
- A year-long Mongabay investigation shows that one of Cambodia’s most notorious logging companies likely illegally exported rare tree species to Vietnam and China for years.
- We found evidence Angkor Plywood has been illegally logging timber from protected areas and violating various laws by exporting sawn logs — and doing all this with impunity, in part thanks to its well-connected founders.
- Shipping records from 2021-2023 show Angkor Plywood exported a type of timber coveted in the furniture trade from a species it should never have been allowed to log or trade, according to a government source.
- A veteran activist calls Angkor Plywood a cartel and “driving force” behind the extensive logging and forest destruction taking place Cambodia.
Cambodian environment minister bans logging at tycoon’s Cardamoms hydropower project
- Cambodia’s environment minister has ordered a ban on forest clearance at a hydropower project site where activists and media, including Mongabay, previously reported indications of illegal logging.
- The Stung Meteuk hydropower project is being developed by a company under Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator notorious for a long history of environmentally and socially destructive businesses.
- In April, Mongabay documented the illegal logging operations at the project site, where logging routes had been cut leading into the nearby Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Activists have welcomed the order to halt forest clearance, but say they’re skeptical the ban will be enforced against such a powerful figure, noting that timber processing continues at the site.
Reporter who revealed deforestation in Cambodia now charged with deforestation
- A journalist who covered the land grab and deforestation of a community forest by a mining company has himself been charged with deforestation.
- Ouk Mao was instrumental in bringing to light the takeover of the Phnom Chum Rok Sat community forest in Stung Treng province by the politically connected company Lin Vatey.
- In mid-September he was charged with deforestation and incitement, for which he faces up to 10 years in jail; while not detained, he’s subject to court-ordered monitoring and cannot leave his village without permission.
- Activists say Cambodia’s courts have been weaponized against critics, with a pattern emerging where “protectors of Cambodia’s remaining forests are accused of perpetrating the very crime they are standing against.”
Amazon Fraud 101: How timber credits mask illegal logging in Brazil
- Sustainable forest management plans in the Brazilian Amazon are intended to ensure compliance with strict environmental rules, but many are used fraudulently as cover for illegal logging, according to new research.
- One expert estimates that 20% of all forest management plans in the Brazilian Amazon fall under this category, where applicants file the plans simply to obtain the timber credits that correspond with the volume of wood they claim to want to harvest.
- These credits are then used to launder illegal timber — often felled in Indigenous territories or conservation areas — into the legal supply chain.
- Criminal groups use many strategies to defraud the timber credit system, including misrepresenting the species of tree they claim to want to log, or its size.
Hydropower dams further undermine REDD+ efforts in Cambodia
- Five hydropower dams are currently being built in the Cardamom Mountains with reservoirs set to collectively span more than 15,000 hectares (37,065 acres) across protected forests.
- Three of these new dams encroach on forests where REDD+ projects are currently operating, pitting “green” energy infrastructure against conservation goals.
- Residents living nearby one of the dam sites fear that history may repeat as hydropower dams have typically been used to illegally extract valuable timber.
History repeats as logging linked to Cambodian hydropower dam in Cardamoms
- Loggers are targeting protected forests in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains using the cover of a new hydropower dam
- The dam is being built by Ly Yong Phat, a wealthy Cambodian tycoon with ties to the top tiers of government and a long history of environmental vandalism in the Cardamoms
- Timber from the Stung Meteuk hydropower dam has already been sold via a government-facilitated auction, but some timber may have been illegally logged
- The dam also overlaps significantly with the Samkos REDD+ project which is still under validation and verification
How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- The European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, adopted in 2003, is a unique regional attempt to rein in the burgeoning global trade in illegal timber.
- A key component of FLEGT is bilateral trade agreements between the EU and timber-producing countries, known as voluntary partnership agreements (VPAs), which provide economic incentives to producer countries to strengthen regulation of timber production within their borders.
- But how well do the VPAs work, and what kind of environmental, social and economic benefits do they provide? To find out, scientists reviewed the scientific research on FLEGT VPAs, and we detail their results below. The upshot, they found, is that it’s too soon to tell.
- This is the ninth installment of Mongabay’s long-running special series, “Conservation Effectiveness.”
Verra suspends carbon credit projects following police raid in Brazil
- Verra, the largest registry of the voluntary carbon market, suspended projects targeted by the Federal Police in the Brazilian Amazon following an investigation by Mongabay.
- The “extraordinary action” prevents the selling of new credits, the organization stated.
- The raid occurred two weeks after Mongabay showed the links between the REDD+ projects and a suspected logging scam.
- Verra certified projects that had credits bought by top brands such as the carbon credit broker Moss, the Brazilian low-cost carrier GOL Airlines, the food delivery app iFood, Itaú, one of the country’s leading banks, and the international companies Toshiba, Spotify and Boeing.
Brazil police raid Amazon carbon credit projects exposed by Mongabay
- The Brazilian Federal Police arrested people and seized assets linked to some of the country’s largest carbon credit projects.
- According to the investigators, the group was running land-grabbing and timber laundering crimes in the Amazon for more than a decade and profiting millions of dollars.
- The projects were exposed at the end of May in a one-year investigation published by Mongabay, which showed links between the REDD+ projects and an illegal timber scam.
- Authorities and experts hope the findings will raise the bar for projects in the country and persuade lawmakers to create strict rules for the Brazilian carbon market, which is now under discussion.
Cambodian companies tied to abuses promoted by UN program, rights group alleges
- The United Nations Development Programme’s internal watchdog is reviewing a complaint that a project led by the agency is platforming companies linked to human and environmental rights abuses.
- Local rights group Licadho had as early as December 2022 flagged the UNDP’s SDG Impact – Private Sector Capital project, which aims to assist in facilitating investment in Cambodian companies.
- Several of the companies promoted as “investment opportunities” by the project are linked to government and business bigwigs with track records of deforestation, illegal logging and forced evictions.
- Licadho said there was “no meaningful due diligence” by the UNDP in selecting the companies to promote, and that the project “lend[s] reputational support to companies with documented involvement” in issues as serious as child labor and trafficking in persons, among others.
Trial begins for Mother Nature Cambodia activists on conspiracy charge
- Ten environmental activists face up to a decade in prison as their trial gets underway in Cambodia on charges of plotting against the government.
- The members of Mother Nature Cambodia have long sought to highlight environmental harms being done around the country, including by powerful business and political elites.
- Six of them have already served time behind bars and have denounced what they say is a lack of justice from the state.
Top brands buy Amazon carbon credits from suspected timber laundering scam
- An analysis of two carbon credit projects in the Brazilian Amazon has found that they may be connected to illegal timber laundering.
- Prior to the analysis, forest management plans had already been suspended in the areas over the same issue.
- The projects belong to Ricardo Stoppe Jr., known as the biggest individual seller of carbon credits in Brazil, who has made millions of dollars selling these credits to companies like GOL Airlines, Nestlé, Toshiba, Spotify, Boeing and PwC; his partner in one of the projects was convicted of timber laundering six years ago.
- Their REDD+ projects were developed by Carbonext, known as the largest carbon credit provider in Brazil, and certified by Verra, one of the world’s largest voluntary carbon market registries.
New illegal logging threatens Liberia’s forests amid vague ban
- Large-scale commercial operators are evading Liberian forestry regulations by illegally processing wood destined for export on-site in forests.
- Timber milled in forests with chainsaws is legally restricted to the production of boards by artisanal loggers for sale on the domestic market, but reporting by Liberian newspaper The Daylight and research by U.S.-based NGO Forest Trends has found large-scale operators producing thicker blocks of high-value wood for export.
- Chainsaw-milled timber isn’t entered into the country’s timber-tracking system, meaning producers can evade sustainable forestry regulations as well as taxes and benefits due to local communities.
- The country’s Forestry Development Authority says it has banned production of this type of timber, but campaigners say it has done little to publicize the ban or prevent traffickers from exploiting this loophole.
Protected areas bear the brunt as forest loss continues across Cambodia
- In 2023, Cambodia lost forest cover the size of the city of Los Angeles, or 121,000 hectares (300,000 acres), according to new data published by the University of Maryland.
- The majority of this loss occurred inside protected areas, with the beleaguered Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary recording the highest rate of forest loss in what was one of its worst years on record.
- A leading conservation activist says illegal logging inside protected areas is driven in part by demand for luxury timber exports, “but the authorities don’t seem to care about protecting these forests.”
- Despite the worrying trend highlighted by the data, the Cambodian government has set an ambitious target of increasing the country’s forest cover to 60% by 2050.
In Cambodia, an official’s cashew factory churns out timber from a protected forest
- A senior Cambodian official notorious for illegal logging appears to be carving out a vast swath of forest in what’s supposed to be a protected area in the country’s north.
- Satellite imagery suggests some 3,100 hectares (7,700 acres) of protected forest could be lost in a concession that activists and anonymous officials say has been awarded to a company led by Ouk Kimsan.
- Kimsan, who’s also the deputy governor of Preah Vihear province, denied owning a concession inside Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary — despite his company stating the opposite on its website.
- Community activists, who manage a slice of the protected area, say their complaints about illegal logging have been ignored by the provincial government, and blame a culture of corruption.
Sanctioned timber baron wins new mining concessions in Cambodia’s Prey Lang
- A freeze announced late last year on new mining operations in Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary comes with a massive loophole that benefits one of the country’s highest-profile deforesters.
- Try Pheap, a powerful tycoon and adviser to the previous prime minister, controls a company that was last year granted 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) inside the sanctuary to mine iron ore.
- The name Try Pheap is synonymous with illegal logging in Cambodia, including the trafficking of high-value Siamese rosewood trees that drove the species almost to extinction in the country.
- While Try Pheap was hit by U.S. sanctions in 2019, his company that holds the mining concessions in Prey Lang, Global Green, isn’t on the sanctions list and appears to be ramping up its operations.
Calls grow to repurpose land squandered in Cambodia’s concession policy
- The mismanagement of large swaths of Cambodia’s land by the country’s elites under the policy of economic land concessions has displaced thousands of rural families and accounted for 40% of total deforestation.
- With even the government seeming to acknowledge the ineffectiveness of ELCs as an economic driver, calls are growing to return the land to dispossessed communities or repurpose them in other ways.
- One expert says the role of local communities will be central to the success of any reformation of the ELC system and will need to be carefully considered to avoid the pitfalls of the old system.
- Another proposes giving land currently owned by nonperforming ELCs to agricultural cooperatives managed by communities, placing more negotiating power in the hands of farmers rather than concessionaires.
Logging route cut into Cambodia’s Prey Lang from Think Biotech’s concession
- A road carved from a reforestation concession into the heart of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia appears to be facilitating the illegal logging and trafficking of valuable timber, a Mongabay investigation has revealed.
- The road originates in the concession of Think Biotech, a company previously implicated in forestry crimes, but its director denies being involved in the new road.
- The road had advanced 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the ostensibly protected Prey Lang before authorities ordered a crackdown — one that activists say was just for show and targeted only small-time loggers.
- Community groups and activists say Prey Lang’s forests are being decimated at alarming rates, with satellite data showing nearly the same amount of forest cover loss in the past five years as in the previous 18.
Journalism’s role in the Nature Crime Alliance (commentary)
- Nature crime constitutes one of the largest illicit economies in the world, inflicting devastation and destruction upon people and planet.
- On August 23, 2023, the Nature Crime Alliance officially launched as “a new, multi-sector approach to fighting criminal forms of logging, mining, wildlife trade, land conversion, crimes associated with fishing, and the illegal activities with which they converge.”
- Mongabay is a founding member of the alliance. In this post, our founder Rhett A. Butler explains why Mongabay is involved and how it will contribute.
- “We decided to join the alliance because we firmly believe that journalism can contribute to real-world outcomes by highlighting the significance of nature, fostering accountability for environmental destruction, and inspiring people to work towards solutions,” writes Butler. “On the nature crime front specifically, we believe that shedding light on the corruption, collusion, and undue influence that drive environmental degradation can pave the way for more effective policies around the management of natural resources.”
Cambodia awards swath of national park forest to tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s son
- A Cambodian tycoon notorious for his association with illegal logging has expanded his grip over the country’s largest national park, with a swath of forest awarded to his son’s rubber company.
- This gives Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator, and his family members effective control of tens of thousands of hectares of land inside Botum Sakor National Park.
- The carving up of the park, awarded in parcels to politically connected tycoons, has led to widespread deforestation that’s driven both people and wildlife out of Botum Sakor.
- Longtime residents evicted by Ly Yong Phat’s various operations in the park have protested to demand their land back, but to no avail, with many even being jailed for their activism.
Forests in the furnace: Cambodians risking life and liberty to fuel garment factories
- Entire villages in parts of Cambodia have turned to illegal logging of natural forests to supply the firewood needed by garment factories churning out products for international fashion brands.
- Mongabay spoke with several people who acknowledged the illegal and dangerous nature of their work, but who said they had no other viable means of livelihood.
- The work pits them against rangers they accuse of heavy-handed tactics, including the seizure or destruction of their trucks and equipment, arrests, and extortion.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn was a fellow. *Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities.
Forests in the furnace: Can fashion brands tackle illegal logging in their Cambodian supply chains?
- Global fashion brands touting sustainability claims continue to buy from their contract factories in Cambodia that burn illegally logged wood in their boilers.
- Mongabay reached out to 14 international brands that listed factories identified in a report as using illegal forest wood, but they either didn’t respond or evaded questions on illegal logging in their supply chains.
- One prominent brand, Sweden’s H&M, has developed an app that allows its partner factories to identify deliveries of forest wood, but industry insiders say there are ways to circumvent it, and that the government should be playing a bigger role in the issue.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn was a fellow. *Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities.
Forests in the furnace: Cambodia’s garment sector is fueled by illegal logging
- An investigation has found factories in Cambodia’s garment sector are fueling their boilers with wood logged illegally from protected areas.
- A Mongabay team traced the network all the way from the impoverished villagers risking their lives to find increasingly scarce trees, to the traders and middlemen contending with slim margins, up to the factories with massive lots for timber supplies.
- The garment industry association denies that any of its members uses forest wood, but the informal and opaque nature of the supply chain means it’s virtually impossible to guarantee this.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn was a fellow. *Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities.
Is Jeff Bezos’s $500 million yacht made with ‘blood timber’ from Myanmar? (commentary)
- The founder of Amazon.com and the second wealthiest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, has donated billions of dollars through his Earth Fund to combat climate change and protect nature.
- Yet he also commissioned Oceanco to build the largest sailing vessel in the world, at a reported cost of $500 million, a 127 meter-long ‘mega yacht’ which uses the highly prized tropical wood teak for its decking, much of the world’s best supply of which comes from Myanmar.
- Myanmar teak has been labeled ‘blood timber’ following the country’s violent February 2021 coup d’état, and so far, Oceanco has declined to confirm its source, making it a “very controversial choice for a European yacht builder, especially one seeking to source the finest materials for a client burnishing his environmental credentials,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
License to Log: Cambodian military facilitates logging on Koh Kong Krao and across the Cardamoms
- Cambodia’s largest island, Koh Kong Krao, off its southwest coast, is covered in largely untouched old-growth forest, but recent satellite imagery shows deforestation is spreading.
- Much of the forest cover loss is in areas tightly controlled by Marine Brigade 2, a navy unit stationed on the island that has historically been accused of facilitating the illicit timber trade.
- Residents of the island said the navy controls almost every aspect of life there, with provincial officials afraid to intervene or investigate the military’s actions on Koh Kong Krao.
- Cambodia’s military has long been a key factor in illegal logging across the country, and reporters found evidence of its continued involvement in logging across the Cardamoms.
U.S. traders flouting sanctions on buying Myanmar teak, report says
- A new report shows that U.S.-based timber traders continued to import thousands of metric tons of Myanmar timber, despite sanctions imposed following the February 2021 military coup and brutal crackdown on citizens.
- More than 3,000 metric tons of teak, a material highly prized in the manufacture of luxury furniture and yachts, were imported into the U.S. since February 2021, the report says.
- Claims that imported timber is coming from stockpiles harvested and set aside prior to the 2021 coup are dubious, the report says, and the accuracy of timber tracing technology to verify legality in this time of conflict in Myanmar is highly questionable.
- The report calls on U.S. authorities to do more to regulate the timber trade and enforce sanctions to make sure companies and the public are not unwittingly financing the “brutal” military regime.
Despite landmark law, Europe faces tough test to end role in global forest loss (commentary)
- European Union governments are today expected to give a final go-ahead to a new law meant to prevent the bloc driving deforestation overseas through its consumption of beef, soy, palm oil and four other commodities linked to global forest loss.
- The groundbreaking rules could cut a vital cash flow to forest-destroying firms, with huge impacts for biodiversity and the climate.
- However, Sam Lawson, Director of London-based NGO Earthsight – which has been monitoring these issues for years and helped lobby for the new legislation – argues that the biggest challenge has yet to come: enforcement. And success is far from assured.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Corruption threatens timber traceability in Nkok, Gabon
- Gabon enjoys 88% forest cover, with selective logging helping protect this ecological and economic resource.
- Timber processed in the country’s Nkok Special Investment Zone (SIZ) is required to be harvested in line with European Union certifications for sustainability.
- However, TraCer, the monitoring system meant to ensure the traceability of wood entering the Nkok SIZ, was recently suspended by Gabon’s Ministry of Water and Forests.
- While TraCer was quickly reinstated, its suspension points to issues surrounding forest management and the Gabonese timber industry, including trafficking scandals involving the Ministry of Water and Forests.
Liberian courts rubber-stamp export shipment of illegal logs
- On Jan. 16, a timber company won a controversial lawsuit in Liberia, when a court ordered forestry officials there to allow a shipment of illegally harvested ekki logs to be exported overseas.
- The ruling was the latest chapter in a years-long saga that environmentalists say points to a breakdown of regulation in Liberia’s forestry sector.
- An unpublished report on the case prepared by Liberia’s Ministry of Justice and obtained by Mongabay implicates senior Liberian officials in serious violations of laws meant to protect the country’s forests.
- Sources told Mongabay the seized logs have been the subject of a heated dispute behind closed doors between President George Weah’s administration and international donors.
Fighting wildlife trafficking in Peru: Q&A with prosecutor Alberto Caraza
- The department of Loreto, in northeast Peru, shares a nearly uninhabited border with Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil, making it ideal for illegal logging and wildlife trafficking.
- A law passed in November allows prosecutors to treat wildlife traffickers as organized crime groups with harsher sentences.
- Loreto prosecutor Alberto Yusen Caraza Atoche, who specializes in environmental crime, spoke to Mongabay about protecting the department’s vast Amazonian rainforest, and how Peru’s recent political upheaval impacts that work.
Indigenous community in Peru losing forests to timber, drug, land trafficking
- The Indigenous community of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu, located in northern Peru, has been facing illegal timber, drug and land trafficking for the past several years.
- Satellite data and imagery suggest deforestation associated with these incursions has increased in 2022.
- The community lacks a communal land title to their territorial forests; experts say this is opening the door to setters who are using threats to bar regional authorities from intervening.
- Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu is one of a number of Indigenous communities in the region contending with deforestation from outsiders.
With new EU rules ahead, Indonesia adds sustainability to its timber legality system
- The Indonesian government is rebranding its timber legality system to include timber sustainability in anticipation of an upcoming deforestation-free regulation by the European Union.
- Right now, the EU bans only the trading of illegal timbers within Europe under its timber regulation, but it’s in the process of issuing a new regulation that will forbid not only illegal timbers, but also timbers and other commodities that are sourced from deforestation and forest degradation.
- Indonesia’s timber legality system is the only one in the world recognized by the EU, meaning the country’s timbers could enter Europe without due diligence.
- With new no-deforestation requirements to be imposed by the EU, Indonesia is adding sustainability components into its timber legality system.
EU ‘moving the goal posts’ with new timber requirement, Indonesia says
- In 2011, Indonesia began the process of ensuring that its timber exports to the European Union met strict legality verification standards, which the EU duly recognized in 2016.
- Now, a new bill threatens to undermine this progress by revoking the “green lane” access for imports of Indonesian timber and subjecting them to addition checks for deforestation links.
- “You can’t suddenly change your mind by saying ‘I’m not willing to accept [Indonesian timber products] because they’re not sustainable enough,’” says Arif Havas Oegroseno, the Indonesian ambassador to Germany.
- The official adds that Indonesia is willing to take the matter to the World Trade Organization — a move that other tropical forest countries, including Brazil and Ghana, have also hinted at.
Will CITES finally act to protect rosewood this month? (commentary)
- CITES COP-19 starts in mid-November 2022 and is likely going to be a decisive meeting for the protection of species such as rosewood.
- Both CITES and Madagascar have banned the export of rosewood and ebony, but there appears to be no end to the illegal trade, and the fate of nearly 40,000 illegally-exported rosewood logs seized in Singapore, Kenya and Sri Lanka in 2014 is still uncertain.
- Action is needed at COP-19 to protect such stockpiles of seized rosewood from being sold, and for the remaining Malagasy rosewood and ebony trees to be protected before they are all gone, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
The Fixers: Top U.S. flooring retailers linked to Brazilian firm probed for corruption
- New evidence uncovered by a yearlong investigation by Mongabay and Earthsight reveals the corrupt deals made by Brazil’s largest flooring exporter, Indusparquet, and its suppliers.
- The company was charged in two corruption lawsuits in Brazil over its use of public officials to gain access to timber supplies. Mongabay and Earthsight gained access to dozens of hours of wiretaps and video footage, along with thousands of pages of court records, revealing how the alleged bribery schemes were carried out.
- One of the court cases showed the company used a local official to secure the supply of bracatinga, a tree species native to the Atlantic Forest, for an unnamed “U.S. client.”
- We also found indications that the American client was Floor & Decor, America’s largest flooring retail chain, which was previously involved in illegal timber scandals with Indusparquet, while LL Flooring, fined for breaching the Lacey Act in 2013 over its illegal timber exports, is also an Indusparquet client.
Illegal logging and trade in fine wood threaten Wampis communities in the Peruvian Amazon
- More than 20,000 board feet of protected forest species, such as cedar and mahogany, are being lost from forests inhabited by Wampis communities every month, according to estimates by community leaders.
- The extraction and sale of these fine woods have increased since the start of 2022 after two Wampis communities obtained permits for the use of certain forest resources.
- According to Wampis leaders, since the issuing of the permits to the two communities, loggers have been able to cut down and transport cedar and mahogany wood, despite these trees being protected species.
Overexploited and underprotected: Study urges action on Asia’s rosewoods
- Rosewood is one of the world’s most trafficked wildlife products: The value of the trade, driven by demand from luxury furniture markets, exceeds that of ivory.
- Despite increased legal protections and export bans in recent years, illegal logging and cross-border trade continues to decimate rosewood populations across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- A new study reveals the threats facing isolated and fragmented populations of three rosewood species in the Greater Mekong region and identifies where conservation and restoration action could have the most benefits.
- The study recommends a variety of approaches to protect the viability of remaining natural populations and their genetic diversity, including community forestry, smallholder planting initiatives, agroforestry, and storing seeds in gene banks.
Government inaction sees 98% of deforestation alerts go unpunished in Brazil
- A new study has found that Brazil’s environmental enforcement agencies under President Jair Bolsonaro failed to take action in response to nearly all of the deforestation alerts issued for the Amazon region since 2019.
- Nearly 98% of Amazon deforestation alerts weren’t investigated during this period, while fines paid by violators also dropped, raising fears among activists that environmental crimes are being encouraged under the current administration.
- Environmental agencies at the state level did better, but in the case of Mato Grosso state, Brazil’s breadbasket, still failed to take action in response to more than half of the deforestation that occurred.
- In an unexpected move, Bolsonaro on May 24 issued a decree raising the value of fines for falsifying documents to cover up illegal logging and infractions affecting conservation units or their buffer zones, among other measures.
In Singapore, a forensics lab wields CSI-like tech against wildlife traffickers
- A wildlife forensics laboratory launched in Singapore last year is making breakthroughs in tracking down criminal syndicates trafficking in wildlife.
- Singapore is a major transit point for the illegal ivory trade; the nation impounded 8.8 metric tons of elephant ivory in July 2019 — evidence from which led to the arrest of 14 people in China.
- The researchers use the same method to capture poachers that authorities in California used to arrest the Golden State Killer.
- Elephant ivory and pangolin scales account for the bulk of the new lab’s workload; figuring out how traffickers accumulate this material from two species could uncover much of their methods.
Countries that sanctioned Myanmar’s junta are still buying their timber: Report
- Despite sanctions imposed following the February 2021 coup, Myanmar exported more than $190 million worth of timber, including to countries that have sanctions on the country’s state-controlled timber monopoly, according to a new report from Forest Trends.
- The continued trade highlights the challenges of effectively enforcing sanctions, the report authors say; a lack of reporting on the timber trade from within the country also emphasizes the military regime’s purposeful lack of transparency.
- The authors call on countries to do more to cut off the junta’s access to natural resource revenues by extending financial sanctions to the banking sector.
- According to the report, effective implementation of sanctions is one of the most important actions the international community can take to support the citizens of Myanmar.
Madagascar’s insistence on using seized rosewood rattles conservationists
- Since CITES banned the global trade of Malagasy rosewood in 2013, the country has faced a dilemma: what to do with the illegally harvested timber in government custody?
- This month Madagascar proposed using seized rosewood, which it claims is secure, domestically, effectively removing it from CITES oversight.
- Though the plan concerns a small fraction of the stockpile, it could set a dangerous precedent, opening the door for the remaining timber to be unlawfully funneled into the global market and drive illegal logging, anti-trafficking campaigners said.
- The proposal came up for discussion at the CITES standing committee meeting this March, but CITES parties are expected to reach a decision at the next summit in November.
Brazil’s ecosystem of crime in the Amazon (commentary)
- Drawing on records between 2016 and 2021, the Igarapé Institute recently documented 369 federal police operations in the nine states of Brazil’s Legal Amazon, categorizing the type of illegal activities involved.
- The research found that illicit activities, from drug trafficking to illegal timber extraction, often occur in tandem: “Such complex interactions point to the transnational dimensions of organized crime, raising tricky questions about cross border cooperation, which is still a work in progress.”
- The Igarapé Institute’s Laura Waisbich, Melina Risso, and Ilona Szabo review the findings and what they mean for efforts to address deforestation in Earth’s largest rainforest.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Probe finds palm oil firm illegally clearing forest in Sumatra wildlife haven
- An investigation by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) indicates that a palm oil company in Sumatra has been clearing forests illegally since at least 2016.
- The extent of the clearing by PT Nia Yulided Bersaudara (NYB), nearly two and a half times the size of New York City’s Central Park, makes it the top deforester among companies that have an oil palm concession in Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem.
- RAN’s investigation found the company’s logging activities and timber royalty payments aren’t registered in government databases, and its initial permit was granted under suspicious circumstances by a politician related to the NYB president.
- Yet despite these red flags, NYB has so far managed to evade government measures to crack down on licensing irregularities and environmental violations in the palm oil industry, including the mass revocation of permits announced at the start of this year.
Luxury wood market driving extinction of rare ipê trees, report warns
- Demand for wood from ipê trees in the Amazon Basin could lead to their extinction if better international trade regulations aren’t implemented soon, according to a new report from Forest Trends.
- Ipê hardwood is in high demand in the luxury timber market, especially for outdoor boardwalks, decks and furniture, as well as hardwood floors.
- The Forest Trends report urges officials to list the rare species under CITES, the international convention regulating the trade of threatened species.
Can ecotourism save Cambodia’s ‘ghost parks’?
- Cambodia’s 2021 signing into law of Sub-decree No. 30, which removed official protection from some 127,000 hectares of land formerly included in national parks, reserves and wildlife sanctuaries in Koh Kong province, has conservationists concerned about the ecological integrity of southern Cambodia.
- But experts caution that other protected areas in the country are hardly faring better, claiming that “a lack of commitment and vision, systemic corruption at varies levels and competing interests by state and private actors” is contributing to the rapid degradation of Cambodia’s remaining protected forest.
- There is some agreement between conservationists and government officials that the country does not have the resources to effectively manage its protected areas.
- As a solution, some point to Africa, where public-private ecotourism partnerships have been successful at preserving habitat. But others disagree.
Endangered wildlife face perilous future as vital habitat loses protection in Cambodia
- In March 2021, this imbalance has widened into a chasm as Cambodia’s government signed Sub-decree No. 30 into law, effectively revoking protection from some 127,000 hectares of land in reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the southern province of Koh Kong province.
- One of the protected areas affected is Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, which lost almost a third of its total land area to the sub-decree — meaning these habitats are now for sale.
- Peam Krasop is home to species threatened with extinction, such as the hairy-nosed otter — the world’s rarest otter species — and the fishing cat.
- Researchers say the degradation of these habitats could result in “trophic cascades“ in which the loss of key species destabilizes entire ecosystems , which in turn may lead to further loss.
How a ‘dirty gambling company’ may have set the standard for habitat destruction in Cambodia
- Union Development Group (UDG) is a Chinese company that was granted a 36,000-hectare concession in Cambodia’s Botum Sakor National Park in 2008, followed by an additional 9,100-hectare concession granted in 2011. Much of Botum Sakor National Park’s forests have been cleared by UDG and other companies.
- On Sep. 15, 2020, the United States Treasury Department, sanctioned UDG for “serious human rights abuses and corruption,” noting that UDG had enlisted the support of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to evict and harass residents, and also managed to skirt the 10,000-hectare limit on land concessions by “falsely registering as a Cambodian-owned entity.”
- In 2021, the Cambodian government signed into law Sub-decree No. 30, which transformed some 127,000 hectares of protected land in Koh Kong province into state-private land.
- Conservationists, researchers and local residents interviewed by Mongabay worry that the sub-decree will mean that many other parts of Koh Kong province will follow in the destruction of Botum Sakor.
Vietnam’s timber legality program not making a dent in risky wood imports
- Despite new regulations to clean up Vietnam’s timber sector, importers continue to bring large volumes of tropical hardwood into the country from deforestation hotspots in Africa and Asia for use in products sold domestically.
- In 2018, Vietnam signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU to eliminate illegal timber from the country’s supply chains and boost access to the strictly regulated European markets.
- However, importers say the new legality requirements introduced in 2020 to verify the legitimacy of timber brought into the country are “too confusing,” and customs data indicate few signs of a reduction in high-risk timber imports from countries including Cambodia, Cameroon, Gabon, Laos and Papua New Guinea.
- Although Vietnamese authorities are taking steps to improve the situation, meaningful change is expected to take time; a switch by domestic consumers to products that use sustainable, locally grown timber instead of imported tropical hardwoods could solve many underlying problems, experts say.
‘Carbon cowboys’ and illegal logging
- Papua New Guinea has been the world’s largest tropical timber exporter since 2014. More than 70% of the timber produced in the country is considered illegal.
- Despite two government inquiries finding the majority of land leases on which logging occurs to be illegal, these land leases still remain in force today.
- While carbon trading has been touted as a solution, activists, journalists and even a provincial governor have expressed concerns over its economic benefits and the continued loss of customary land rights.
- For this episode of Mongabay Explores we interview Gary Juffa, governor of Oro province in Papua New Guinea, and investigative journalist, Rachel Donald.
Despite sanctions, U.S. companies still importing Myanmar teak, report says
- U.S. timber companies undercut sanctions to import nearly 1,600 metric tons of teak from Myanmar last year, according to a new report.
- Advocacy group Justice for Myanmar said in its report that firms have been buying timber from private companies acting as brokers in Myanmar, instead of directly from the state-owned Myanma Timber Enterprise, which is subject to U.S. sanctions.
- With MTE under military control, Myanmar’s timber auctions have become more opaque, making it difficult to take action against companies circumventing sanctions.
Dual pressures of hunting, logging threaten wildlife in Myanmar, study shows
- Combating illegal logging in Myanmar’s Rakhine state helps preserve wildlife populations, but is insufficient without addressing unsustainable local hunting pressures, according to new research.
- Researchers used camera trap data from between 2016 and 2019 to investigate the effects of environmental and human factors on medium to large mammals.
- Common species regularly targeted for bushmeat were negatively affected by increased human presence, they found, highlighting the pressures of illegal hunting on their populations.
- By contrast, threatened species were generally unaffected by human presence, but were positively linked to continuous stretches of evergreen forest, indicating their vulnerability to illegal logging, deforestation and habitat loss.
How can illegal timber trade in the Greater Mekong be stopped?
- Over the past decade, the European Union has been entering into voluntary partnership agreements (VPAs) with tropical timber-producing countries to fight forest crime.
- These bilateral trade agreements legally bind both sides to trade only in verified legal timber products.
- There is evidence VPAs help countries decrease illegal logging rates, especially illegal industrial timber destined for export markets.
- Within the Greater Mekong region, only Vietnam has signed a VPA.
Kenya court orders return of $13m in seized rosewood to suspected traffickers
- In November, a Kenyan court ordered the release of 646 metric tons of Malagasy rosewood (Dalbergia spp.), worth up to $13 million, to a Hong Kong-based company from which it had been seized in 2014 by Kenyan authorities.
- Lawyers for the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), which filed a case against the consignment owners, argued that trade in rosewood was banned under CITES, the international wildlife trade convention; however, the judge in the case disagreed.
- Juan Carlos Vasquez, who heads the legal affairs unit of CITES, confirmed to Mongabay that Malagasy rosewood was listed in Appendix II of the international convention on June 12, 2013.
- Since trade in Malagasy rosewood is banned under CITES today, legally moving the wood out of Mombasa will be tricky for the defendants; conservationist Chris Morris says the company is using false documentation to ship the rosewood from Kenya to Taiwan.
Myanmar teak is tainted. Time to jettison it, some yacht-making insiders say
- As Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos looks set to take possession of the world’s biggest sailing yacht in 2022, activists are raising questions about yacht makers continued use of teak from Myanmar, which returned to repressive military rule this year.
- Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, entered the league of big-ticket environmental funders in 2020, announcing a $10 billion “Earth fund,” of which $2 billion is pledged for land restoration, including forests.
- Oceanco, the Dutch company reportedly making Bezos’s yacht, defended its use of teak in its projects, saying it was legally sourced. The EU imposed sanctions in June effectively make it illegal for businesses in the bloc to import teak from Myanmar, where harvesting and export of timber is under state control.
- “We need a PETA-like campaign, supermodels with their bloody fur coats, but a teak equivalent,” says Jessie Rogers, part of a family-run boatyard in the U.K. “You need people to be ashamed of having teak.”
How does political instability in the Mekong affect deforestation?
- Myanmar’s return to military dictatorship earlier this year has sparked worries among Indigenous communities of possible land grabs.
- It has also ignited concerns about a return to large-scale natural resource extraction, which has historically been an important source of funding for the junta.
- In the months since the coup, many of the country’s environmental and land rights activists have either been arrested or gone into hiding.
- The military has bombed forests and burned down Indigenous villages in Karen state, forcing minorities to flee to neighboring Thailand.
Where does the Greater Mekong’s illegal timber go?
- Not all lumber is created equal; within the Greater Mekong region, high-quality hardwoods such as Burmese teak and rosewood are particularly valuable and have been logged almost to commercial extinction.
- Burmese rosewood is highly sought after in China for furniture, while Burmese teak is popular in the European shipbuilding sector as decking for superyachts.
- Recognizing their role in Myanmar’s illegal timber trade, European Union member states developed a common position in 2017 acknowledging imports of Myanmar timber into the EU to be against the law due to their high risk of illegality.
- However, shipments continue to leak into the region through countries where enforcement is weaker, including Italy and Croatia.
For Mekong officials fighting timber traffickers, a chance to level up
- Global wildlife trade authority CITES held a virtual workshop for customs agents and inspections officials in the Lower Mekong region of Southeast Asia on the physical inspection of timber shipments in October.
- The region’s forests are home to around 100 species of trees for which CITES restricts trade to protect their survival.
- But attendees also note that the ability to accurately identify tree species, as well as the knowledge to spot suspicious shipments, is low in the region.
- Improving that capacity will help to address illegal logging in the region, advocates say.
‘Thousands of trees’ burned and logged in Cambodia: Q&A with filmmaker Sean Gallagher
- In 2020, filmmaker Sean Gallagher released a short film titled “Cambodia Burning,” which looks at the burning and logging of Cambodia’s forests to make way for agricultural development.
- The Cambodian government has claimed that no large-scale deforestation is happening in the country’s protected areas, but Gallagher says he filmed illegal logging taking place directly inside the confines of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Cambodia lost an estimated 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest between 2001 and 2019, accounting for 26.4% of the forest cover that existed in 2000, according to a new report.
- Activists working to protect Cambodia’s remaining forests have faced threats, intimidation and incarceration.
Why has illegal logging increased in the Greater Mekong?
- In recent decades, rich tropical forests of the Greater Mekong region have been steadily depleted by the world’s growing appetite for timber.
- Recognizing the impact of the timber trade on natural forests, governments in the Greater Mekong region have come up with laws to regulate logging and timber exports.
- However, insufficient political will and collusion between officials, businesspeople and criminal groups means enforcement is often limited.
- There is a clear need to strengthen local laws and enforcement, but pressure from foreign governments, businesses and consumers can help.
Governor rails against ‘bioterrorists,’ ‘carbon cowboys’ destroying PNG’s forests
- Gary Juffa, governor of Papua New Guinea’s Oro province, is one of the country’s most outspoken critics of the logging industry.
- Juffa said he’s had to resort to the courts to force out three logging firms operating in his province, and called on the international community to fight illegal loggers in PNG.
- While critical about the slow pace of global deforestation agreements, Juffa said he’s optimistic about the possibilities of carbon finance for his country; other PNG activists are more skeptical.
Major clothing brands contribute to deforestation in Cambodia, report finds
- A new report suggests that the garment industry is contributing to deforestation in Cambodia due to factories relying on illegal forest wood to generate electricity.
- Garment factories were found to use at least 562 tons of forest wood every day, the equivalent of up to 1,418 hectares (3,504 acres) of forest being burned each year, according to the report.
- Between 2001 and 2019, Cambodia is reported to have lost an estimated 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest through deforestation.
- While the garment industry does contribute deforestation, experts say that economic land concessions granted by the Cambodian government for agro-industrial purposes are by far the dominant driver of forest loss.
Amid a furniture boom, timber certification is just a start, say experts
- For furniture consumers and manufacturers alike, ensuring timber is both legal and sustainable is tricky in Southeast Asia, where supply chains are blighted by illegal logging, poor forest management and scant law enforcement.
- In an effort to improve timber sustainability in the region’s furniture supply chains, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the ASEAN Furniture Industries Council (AFIC) recent launched a four-year collaboration to promote timber certification.
- While the collaboration is a positive step, experts say even more needs to be done to prevent illegally sourced timber from entering the region’s domestic supply chains and local markets that largely operate informally and under less scrutiny than export markets.
- Experts also point out that timber certification is not a guarantee of deforestation-free products, and call on companies to publicly commit to deforestation-free supply chains and transparent reporting.
Liberia loggers felling trees outside concession as government stands by
- A new report shows a case of illegal harvest of timber in Liberia has gone unpunished for more than two years.
- A 2019 audit had found that 14,000 m3 (494,000 ft3) of timber ostensibly from the TSC-A2 concession in Grand Bassa county was effectively untraceable, yet permits for the sale and export of much of the timber were still approved.
- Civil society groups are calling for tougher penalties against the companies involved, which they say appear to be happy risking modest fines against greater profits from illegal logging.
- They also say the case in Grand Bassa is emblematic of a widespread problem: “If you launch investigations into different community forests, the findings would be more illegalities.”
The Greater Mekong region: A hotspot of wildlife and crime
- The global illegal timber trade generates up to $152 billion a year, accounting for up to 90% of deforestation in tropical countries and attracting the world’s biggest organized crime groups.
- Illegal logging is today responsible for 15% to 30% of global timber production. Estimates vary because complex international supply chains make it difficult to ensure the timber has been lawfully handled at every stage.
- Illegal logging is devastating forests in the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and parts of China.
In Mexico City’s urban sprawl, an unexpected illegal logging network thrives
- A national park inside Mexico City is an illegal logging hotspot for wood buyers from all over the country.
- The national park, called Cumbres del Ajusco, sits on the southern edge of the city, where cartels oversee the logging operations with local lumberjacks.
- Law enforcement agencies have struggled to root out the illegal logging operations due to a lack of personnel and questionable enforcement strategies
The great Koh Kong land rush: Areas stripped of protection by Cambodian gov’t being bought up
- A regulation issued earlier this year in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province purported to take land from protected areas and grant the land titles to families living in the area.
- But developments since then, and interviews with residents and brokers, paint the scheme as a massive land grab orchestrated by the country’s political elite.
- Politicians and companies have been snapping up the newly degazetted land, among them a firm suspected of being a front for pulpwood giant APP.
- Among those said to be profiting from the land grab is Ly Yong Phat, dubbed “The King of Koh Kong,” a politician and businessman with a long history of quashing the rights of those who occupy land he desires.
Illegal logging threatens rare Cameroonian hardwood with extinction
- Illegal logging in Cameroon’s Ebo forest threatens the African zebrawood tree with extinction.
- Rising demand for its beautiful wood, lax local law enforcement, and civil strife have accelerated logging while hindering conservation efforts.
- Conservationists want zebrawood to be placed on a CITES list and for the forest — also home to endangered gorillas, chimpanzees and red colobus monkeys — to be declared a national park.
Monitoring reveals Indonesia’s ‘legal timber’ scheme riddled with violations
- A monitoring exercise by Indigenous peoples and local communities of Indonesia’s “certified legal” timber industry has found myriad violations.
- The group reported, among other findings, logging companies cutting down trees outside their concessions, woodworking shops manipulating delivery records to obscure the origin of the wood, and exporters selling forged export eligibility certificates.
- During their monitoring, the observers faced a range of challenges, from difficulty accessing official records, to threats from armed groups.
- Their work could become even more difficult under a new government regulation that appears to change independent monitoring of the timber industry from a mandatory exercise to an optional one.
11 Mongabay investigations in two years. Here’s what we found
- Two years ago, Mongabay and its partners launched a project dedicated to revealing corruption and collusion at the core of many natural resource industries around the world via its investigative journalism program.
- The result was observable impacts in multiple sectors including government agencies, international financial institutions, local communities and civil society organizations.
- The project supported investigations focused on cattle, fisheries, minerals, palm oil, soybeans, sunflower oil, and timber.
- Some findings include exposing contradictory actions from sustainability statements of financial institutions, mining encroachment on Indigenous lands, suspicious payments made to unnamed consultants by palm oil conglomerates and broken promises of land rights acknowledgements.
Environmental activist ‘well-hated’ by Myanmar junta is latest to be arrested
- As demonstrations and deadly crackdowns continue in Myanmar, land and environmental defenders are increasingly under threat.
- On Sept. 6, environmental and democracy activist Kyaw Minn Htut became one of the latest political prisoners; authorities had detained his wife and 2-year-old son a day earlier.
- He had openly challenged the military and reported on illegal environmental activities, making him a “well-known and well-hated” target, fellow activists said.
- Some 20 environmental organizations across the world have signed a statement calling for Kyaw Minn Htut’s release.
Italian firms flout EU rules to trade in illegal Myanmar timber, report says
- Negligible fines and inadequate enforcement are turning Italy into a hotspot for illegal Myanmar timber, a new report has found.
- The report identified 27 Italian traders that have been importing Burmese teak into Europe despite a long-held common position acknowledging timber imports from Myanmar to be against the law.
- In June, the EU further imposed sanctions on the only possible source of legal timber in the country; yet traders did not confirm they would stop imports, the report said.
- Italian traders are exploiting the country’s inadequate enforcement to ship timber to the rest of Europe and circumvent the EU’s sanctions and timber regulations, the researchers wrote.
With Myanmar’s press muzzled, experts warn of surge in environmental crimes
- Myanmar’s military authorities have followed their Feb. 1 coup with a sweeping clampdown on press freedom, including the arrest of reporters, closing of news outlets, and driving of journalists underground or into exile.
- Industry experts say the measures have effectively criminalized independent journalism in the country.
- As conflict and violence spreads throughout the country, monitoring forests, illegal logging and the associated illicit trade on the ground is increasingly risky. Satellite platforms that monitor forest loss will likely become increasingly useful.
- With the loss of the independent press watchdog a reality, experts say they fear the circumstances are ripe for overexploitation of natural resources.
Debt deal with deforester BrasilAgro puts UBS’s green commitment in question
- Despite its sustainability rhetoric, Swiss bank UBS has financed controversial land developer BrasilAgro with a bond issuance that raised $45.5 million. The operation is part of a broader strategy to profit from Brazilian agribusiness, including the consolidation of a joint venture with the Brazilian bank.
- BrasilAgro is allegedly responsible deforesting nearly 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of native vegetation in its farms in Brazil’s Cerrado region and was fined $1.1 million by Brazil’s environmental protection agency for illegal deforestation.
- The financial product chosen to raise money for BrasilAgro, a CRA or “agribusiness receivable certificate,” is backed by future harvests and has been a favored tool used to raise record amounts of money from the capital markets for Brazilian agribusiness firms over the past several years.
- Although there are hopes that CRAs could support sustainable practices in Brazil, financial data reviewed by Mongabay show that the largest issuances in recent months have all been for highly controversial companies such as BrasilAgro, JBS and Minerva.
EU sanctions no ‘silver bullet’ against Myanmar’s illegal timber trade, experts say
- The European Union has imposed sanctions on Myanma Timber Enterprise, a state-owned entity that regulates all harvesting and sales of Myanmar timber.
- The new sanctions mean it is now illegal for businesses in the EU to directly import any timber from Myanmar.
- While the sanctions send a strong political signal to the junta, experts say their actual impact on Myanmar’s illegal timber trade could be limited.
- Local activists are urging the international community to do more as globally significant tracts of forests in the country come under threat, with illicit logging financing the military’s repressive rule.
Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia
- Conservationists have expressed concern over a recently published regulation that makes nearly 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land potentially available for sale or rent to politically connected businesses.
- Known as Sub-decree No. 30, the order is ostensibly meant to redistribute land to communities that had previously lost control of it after it was taken over by the Ministry of Environment and conservation NGOs to manage as protected areas.
- But activists and experts point to several features of the regulation — the proximity of some of the requisitioned land to concessions held by powerful magnates; the inclusion of uninhabited primary forest; the opacity of the land-titling process promised to local communities — that suggest it’s another form of land grabbing.
Brazil’s environment minister faces second probe linked to illegal timber
- Brazil’s highest court has authorized an investigation into alleged obstruction of justice by Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who has admitted to siding with suspected illegal loggers targeted in a police operation.
- Following the country’s biggest ever bust of illegal timber in March, Salles traveled to the site in the Amazon and declared on social media accounts that he had personally checked the origin of a sample of the wood and found it was not of illegal origin, despite the police’s evidence to the contrary.
- The new investigation into Salles comes two weeks after the Federal Police began a probe into allegations that the minister was involved in exports of illegal timber to the U.S. and Europe.
- Salles’s term as environment minister has been marked by skyrocketing deforestation rates, a record-high number of rural land conflicts, the gutting of environmental regulators, and an increase in invasions and attacks on Indigenous lands.
Illegal loggers use pandemic as cover to ramp up activity in Sulawesi
- Illegal logging on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island has intensified by more than two-thirds during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local NGO.
- It attributes this increase to monitoring by law enforcers having to be scaled back as part of wider mobility restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic.
- At the same time, the legal logging industry has taken a hit due to sluggish demand and being undercut by the illegal trade.
- Police have charged a senior local politician with involvement in illegal logging.
As illegal forest conversion for industrial ag worsens, this moment is pivotal (commentary)
- A major new study released today finds that illegal conversion of forest for industrial agriculture and exports has been getting worse. Deforestation for consumer goods is up 28%, and more than 2/3 of this is illegal.
- This has big consequences for the health of our planet: if illegal agro-conversion were a country, its emissions would be the third largest after China and the US.
- Laws are now under development in the US, EU and UK, to address this, but whether they will be effective hangs in the balance: the German law has already been gutted, while the UK law leaves penalties to be determined at some later date.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Brazil’s environment minister investigated for alleged illegal timber sales
- A week after Brazil’s Lower House of Congress approved a bill that exempts environmental impact assessments and licensing for development projects, Brazil’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, has been named in a probe for alleged illegal exports of Amazon timber, following a Federal Supreme Court ruling on May 19.
- The ruling cites “extremely atypical financial transactions” totaling $2.7 million involving a law firm where Salles is one of the stakeholders.
- The federal police carried out raids in various ministry offices in the early hours of May 19, which led to the suspension of 10 high-ranking environmental officials, including Eduardo Bim, the head of the IBAMA, the country’s environmental agency.
- Salles denied any wrongdoing and called the operation “exaggerated” and “unnecessary” in a press conference on May 19.
Trafficking of banned Myanmar teak lands German company with $4m fine
- German firm WOB Timber was ordered by a Hamburg court to pay $4 million in fines for illegally trading Myanmar teak.
- Although there is a regulation that prohibits imports of Myanmar wood into the EU, companies take advantage of legal loopholes to evade it, says the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
- According to the EIA, demand for Myanmar teakwood contributed to the Southeast Asian country losing a Belgium-size area of forest between 2001 and 2018
Myanmar’s troubled forestry sector seeks global endorsement after coup
- Two days after the military coup in Myanmar on Feb. 1, the nationally privatized Myanmar Forest Products and Timber Merchants Association (MFPTMA) released a statement claiming its timber trade is fully in compliance with legal and official deforestation guidelines intended govern international exports.
- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has publicly countered the letter, saying that Myanmar’s timber trade is highly corrupt and does not comply with international policies such as the EU’s Timber Regulation.
- Expert critics say the letter was motivated by money, and that any subsequent timber trade would directly benefit the ongoing military coup, which has been promised to last for at least a year.
- The EIA has called for placing economic sanctions on Myanmar, particularly in regard to the timber trade, until power is handed back to the democratically elected government.
Brazil timber imports ‘may have breached US flooring giant’s probation’
- A new report examines serious irregularities in Brazilian timber exporter Indusparquet’s supply chains, revealing the unusual clemency shown to the company since President Jair Bolsonaro came to power, and the American and European importers that have continued to buy from the firm in spite of its troubling sourcing practices.
- In May 2018, Indusparquet’s main warehouse was raided with 1,818 cubic meters of hardwood seized and the company fined $171,473 and issued a temporary ban on trading. The raid was the culmination of a two-year investigation by the Brazilian Environment Ministry’s anti-deforestation agency, Ibama, and the Federal Police.
- But at least one company, LL Flooring, may have violated the terms of its probation by continuing to import Indusparquet products following the seizures, Earthsight found.
Legal failings leave illegal loggers unpunished and certified in Indonesia
- Illegal loggers in Indonesia continue to go largely unpunished because of a weak judicial system and loopholes in timber regulations, according to a new report.
- The report by investigative NGOs EIA and Kaoem Telapak looked at law enforcement actions against more than 50 companies, most of them found to be trading in illegally logged merbau, a prized tropical hardwood, but evading prosecution.
- The few companies and individuals prosecuted and found guilty in court were still allowed to operate and even retain their certificates of timber legality — a stamp of approval that allows them to export the illegally logged wood.
- In one case, Indonesia’s highest court overturned a lower court’s judgment against a convicted merbau trafficker, ordering the authorities to give him back the stockpile of illegal timber they had seized from him.
Fears for rosewood as Guinea-Bissau prepares to lift six-year logging ban
- The Guinea-Bissau government is poised to lift a moratorium on logging that came into force in 2015.
- Forestry officials and conservationists say they fear a return to rampant overharvesting of rosewood and other valuable species.
- Those defending an end to the ban say illegal logging has continued anyway and the decree ending the moratorium will put better monitoring in place and allow locals to benefit.
- Conservationists say that without better data about the current state of the country’s forests, it will be impossible to monitor or sustainably manage a resumption of logging.
Video: Romania’s deadly fight against illegal logging
- Romania’s rich and ancient forests are in peril. Since joining the European Union in 2007, the country has seen its forest cover depleted at record levels.
- Rangers and environmentalists who investigate and document these crimes face violence, intimidation and even murder from agents of an extensive criminal network that supplies multinational corporations with timber.
- New technology has become one of the most effective ways for activists to investigate and document environmental crimes.
- In late 2020, activists teamed up with technologists to monitor illegal logging using bio-acoustic devices hidden in treetops. The devices record sound patterns in the forest, sending instant alerts to rangers who can intervene to stop the theft in its tracks.
Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award
- Rural community leader Osvalinda Alves Pereira is the first Brazilian to receive the Edelstam Prize, a Swedish award given to human rights defenders. She was honored this November for her brave stand against illegal loggers and for her defense of the Amazon agrarian reform community of Areia in Pará state.
- Illegal loggers there have repeatedly threatened Osvalinda and her husband with violence, forcing them out of their community and into urban safe houses. Now the couple has returned to their rural home; threats to Osvalinda and her community have resumed since she received the Edelstam Prize.
- Illegal deforestation, especially the illegal export of rare and valuable Amazon woods, has been strongly aided by the deregulatory policies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, according to critics, who also say that the president’s incendiary rhetoric is emboldening illegal loggers and others to violence.
- Still threatened by logging militias in Amazonia, Osvalinda received the award just a week after President Bolsonaro in a speech tried to shift responsibility for the policing of Amazon illegal deforestation away from Brazil and onto its foreign trading partners who are importing timber from the South American nation.
Report: Illegal Russian lumber flooded Europe despite timber laws
- European customers may have unknowingly bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of timber linked to one of Russia’s biggest illegal logging scandals, a new report by NGO Earthsight has alleged.
- The timber was exported to the E.U. by Russian conglomerate BM Group, led by tycoon Alexander Pudovkin, who was arrested last year along with two officials implicated in fraud and bribery in the case.
- Major timber accreditation body the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) was criticized for “greenwashing” BM Group’s timber export business.
Papua sawmill loses legal timber stamp over allegations of permit forgery
- A sawmill built to process logs from an area of tropical rainforest twice the size of New York City has had its legality certification revoked by the licensing authority in Indonesia.
- Operator PT Tulen Jayamas Timber Industries (TJTI) is only one of several companies involved in the Tanah Merah mega plantation project in Indonesia’s Papua region alleged to have obtained their permits through forgery or other illegal means.
- Spurred by a joint Mongabay-The Gecko Project investigation, the nonprofit Earthsight found that TJTI’s sawmill had obtained a timber legality certificated on the basis of the fake permits.
- An audit by the third-party assessor led to the permit being suspended, and eventually permanently revoked after TJTI failed to disprove the allegations; this prohibits it from exporting any timber or wood products, although it may still sell domestically.
Madagascar moves to reopen domestic trade in non-precious timber
- Madagascar eased a two-year-old restriction on the domestic sale of stockpiles of so-called ordinary wood — non-precious timber logged from natural forests. The government will not issue any new permits for commercial logging of ordinary wood and its export remains prohibited.
- The move in no way applies to precious timber such as rosewood and ebony, whose stocks remain illegal to log, sell or export. Nor does it apply to exotic species such as pine and eucalyptus.
- The government is currently developing a plan to use stockpiles of confiscated precious timber domestically, for example in the construction of public buildings and the production of handicrafts.
- Law enforcement weakness remains one of the biggest challenges for Malagasy forest management.
Threatened species caught in crossfire of ongoing land conflict in Myanmar
- Conflict over how best to protect the biodiversity of Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region may be contributing to the rapid loss of its forest cover.
- Habitats of globally threatened species, including the critically endangered Gurney’s pitta and recently discovered geckos, face destruction due to logging, agriculture and other human pressures.
- Researchers fear that entire species may be driven to extinction without ever being documented if habitats aren’t protected fast.
Company investigated for timber trafficking gets stimulus from Peru government
- Inversiones La Oroza, the company at the center of the largest seizure of illegal timber in Peru, was recently awarded $380,000 under a government stimulus program for the forestry sector.
- La Oroza was identified as the owner of 80% of the 60 freight trucks’ worth of wood seized in 2015 and believed to be bound for Mexico and the U.S.
- It was slapped with sanctions by the U.S., but not in Peru, where the government of the region of Loreto picked it to be part of the Reactiva Peru stimulus program.
- National prosecutors and environmental lawyers have condemned the move, but regional officials have defended their decision.
Understaffed and under threat: Paraguay’s park rangers pay the ultimate price
- Protected areas in eastern Paraguay are beset by illegal marijuana cultivation and logging. Government interventions have had limited success, with clearing resuming shortly after agents leave an area.
- Park rangers tasked with monitoring the country’s reserves and parks say they routinely encounter hostile criminal groups when on patrol. These encounters can take a violent turn – several rangers have been murdered over the past decade while patrolling protected areas for illegal activity.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the ideal number of park rangers is one for every 1,000 hectares. However, in Paraguay, there is just one park ranger for more than 38,000 hectares.
- Rangers say they need more resources and support to do their job safely and effectively.
No choice: Why communities in Paraguay are cutting down forests to survive
- Illegal deforestation for marijuana cultivation is a growing problem for eastern Paraguay’s protected areas.
- Sources say much of the clearing is done by indigenous community members and small farmers who are beset by poverty and have no other options.
- A joint project between the Paraguayan government and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations seeks to provide more opportunities for rural communities, but has been stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marijuana farms expand in Paraguay reserve despite gov’t crackdowns
- Approximately 600 metric tons of marijuana was seized by agents of Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) in an operation in the heart of the forests of Morombí Reserve, between the departments of Canindeyú and Caaguazú.
- Over eight days, some 70 officers destroyed 202 hectares of marijuana and dismantled 23 camps set up by drug traffickers.
- But sources say this is just the tip of the iceberg and many more illegal marijuana farms are pockmarked throughout Morombí, increasing by the day. Satellite data support this, showing the reserve’s deforestation rate skyrocketed in 2019 and continues to climb into 2020.
Investigation links meat giant JBS to Amazon deforestation
- An investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Guardian and Reporter Brasil has uncovered evidence that a driver working for the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS, was involved in transporting cattle from a farm that has been fined for forest destruction to another farm that directly supplies JBS.
- Photographs from the social media account of the truck driver appear to show him in a convoy bearing the JBS logo transporting “skinny” cattle from Fazenda Estrela do Aripuanã, a ranch in the northwest of Mato Grosso state that has previously been fined for illegal deforestation, to another farm that directly supplies JBS.
- JBS said it was investigating the incident; it added that the driver worked for an “independently-run transport service.”
Protected areas in Paraguay hit hard by illegal marijuana farming
- Agriculture has deforested much of eastern Paraguay’s Upper Parana Atlantic Forest, an endangered ecoregion of which less 10% remains today.
- More recently, illegal marijuana cultivation has become a driving force of deforestation in the region. Even protected areas are not immune from destruction, with satellite data and drone footage confirming large swaths of protected primary forest have been cleared for marijuana cropland over the past year. Sources say timber and charcoal are also being produced as by-products of clearing for marijuana and are illegally transported out of protected areas.
- Four protected areas have been particularly affected: Mbaracayú Reserve, San Rafael National Park/Proposed National Reserve, Morombí Reserve and Caazapá National Park.
- Forest rangers working in the protected areas say there aren’t enough enforcement staff to combat the illegal encroachment.
Sounding the alarm about illegal logging? There’s an app for that
- Illegal timber accounts for 15% to 30% of the timber trade globally and is worth more than $100 billion. A significant share of this illegally harvested timber is sold in European markets.
- In the vast territories of both the Amazon and the Congo, the largest tropical rainforests in the world, authorities largely lack the capacity to monitor for illegal mining and logging activities.
- Using the customizable app ForestLink, people living within and around the forests can send alerts about illegal logging and mining activities to authorities and other stakeholders from remote areas without mobile connectivity or internet service.
- Community alerts have triggered more than 30 verification and enforcement missions by civil society organizations and local authorities in Cameroon, the DRC and Ghana in 2019 alone.
COVID-19 lockdown precipitates deforestation across Asia and South America
- Increased logging activity has been reported from Brazil, Colombia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal and Madagascar since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Reduced monitoring by enforcement authorities and social upheaval have both been cited as reasons for the increase.
- Environmental groups are concerned that the expected global economic recession will result in governments deregulating businesses, leading to a less green recovery as a result.
Ikea using illegally sourced wood from Ukraine, campaigners say
- The report provides evidence that some of the beech wood used in Ikea’s flagship Terje chair and other products came from a state-run forestry enterprise in Ukraine that was violating the law.
- Ikea’s suppliers in Ukraine harvested logs from the Velkyy Bychkiv state forestry enterprise during a “silence period” when the type of logging they were carrying out was legally prohibited.
- Campaigners say the Forest Stewardship Council, one of the world’s largest and most influential timber certification organizations, failed to note or take action on the illegalities.
Court forces Ecuador government to protect Indigenous Waorani during COVID-19
- A provincial court ruled that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Inclusion must better communicate and coordinate with Waorani leaders to get more COVID-19 tests, food and other necessities to communities.
- It also ordered the Ministry of Environment and Water to send a report detailing how it is monitoring illegal mining, logging and drug trafficking activities in the region, and to provide information on COVID-19 protocols for oil companies operating there.
- The lawyer for the Waorani called these industries “vectors of contagion” in the Amazon, as they never stopped during quarantine.
38 endangered Brazilian tree species legally traded, poorly tracked: Study
- A recent study found that 38 tree species officially listed by Brazil as threatened with extinction were traded between 2012 and 2016. Though prohibited from being harvested, the timber of the threatened trees was traded within Brazil and exported.
- Of the 38 threatened tree species traded, 17 were classified as Vulnerable, 18 as Endangered, and three as Critically Endangered.
- To end this exploitation, scientists urge that the timber no longer be tracked only at the genus level, but at the species level. They also recommend better coordination between IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, which designates threat levels, and the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) which tracks wood products.
- Another systemic problem: of the 38 threatened species, some are not included on the IUCN Red List or on the CITES species checklist. The study urged IUCN and CITES update their lists to include all 38 of the species found to be threatened by IBAMA.
Amazon deforestation gig economy booms despite COVID-19 (Photo Essay)
- Illegal deforestation has become an omnipresent part of economic activity in the Brazilian Amazon. Mongabay went to Rondônia state to meet some of the loggers who benefit from the dodgy market, then traces the path of logs going to “informal” sawmills, moved by river to ports, maybe to become decking in the U.S. or EU.
- Some experts hoped that COVID-19 would slow Amazon deforestation, but early indications are that the reverse is happening. From January to April 2020, the rate of Amazon deforestation alerts rose sharply by 55%. Deforestation is linked closely with fires, so a challenging fire season is expected this year.
- In this exclusive two part story and photo essay, we first follow the activities of Amazon loggers seeking highly-valued woods, and then trace the actions of miners scratching out a meager living seeking gold in the rivers of Rondônia state.
Investigation exposes European firms exploiting loophole to import Myanmar teak
- A new investigation has uncovered a scheme exploiting a loophole in the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) that campaigners allege allows European companies to buy Myanmar teak without conducting due diligence.
- The scheme was run out of Croatia and allowed companies in other European countries to purchase teak from Myanmar via Croatian firm Viator Pula.
- Under the EUTR, only the initial recipient of the timber, Viator Pula, was responsible for monitoring the chain of custody from initial felling to import.
Indonesia drops panned plan to scrap legality license for wood exports
- The Indonesian government has backtracked on a decision to end timber legality checks for the export of wood products, amid widespread criticism and the prospect of being shut out of the lucrative European market.
- In February, the trade ministry issued a regulation that would free wood product exporters from having to obtain licenses certifying that the wood comes from legal sources, known as v-legal (“verified legal”) and required for wood products entering the EU market.
- The policy was supposed to take effect on May 27, but on May 11 the ministry revoked the regulation, citing a request from the environment ministry, which had not been consulted on the initial move.
- Environmental activists and businesses have welcomed the revocation of the regulation, but a trade group representing wood furniture exporters says the U-turn is disappointing.
‘They never intended to conserve it’: Outcry as loggers gut Cambodian reserve
- Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, which stretches across five provinces in northern Cambodia, contains one of the region’s last remaining large areas of old growth rainforest.
- But Prey Lang’s forests are under attack, with satellite data and imagery showing a recent surge in deforestation.
- Sources say the reserve is being illegally logged by politically connected timber companies, with Angkor Plywood and its subsidiaries, Think Biotech and Thy Nga, the “biggest immediate threat to Prey Lang forest.”
- Prey Lang is not included on the U.N.’s World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) — an omission researchers say is deliberate on the part of the Cambodian government, which must voluntarily submit protected area information to the WDPA.
Brazil sacks officials who curbed deforestation on Amazon indigenous lands
- The Brazilian government of President Jair Bolsonaro has fired two IBAMA, environmental agency coordinators with a history of significantly reducing deforestation in indigenous territories (TIs) in the Xingu River basin in southern Pará state.
- The Apyterewa, Trincheira Bacajá, Kayapó, and Ituna Itatá territories, where the two men were conducting operations this year, saw some of the highest levels of illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019. By March 2020, the duo had reduced illegal tree loss in the Ituna Itatá reserve from 7,467 hectares in 2019, to zero.
- A protest letter from 16 IBAMA environmental inspectors characterized the firings as “retaliation” and hindering ongoing investigations. The dismissals came after a Brazilian TV report featured an IBAMA operation led by the two officials resulting in the shutting down of illegal mining and the seizure of a huge weapons cache.
- NGOs condemned the dismissals, saying they came at a time when indigenous groups need protection from intruders carrying the Covid-19 virus. Bolsonaro laid off top tier federal environmental and indigenous regulators in 2019. Now, say critics, he is sacking second and third tier officials in order to give land grabbers a free hand.
Indonesia risks timber trade with EU after scrapping license rules
- The European Union says a move by Indonesia to no longer require that wood exports be verified as coming from legal sources threatens the timber trade between the two sides.
- The EU has since 2016 put its trust in Indonesia’s timber certification scheme, the SVLK, to ensure that the wood it imports from the Southeast Asian nation isn’t illegally logged.
- But Indonesia’s trade ministry says it’s scrapping the SVLK requirement for exporters in a bid to boost business amid a slowdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Industry experts have slammed the move, saying it undermines hard-won gains for the reputation of Indonesian timber and weakens the country’s position in trade negotiations.
Ending illegal deforestation is good for our health (commentary)
- The threat of COVID-19 has led humanity to curl up into a little ball, blind to the continued ravaging of what’s left of the planet’s tropical forests—and the resulting surge in contact between people and animals that leads to new viruses, from avian bird flu to zika, when the trees are gone.
- Without forests as a buffer, hunting, mining, and logging exposes people to animals. These interactions lead to the spread of animal diseases to humans, known as “zoonotic diseases.” We’ve seen this with Zika, Avian Bird Flu, Ebola, and SARS, as well as Nipah, which leads to respiratory problems similar to those from COVID-19, and Kyasanur Forest Disease, spread by ticks.
- Ending illegal deforestation offers a solution for safeguarding forests for the sake of human health. Countries that both supply and import products stemming from unlawful forest loss—whether it’s beef, soy, palm oil, or wood products—must act to end this trade. Producers, traders, and sellers of illicit products also have a role to play.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Indonesia ends timber legality rule, stoking fears of illegal logging boom
- Indonesia’s trade ministry has scrapped a requirement for wood exporters to obtain licenses verifying their wood comes from legal and sustainably managed sources.
- The SVLK verification system took a decade to develop and implement and has been accepted by some of the most stringent market regulators for timber legality, including the EU.
- Scrapping the licensing requirement constitutes a major setback for Indonesia’s timber industry and could open the door to more illegal logging, experts warn.
- The forestry ministry, which oversees the logging industry and the SVLK system, was not consulted about the trade ministry’s decision, and says it will ask for the new rule to be revised.
Goldman Prize-winning Cambodian activist arrested, released in Cambodia
- Leading Cambodian forest defender Ouch Leng and three others were arrested in mid-March and questioned after a South Korean company they accuse of illegal logging filed a complaint with the police.
- The company says the activists were trespassing; the activists say the company is plundering part of the Prey Lang forest and that one of them was beaten by security guards.
- Although released, the activists fear further retribution for their work monitoring economic land concessions near the forest.
Brazil drastically reduces controls over suspicious Amazon timber exports
- Forest degradation nearly doubled in the Brazilian Amazon last year, rising from 4,946 square kilometers in 2018, to 9,167 square kilometers in 2019. Experts say this is likely due to soaring illegal timber harvesting and export under President Jair Bolsonaro.
- To facilitate illegal harvesting of rare and valuable timber, like that of the Ipê tree, whose wood can sell for up to $2,500 per cubic meter at Brazilian export terminals, Bolsonaro’s environment officials have reversed regulations that formerly outlawed suspicious timber shipments, making most such exports legal.
- Experts say that the relaxation of illegal export regulations not only protects the criminal syndicates cutting the trees in Amazonia, but also shields exporter Brazil, and importers in the EU, UK, US and elsewhere, preventing them from being accused of causing Amazon deforestation via their supply chains.
- Activists fear overturned timber export regulations will embolden illegal loggers, who will escalate invasions onto indigenous and traditional lands, as well as within conservation units. More than 300 people were assassinated over the past decade as the result of land and natural resource conflicts in the Brazilian Amazon.
California lawmakers introduce legislation to fight tropical deforestation
- California’s AB 2002 bill would require any contractors supplying the state to comply with strict rules against tropical deforestation.
- It would apply to a wide range of products, including palm oil, beef, soybeans, and timber.
- A similar bill stalled and died last year, but its sponsors are optimistic that this time around it will fare better.
Eco-tourism isn’t enough to develop a country: Q&A with Gabon’s environment minister, Lee White
- There are limits to the potential of ecotourism to meet development needs, says Gabon’s environment minister.
- Beneficiation of timber and controlled, selective logging means fewer trees can be cut while the people of Gabon benefit from higher earnings and more sustainable jobs.
- FSC certification and tighter controls at Gabon’s port, along with stiffer minimum sentences for corruption and audits of logging companies will curb illegal operations.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro creates Amazon Council and Environmental Police force
- Brazil has formed a new Amazon Council headed by Vice President Hamilton Mourão, a retired general and supporter of Amazon mining development. The council will oversee “the activities of all the ministries involved in the protection, defense and development and sustainable development of the Amazon.”
- A new Environmental Police force is also being created made up of military police from state forces, which will have the potential to put thousands of agents into the field for Amazon operations.
- Meanwhile, Bolsonaro slashed the budget for IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency, cutting it by 25% as compared to 2019. IBAMA has been recognized internationally for its key role in enforcing Brazil’s laws against illegal loggers and land grabbers, for reducing deforestation and fighting Amazon fires.
- Critics are concerned over Bolsonaro’s militarization of Amazon environmental, development, and security administration, seeing it as a throwback to the days of Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, when new highways and other infrastructure projects greatly benefited land grabbers and wealthy landowners.
U.S. lumber company found importing high-risk Peruvian timber
- An investigation by Timberleaks has found that New Orleans, Louisiana-based Robinson Lumber Company has a history of importing high-risk timber from a major Peruvian exporter.
- According to international regulatory standards, high-risk timber imports are more likely to have been illegally harvested.
- Maderera Bozovich was Peru’s largest timber exporter by value from 2010-2017, but has a history of allegations of illegal sourcing.
- Robinson has publicly said it will look into the allegations.
‘Tainted timber’ from Myanmar widely used in yachts seized in the Netherlands
- Dutch police led raids in six locations in the Netherlands this month, where they seized teak originating from Myanmar.
- The EU does not allow timber that is illegally logged or obtained through overexploitation of forests to enter its markets.
- The seized teak allegedly entered Europe through the Czech Republic, where the enforcement of regulations is weak and was subsequently brought to the Netherlands.
- It is effectively impossible to import Myanmar teak into Europe because there is a high risk of the timber being illegally logged and difficulty in obtaining adequate and credible documentation to prove provenance.
Enforce Brazilian laws to curb criminal Amazon deforestation: study
- Recent research finds that a failure to track environmental infractions and to enforce environmental laws and regulations is aiding and abetting ever escalating rates of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado.
- Researchers studied the failings of three environmental initiatives: the TAC da Carne, blocking cattle sales raised in deforestation embargoed areas; the Amazon Soy Moratorium, stopping sales of soy grown on deforested lands; and DOF timber permitting, which allows logging only in approved areas.
- The study found that timber, soy and cattle producers often subvert Brazil’s environmental laws by illegally “laundering” harvested logs, beef and soy to conceal illegal deforestation. These practices have been largely helped by the weak governance of the Jair Bolsonaro administration.
- The scientists recommend the closing of illegal soy, cattle and logging laundering loopholes via the strengthening of Brazilian environmental agencies, the improvement of monitoring technologies, better integration of policies and systems, and putting market pressure on producers.
Research points to low forensic capacity to tackle timber fraud in U.S.
- New research has found that more than 60 percent of a sample of 73 wood products in the U.S. had misrepresented or fraudulent species labels.
- While not “statistically representative,” the findings do indicate that improperly labeled wood is a concern in the U.S.
- The study also found that the U.S. does not have the capacity for forensic wood anatomy identification to address this issue.
CITES appeals to countries to watch out for trafficked Malagasy rosewood
- International wildlife trade regulator CITES has issued an advisory warning that $50 million in Madagascar rosewood logs being held in Singapore could find its way back into the black market.
- The timber was seized in 2014 in Singapore, but a local court earlier this year acquitted the trader responsible for it on charges of trafficking, and ordered the release of the 30,000 logs.
- Trade in rosewood from Madagascar has been banned by CITES since 2013 and under Malagasy law since 2010, but enforcing the embargo has proved difficult.
- The Singapore case highlights the pitfalls in implementing the ban, with observers faulting the Malagasy government’s flip-flop during court proceedings as to whether the seized precious wood was legal.
Madagascar no longer insisting on selling its seized rosewood, for now
- Madagascar has withdrawn its demand to be allowed to sell illegally harvested rosewood timber that it had previously seized.
- The move aligns Madagascar’s position more closely with that of the international community, which wants the country to crack down on the illegal logging and timber trade before a relaxation or lifting of the ban is even considered.
- However, the government hasn’t ruled out seeking permission for a sale in the future, raising concern among observers about the message this could send to illegal traders and to other countries also seeking to offload stockpiles of trafficked contraband.
Gabonese timber linked to illegal logging seized in Antwerp
- Belgian authorities have blocked a shipment of tropical timber from Gabon after a tip-off by Greenpeace.
- Under the EU Timber Regulation, European companies have an obligation to conduct proper due diligence on the source of the timber they import.
- Greenpeace says this due diligence requirement was not met in this case, as the wood was exported by a Chinese logging firm with previous allegations of illegal logging.
More than 10,000 animals and plants seized in massive global operation
- A 26-day worldwide effort in June termed Operation Thunderball, coordinated by Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO), led to seizures of thousands of protected animals and plants.
- Confiscated items included more than 2,600 plants, nearly 10,000 live turtles and tortoises, more than 4,300 birds, 23 live primates, 30 big cats, 440 pieces of elephant tusks, nearly 10,000 marine wildlife animals and their products, and 74 truckloads of timber.
- Based on intelligence gathered before the operation was launched, the authorities identified wildlife trafficking routes and smuggling hotspots, which then led to seizures and almost 600 people being identified as suspects.
Amazon infrastructure puts 68% of indigenous lands / protected areas at risk: report
- 68 percent of the indigenous lands and protected natural areas in the nine nations encompassing the Amazon region are under pressure from roads, mining, dams, oil drilling, forest fires and deforestation, according to a new report by RAISG, the Amazonian Geo-referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network.
- Of the 6,345 indigenous territories located within the nine Amazonian countries surveyed, 2,042 (32 percent) are threatened or pressured by two types of infrastructure activities, while 2,584 (41 percent) are threatened or pressured by at least one. Only 8 percent of the total are not threatened or pressured at all.
- In the case of the 692 protected natural areas in the Amazon region, 193 (28 percent) suffer three kinds of threat or pressure, and 188 (27 percent) suffer threats or pressure from two activities.
- “These are alarming numbers: 43 percent of the protected natural areas and 19 percent of the indigenous lands are under three or more types of pressure or threat,” said Júlia Jacomini, a researcher with the ISA, Instituto Socioambiental, an NGO and RAISG partner.
New CITES head on next COP, reining in online wildlife trafficking, and more
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we speak with Ivonne Higuero, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES.
- Signatories to CITES will meet later this summer for the eighteenth meeting of the Congress of the Parties (or COP). The meeting was originally to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka last May, but a series of terrorist bombings in the South Asian country during Easter services in April forced CITES officials to postpone the meeting until August and move it to Geneva, Switzerland.
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Huigero, the first woman to ever serve as CITES secretary general, discusses how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level and the online wildlife trade, and what she expects to accomplish at the eighteenth congress of the parties to CITES.
Brazil’s Roraima state at mercy of 2019 wildfires as federal funds dry up
- Brazil, and particularly the Amazonian state of Roraima, have seen large numbers of forest fires so far this year. From January through May, Brazil recorded 17,913 blazes nationwide, with 11,804 occurring in the nine Amazonian states. Only 2016 saw more harm in the Brazilian Amazon, when 13,663 wildfires burned over the same period.
- From January to May, Roraima registered 4,600 fires, the most numerous of any state for that period (Roraima saw just 1,970 fires during all of last year). The previous annual record for a Brazilian state was set by Mato Grosso, which suffered 4,927 forest fires in all of 2016.
- The uptick in fires is being blamed on a number of factors, including worsening Amazon drought brought by climate change, land theft and illegal deforestation (fire is typically used as a tool to clear rainforest in preparation for use by cattle ranchers and large-scale agribusiness).
- Another contributing factor: federal deforestation and firefighting policies. Since March, the Bolsonaro government has cut $7.3 million slated for fire prevention and environmental inspections to Ibama and ICMBio, Brazil’s two federal environmental agencies.
CITES to move wildlife trade summit from Colombo to Geneva this August
- An international summit on the global wildlife trade will be moved from Sri Lanka to Switzerland, following a lengthy delay sparked by terrorist bombings in the South Asian country during Easter services in April.
- The 18th Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP18) of CITES was originally scheduled to run May 23 to June 3 in Colombo, but will now take place in Geneva from Aug. 17 to 28.
- The CITES announcement follows a comprehensive U.N. security assessment that concluded on May 31.
- There was pressure to get the summit going with minimal delay, given the number of conservation programs and activities dependent on the outcome of the meeting, for which delegates had proposed increased trade protections for a host of plant and animal species.
Brazil guts environmental agencies, clears way for unchecked deforestation
- The Bolsonaro administration has launched policies that undermine IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, and ICMBio (The Chico Mendes Institute) which protects the nation’s federal conservation units, by effectively dismantling environmental law enforcement and allowing deforestation to proceed unchecked.
- Fines imposed for illegal deforestation between Jan. 1 and May 15 this year were down 34 percent from the same period in 2018, the largest percentage drop ever recorded. It was also smallest number of fines ever imposed (850), compared to 1,290 in the same period last year.
- Government seizures of illegally harvested timber fell even more precipitously, with just 40 cubic meters (1,410 cubic feet), equal to 10 large trees, confiscated in the first four months of 2019. By contrast, 25,000 cubic meters (883,000 cubic feet) of illegal timber were seized in 2018. IBAMA is now required to announce in advance the time and location of all its planned raids on illegal loggers.
- Bolsonaro has defanged deforestation enforcement further by firing or not replacing top environmental officials. This includes 21 out of 27 IBAMA state superintendents responsible for imposing most of the deforestation fines. Also, 47 of Brazil’s conservation units now lack directors, leaving a combined area greater than the size of England without conservation leadership.
Former Brazilian enviro ministers blast Bolsonaro environmental assaults
- A new manifesto by eight of Brazil’s past environment ministers has accused the rightist Bolsonaro administration of “a series of unprecedented actions that are destroying the capacity of the environment ministry to formulate and carry out public policies.”
- The ministers warn that Bolsonaro’s draconian environmental policies, including the weakening of environmental licensing, plus sweeping illegal deforestation amnesties, could cause great economic harm to Brazil, possibly endangering trade agreements with the European Union.
- Brazil this month threatened to overhaul rules used to select deforestation projects for the Amazon Fund, a pool of money provided to Brazil annually, mostly by Norway and Germany. Both nations deny being consulted about the rule change that could end many NGOs receiving grants from the fund.
- Environment Minister Riccardo Salles also announced a reassessment of every one of Brazil’s 334 conservation units. Some parks may be closed, including the Tamoios Ecological Station, where Bolsonaro was fined for illegal fishing in 2012 and which he’d like to turn into the “Brazilian Cancun.”
Dismantling of Brazilian environmental protections gains pace
- In his first 100 days in office, Jair Bolsonaro has moved fast to change personnel and reduce the authority of IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, and ICMBio, which manages its conservation areas. His actions are seen as most benefiting ruralists — wealthy elite agribusiness and mining interests.
- Presidential Decree No. 9,760 creates “conciliation centers” to investigate environmental fines, and provides multiple new ways for appealing fines, while also preventing funds gathered via penalties from being distributed to NGOs for environmental projects.
- Some worry the government may use the new decree as a precedent for forgiving the hefty R$250 million (US$63.4 million) fine imposed by IBAMA on Brazil’s gigantic Vale mining company for environmental law infractions related to the Brumadinho tailings dam disaster, in which 235 people died.
- A large number of IBAMA staff have been fired, including 21 of its 27 regional superintendents, responsible for combating deforestation. Many of Bolsonaro’s replacements within the top ranks of the Environment Ministry, IBAMA and ICMBio are coming from the military.
China, EU, US trading with Brazilian firms fined for Amazon deforestation: report
- Soy, cattle, timber and other commodity producers fined for Amazon illegal deforestation in Brazil continue to sell their products to companies in China, the European Union and United States according to a new report. The document names 23 importing companies, including giants Bunge, Cargill and Northwest Hardwoods.
- Large international investment firms, such as BlackRock, also continue to pump money into Brazilian firms, despite their being fined for illegal Amazon forest loss by the Brazilian government, according to the report. Many Brazilian producers deny the accuracy of the Amazon Watch document.
- Forest losses in the Brazilian Amazon jumped 54 percent in January 2019 compared to a year ago, and are expected to increase under the Bolsonaro administration which has announced plans for extensive environmental deregulation, and is making an aggressive push to develop the Amazon rainforest for agribusiness and mining.
- With Brazilian government checks on deforestation diminishing, many analysts feel that the only way to limit the loss of Amazon forests now will be to shed a bright light on global commodities supply chains in order to make consumers worldwide aware of the participation of international companies in deforestation.
Conservationists call for lasting ban on trade in Malagasy precious timber
- Precious rosewood and ebony has been plundered from Madagascar’s forests for decades, threatening the survival of these hardwood tree species.
- Recent regulations have led to the Madagascar government accumulating a stockpile of the illegal precious wood, whose fate remains undecided.
- A new paper calls for species in two genera, Dalbergia and Diospyros, to be placed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international treaty regulating trade in threatened species.
- The move would ban all trade in the precious wood and thwart an attempt by the government to legalize and sell off the existing stockpile.
Illegal logging poised to wipe Cambodian wildlife sanctuary off the map
- Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary has lost more than 60 percent of its forest cover since it was established in 1993, with most of the loss occurring since 2010.
- A big driver behind the deforestation in Beng Per and in many other Cambodian protected areas was Economic Land Concessions (ELCs), which are areas of land – often in protected areas – allocated by the government to corporations aiming to invest in agriculture for short-term financial gains. Large areas of Beng Per were carved out for ELCs in 2011.
- While the Cambodian government stopped officially allocating ELCs in 2012, deforestation is still hitting the park hard as small-scale illegal logging gobbles up remaining forest outside ELC areas. And once the land is denuded, it’s considered fair game for new plantation development.
- Experts working on the ground say corruption is fuelling the widespread destruction of Cambodia’s forests, and is deeply entrenched in many different sectors including the federal government and local forest protection agencies.
Can rice husk briquettes stem the tide of mangrove deforestation in Myanmar?
- Despite the knowledge about the role mangroves play to protect inland areas from storm swells, and a nationwide ban on logging, Myanmar continues to lose mangroves, particularly to communities in the Irrawaddy Delta where electricity is lacking and a reliance on mangroves as firewood and to make charcoal.
- An enterprising rice mill owner, U Zayar Myo, uses discarded rice husks to create compact briquettes that can be burned as an alternative fuel to mangrove wood or charcoal.
- These rice-husk briquettes are now being distributed to other businesses historically reliant on burning mangrove wood, and point to one way to reduce the rate of mangrove deforestation in Myanmar.
Singapore acquits trader in world’s biggest rosewood bust, worth $50m
- On April 8, Singapore’s highest court acquitted a businessman who brought Malagasy rosewood valued at $50 million into the city-state in 2014, one of the largest wildlife seizures in the history of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).
- The move reversed the ruling of a lower court that had sentenced the businessman to jail time and imposed $1 million in fines for importing protected wildlife.
- The court ordered Singapore authorities to return the rosewood to the businessman and his firm “as soon as practicable.”
- Environmental groups have been looking on anxiously as the case wound its way through Singapore’s courts for nearly five years, only to be disappointed by the final verdict.
U.S. companies implicated in illegal timber trade from West Africa
- Illegally obtained timber from West Africa wound up in sidings and other wood products sold in hardware stores across the U.S., a report alleges.
- Federal officials have launched an investigation into the U.S. importers of the wood, Evergreen Hardwoods and Cornerstone Forest Products.
- The trade focused on timber from the okoumé tree, classified as vulnerable by the IUCN and which only grows in four countries in Africa.
Illegal charcoal trade threatens Myanmar’s remaining mangroves
- The depletion of mangroves in southern Myanmar is impacting local fisheries near the island villages.
- The illegal charcoal trade persists due to a lack of law enforcement and oversight in Myanmar and Thailand.
- Many Burmese labor workers, charcoal kiln owners and traders are indebted to the charcoal warehouses that they ultimately supply in Thailand, which guarantees a steady supply of charcoal into Thailand.
How a sheriff in Brazil is using satellites to stop deforestation
- When Leonardo Brito became chief of police at the Police Specialized in Crimes Against the Environment (DEMA) in Brazil’s Amapá stated, he noticed that the department hardly ever investigated environmental crimes. The reason: locating isolated illegal deforestation events in Amapá’s Nepal-size rainforest was like finding a needle in a haystack.
- So Brito started researching methods to make this easier. In the process, he discovered the online forest monitoring platform Global Forest Watch and its mobile app, Forest Watcher. These tools visualize areas of tree cover loss detected by satellites.
- Using Forest Watcher, DEMA has been able to detect 5,000 areas of deforestation in Amapá and conduct more than 50 operations combatting illegal deforestation over the past eight months.
- Brito and his team are sharing their knowledge and techniques with environmental police and conservation officials in other states.
EU customers warned over possible illegal timber from the Congo
- In a briefing paper released March 14, Global Witness accused ten companies from the EU of importing timber harvested illegally from the DRC.
- Industrie Forestiere du Congo (IFCO) logged outside of its approved operational area in a remote DRC forest, the watchdog group said.
- According to Global Witness, the IFCO acquired the concession from company owners or shareholders whose identities have not yet been confirmed.
Late timber kingpin who plundered Myanmar’s forests unmasked
- A Chinese kingpin managed to stockpile thousands of tons of high-grade Burmese teak after paying millions in bribes to corrupt officials in Myanmar, according to a new report.
- Cheng Pui Chee, who died last year, “worked with the state to defraud the state,” say investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency.
- Some of this teak ends up in the EU and the U.S., in defiance of regulations meant to ensure imported wood is legally harvested and properly labeled and traded.
Bolsonaro government takes aim at Vatican over Amazon meeting
- The Catholic Church has scheduled a Synod for October, a meeting at which bishops and priests (and one nun) from the nine Latin American Amazon countries will discuss environmental, indigenous and climate change issues.
- Members of the new rightist Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro are eyeing the event with suspicion, seeing it as an attack on national sovereignty by a progressive church.
- To show its opposition to the Amazon Synod, the Brazilian government plans to sponsor a rival symposium in Rome, just a month before the Pope’s meeting, to present examples of “Brazil’s concern and care for the Amazon.”
- At issue are two opposing viewpoints: the Catholic Church under Pope Francis sees itself and all nations as stewards of the Earth and of less privileged indigenous and traditional people. Bolsonaro, however, and many of his ruralist and evangelical allies see the Amazon as a resource to be used and developed freely by humans.
10 reasons U.S. must hold Peru to trade deal and protect Amazon (commentary)
- Peru’s pioneering forest inspection agency OSINFOR has taken the lead in exposing the rampant illegalities that have dominated Peru’s timber trade for decades, but it has done so only because it has been independent of other government ministries.
- In December 2018, Peru moved OSINFOR into the Ministry of Environment, effectively stripping it of its independence, a decision that could gravely compromise OSINFOR’s effectiveness in the future.
- This move also arguably violates the Trade Promotion Agreement between Peru and the United States, which entered into force 10 years ago and stipulates that OSINFOR must be “independent.”
- The U.S., a top importer of Peruvian timber, has a major responsibility for ensuring that it is produced legally and therefore must insist Peru respect the Trade Promotion Agreement by making OSINFOR independent again. – This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Peru: Report reveals high rates of illegality in timber extraction
- According to Global Witness, over 60 percent of the timber inspected by Peru’s Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife (OSINFOR) in the Loreto and Ucayali regions has illegal origins.
- A variety of logging permits have been used to launder about $112 million in timber.
US senators warn fund managers over palm oil
- Investment firms managing trillions of dollars of assets are falling short in eliminating environmental harm, such as deforestation from the operations of the palm oil companies in which they hold a stake, say U.S. senators.
- The legislators are pointing to the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, among others as choosing words over action in their environmental oversight.
- The companies identified will find it hard to ignore the politicians’ demand for greater transparency, a campaigner says.
Solomon Islands province bans logging in bid to protect environment
- The leaders of Central Island province, part of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, have decided not to issue new business licenses to logging and mining companies following a local petition and recent reports detailing the lack of sustainability and legality in the country’s logging sector.
- Local and international organizations have blamed unsustainable and corrupt logging practices for destroying the islands’ sensitive habitats and creating civil strife among the people who live there.
- Provincial governments in the Solomon Islands lack the power to block logging outright, leading Central Island province to take the licensing approach to stop new operations.
Guyana signs on to forest management agreement with the EU
- After six long years, Guyana has signed on to an agreement with the EU that should prove instrumental in securing a profitable position for the small Latin American country in the global legal logging industry.
- The agreement will eventually allow Guyana to issue logging licenses under the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (EU FLEGT) initiative.
- Government leaders in the EU and Guyana also anticipate that the agreement and partnership will lead to improved forest management and a decrease in illegal logging.
Bolsonaro acts; Brazil’s socio-environmental groups resist
- The Bolsonaro administration is barely two weeks old, but the new president and his appointees continue to make incendiary statements and press forward with provisional measures and policies that could seriously infringe indigenous, quilombola and agrarian reform land rights, and environmental protections.
- Protest has been loud against the government’s plan to shift the responsibility for indigenous land demarcation away from FUNAI, the indigenous affairs agency, to the Agriculture Ministry, which is dominated by agribusiness and far right ruralists who have long desired indigenous lands. Another proposal may “rent” indigenous lands to ruralists.
- Amazon land thieves also have been emboldened since the election, with the invasion of the Arara Indigenous Reserve in southeast Pará state on 30 December, two days before Bolsonaro took office. On 11 January, land thieves invaded the Uru-eu-wau-wau reserve in Rondônia state. There has been no federal law enforcement response to either conflict.
- On 5 January armed land grabbers attacked a landless rural workers agrarian reform encampment occupied by 200 families in Colniza in Mato Grosso state. One landless peasant was killed and nine seriously wounded. The landless peasants were awaiting a court ruling as to whether a nearby tract would be deeded to the group.
Brazil’s indigenous agency acts to protect isolated Kawahiva people
- On 14 December, FUNAI, Brazil’s indigenous agency, supported by law enforcement, launched an operation to clear invaders – land thieves, illegal loggers, miners and ranchers – from the Pardo River indigenous reserve in Mato Grosso state. They did so possibly because FUNAI expects President Bolsonaro to curtail such raids in future.
- The reserve was established in 2016, after a 15-year effort by FUNAI to get it recognized. The territory covers 411,848 hectares (1,590 square miles) and is meant to protect the ancestral lands of the Kawahiva, a small beleaguered indigenous band that still lives there.
- Giving the Kawahiva a reserve was controversial from the start, and strongly opposed by loggers and agribusiness who denied the Kawahiva existed. FUNAI expeditions have since filmed the Kawahiva, proving that they do in fact continue to inhabit the territory.
- FUNAI officials fear that the Bolsonaro administration will refuse to demarcate the Pardo River Kawahiva reserve, and possibly even try to abolish it. Indigenous groups across Brazil say that if the government refuses to conclude the demarcation process for numerous indigenous reserves, and tries to dissolve some territories, they will resist.
Bolsonaro hands over indigenous land demarcation to agriculture ministry
- The new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has issued an administrative decree shifting the responsibility for indigenous land demarcation from FUNAI, the government’s indigenous affairs office, to the ministry of agriculture.
- Also as part of the decree, Bolsonaro shifted authority over the regularization of quilombola territory (land belonging to runaway slave descendants), from the government’s agrarian reform institute, INCRA, to the ministry of agriculture.
- Critics responded with alarm, seeing the move as a direct conflict of interest. But the bancada ruralista agribusiness lobby in Congress has long demanded this government reorganization, which analysts say will give agribusiness the political levers needed to invade and transform indigenous territories and treat forests as an industrial resource.
- Brazil’s indigenous communities are known to be the best stewards of the Amazon. But Bolsonaro’s moves could signal the weakening, or even the dismantling, of the indigenous reserve system. The potentially resulting wholesale deforestation could be a disaster to indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and even the regional and global climate.
The biggest rainforest news stories in 2018
- This is our annual rainforests year in review post.
- Overall, 2018 was not a good year for the planet’s tropical rainforests.
- Rainforest conservation suffered many setbacks, especially in Brazil, the Congo Basin, and Madagascar.
- Colombia was one of the few bright spots for rainforests in 2018.
Brazil: Bolsonaro supporter works to imprison Dorothy Stang’s successor
- Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is reportedly considering logger and politician Silvério Fernandes to head the Xingu, Pará, branch of the Brazilian Institute for Settlement and Land Reform (INCRA). Fernandes and other ruralists have accused Father José Amaro Lopes de Souza of serious land reform-related crimes.
- Father Amaro is the successor of U.S. missionary Dorothy Stang, murdered in 2005. Amaro says he committed no crime, though admits to supporting landless worker settlements in Anapu, Pará state. Father Amaro was charged and imprisoned earlier this year and held in proximity to the man convicted of organizing Stang’s murder.
- Land conflicts in Anapu began in the 1970s when Brazil’s military government invited outsiders to occupy land there, with the provision that they could keep it when they produced crops or livestock. Few succeeded, and the land reverted to the state. Later, agrarian reform communities were established which Stang supported.
- She was killed in 2005. Land conflicts simmered after that, with violence erupting after 2015 when the nearby Belo Monte dam was finished and unemployed workers, allegedly prompted by loggers, poured into Anapu to claim land. If Fernandes gets the INCRA title, he’ll hold sway over workers’ settlement policy in the Xingu region.
Investors told to wise up over cost of environmental crime
- Lack of knowledge of environmental crimes doesn’t protect companies or financial investors from prosecution, warns a new Climate Advisers report.
- The case of U.S. hardwood flooring company Lumber Liquidators is a salutary reminder to others of the pitfalls of ignoring where timber products are sourced from.
- The report also calls for U.S. authorities to use a greater range of laws to tackle forest crimes.
Challenging the illegal logging regime in Madagascar (insider)
- Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler writes about his expose into rosewood logging in the aftermath of Madagascar’s coup in 2009.
- Andry Rajoelina, the man who took power after the coup and was linked by NGOs to illegal rosewood trafficking, is running in Madagascar’s election next week.
- Back in 2010, Rajoelina had harsh words for Mongabay after it reported on his administration’s ties to the rosewood business.
- This post is insider content, which is available to paying subscribers.
Amazon indigenous groups and truckers ally to oppose Brazil’s Grainrail
- It is well documented that the construction of new transportation infrastructure in the Amazon leads to an invasion by illegal loggers, illicit ranchers, and other land grabbers. Which is why indigenous people are opposed to Grainrail, a new railroad that, if approved, will penetrate the Tapajós basin threatening 20 indigenous territories.
- The Baú Indigenous Territory has already been reduced in size by the government which gave into pressure from invading land grabbers. Now, the Kayapó people worry that the construction of Grainrail will bring an onslaught of new land invaders and further reductions of their territory.
- This concern is especially strong as Jair Bolsonaro comes to power. He has made it known that he is opposed to the concept of indigenous preserves, while also being on the side of Amazon development and in favor of the fast tracking of environmental licensing for infrastructure projects – which means Grainrail could go forward quickly.
- Indigneous groups have found an unusual ally against Grainrail: truckers who fear they will lose their livelihoods if the planned railroad goes forward. Indigenous groups and truckers are both known for their use of direct actions, such as roadblocks and strikes, to get their views heard – methods that could lead to conflict with Bolsonaro.
Top U.S. flooring retailer linked to Brazilian firm snagged in timber bust
- An investigation by Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency and the federal police led to allegations that Indusparquet, a prominent supplier of tropical wood flooring, was using fraudulent permits to hide illegally harvested wood.
- Government authorities fined the company, made the largest seizure of timber ever in the state of Sãa Paulo, and shut down Indusparquet’s primary warehouse for three weeks.
- Indusparquet has denied wrongdoing and appealed the sanctions, and U.S.-based flooring retailer Floor & Decor has continued to source tropical wood flooring from the company.
- Timberleaks, which first reported the link between Indusparquet and Floor & Decor, contends that the Lacey Act requires companies like Floor & Decor to go beyond the documentation provided by their suppliers — which in this case was alleged to be fraudulent — to ensure the source of those products is legal.
Forestry reforms could fall short without PM’s backing in Ukraine
- Ukraine’s prime minister called for “a massive crackdown” on his country’s timber sector after allegations of widespread corruption and illegality.
- The London-based NGO Earthsight first revealed the potential illegalities in a July 2018 report, and since then, independent investigations from WWF Ukraine and the EU’s Technical Assistance and Information Exchange have corroborated Earthsight’s findings.
- A reform package that would allow for independent enforcement of Ukraine’s forestry laws and increased transparency has been approved by the country’s cabinet of ministers, but it still lacks the signature and public backing of Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
Stop importing illegal timber, PNG activists tell China at APEC Summit
- Environmental and community groups from Papua New Guinea issued a letter for Chinese President Xi Jinping during the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in the capital, Port Moresby.
- In the letter, the authors asked that China, the destination for the bulk of PNG’s timber exports, regulate imports to discourage the illegality that plagues PNG’s forestry sector.
- They highlight the negative effects that rampant logging has had on the country’s ecosystems and forest-dependent communities.
Vietnam-EU legal timber agreement signed, but much work remains
HO CHI MINH CITY — The European Union has signed an agreement to support Vietnam’s forest governance improvement goals, aimed at ensuring that the timber it imports from the Southeast Asian country is legally sourced. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) was signed Oct. 19 in Brussels by […]
The last trees of the Amazon
- Illegally-sourced timber from Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia are incorporated into the international market with falsified official documents that are almost never verified.
- Timber traffickers are now pursuing new species of trees, but the countries’ governments do very little to protect the species.
The ongoing trade in conflict timber (commentary)
- Last year, the 28 Member States of the European Union imported €260 million-worth (about $296 million-worth) of timber from countries that the World Bank considers to be fragile and conflict-affected, according to those countries’ own statistics. That’s an increase of almost 20 percent in reported trade since 2014.
- While there is no doubt that countries in these desperate states are in need of income and investment, there is also an extremely high risk that the revenues associated with the sale and export of natural resources, including timber, are used to finance and exacerbate conflict.
- In an attempt to take responsibility for the role of European companies in the cycle of conflict in many forest countries, the European Commission has recently published a Guidance Document for importers that is designed to ensure that companies are mitigating the risk of buying illegal timber in conflict situations and of exacerbating conflict in their day-to-day business. Let’s hope that the new EUTR Guidance Document can help push companies to meet this responsibility.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Illegal wildlife trade’s ‘dirty money’ targeted by big banks
- Leading global banks and financial institutions have pledged their commitment to a financial task force to uncover laundering of profits derived from the illegal wildlife trade.
- Alongside the task force, there are also calls for a greater focus on the role corruption plays in facilitating the poaching of fauna and flora.
- There have also been warnings that efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade should not focus too heavily on large, charismatic mammals like elephants and rhinos.
Cambodia accuses Vietnam of complicity in illegal cross-border logging
- Cambodia has accused neighboring Vietnam of systemically accepting fraudulent permits for rare, illegally trafficked rosewood timber.
- Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia Conchinchinensis) is one of the most valuable species of tree in the world and has been destructively logged in Cambodia.
- Items made from rosewood have been known to sell for millions of dollars in markets like China.
Latam Eco Review: Millennial trees and Pacific coral larvae
Top recent stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay Latam, include a multi-country series on illegal logging, traveling coral larvae, and a treaty to protect environmental defenders. Peru’s millennial trees could disappear in 10 years Peru’s Shihuahuaco trees (Dipteryx micrantha) take hundreds of years to grow but could be lost in a decade. Listed as critically […]
Amazonia and the setbacks of Brazil’s political moment (commentary)
- In the October 7 Brazilian election, far right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won 46 percent of the vote, not enough to earn the presidency, but triggering a runoff election October 28 with Fernando Haddad who came in second with 29 percent. Analysts say that, barring surprises, Bolsonaro could be Brazil’s next leader.
- Bolsonaro was elected based on several issues, including reaction to government corruption and his stance on crime. However, says analyst Philip Fearnside, Jair’s most lasting impacts will likely be on the environment, especially the Amazon, indigenous and traditional peoples, and destabilization of the global climate.
- The candidate has promised to abolish Brazil’s environmental ministry, expel NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF from the country, slash science and technology budgets, “sell” indigenous lands, and “relax” licensing for major infrastructure projects such as dams, industrial waterways, roads and railways.
- But his most impactful act could be a pledge to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, ending Brazil’s global commitment to reduce deforestation, triggering massive Amazon forest loss, and possibly runaway climate change. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Purus-Madeira: journey to the Amazon’s newest deforestation frontier
- In August, Mongabay contributor Gustavo Faleiros and filmmaker Marcio Isensee e Sá visited the unique biodiverse Amazon forests located on the divide between the Purus and Madeira river basins, where a decades-delayed plan to improve the BR-319 highway is gaining momentum, bringing environmental transformation.
- The introductory video and story presented here, along with a series of feature articles to follow in coming weeks, shows how federal road improvements are bringing outsiders, entrepreneurs and outlaws to the region — all eager to profit by reducing the forest via logging operations, cattle production and other businesses.
- In this first dispatch, we profile Realidade, a small village in the Brazilian Amazon where loggers, businessmen and land grabbers are still in the early stages of occupation.
- Although deforestation here isn’t yet as fast or serious, as in Pará, Mato Grosso and other states, business growth rates are among Brazil’s highest. With scientists warning that further Amazon deforestation could worsen climate change, bringing extreme drought and a shift from rainforest to savanna in the region, analysts urge that the vast Purus-Madeira moist forest ecoregion be conserved.
Activists blast Myanmar timber deal: ‘There is no transparency at all’
- The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is sounding the alarm over what it calls a “shadowy agreement” made by the Myanmar government to allow the export of 5,000 tons of hardwood timber, including 3,000 tons of highly prized teak.
- In a statement, the EIA says that the timber deal, first reported by local media in Myanmar’s Kayah State, “will further undermine the Myanmar Government’s stated policy of improving forest governance after decades of mismanagement which have led to the country suffering one of the highest rates of forest loss in the world” should it be allowed to go through.
- The 5,000 tons of timber to be harvested will be on top of Myanmar’s Annual Allowable Cut, meaning the timber deal appears to violate the country’s own forestry regulations.
Global wildlife trafficking still a ‘lucrative criminal activity,’ expert says
- Around the world, wildlife trafficking in animals and natural resources is a major security threat and environmental risk.
- Jessica Graham is a former contract expert for Interpol, and currently president of JG Global Advisory, an environmental security consultancy in Washington, D.C.
- Mongabay talked with Graham recently to get her perspective on the threat convergence of wildlife trafficking and organized crime.
Death foretold? A courageous Amazon peasant couple resists illegal loggers
- The Terra do Meio (Land in the Middle) is a continuous mosaic of protected areas, 20 indigenous territories and 10 conservation units covering 28 million hectares in the heart of the Amazon and intended as a buffer against illegal deforestation and land theft. As big as Colorado, it represents one of the world’s largest areas of conserved tropical rainforest.
- Today, this vast conserved area in Pará state is under great pressure from organized crime and illegal loggers, with the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractivist Reserve one of the most assaulted by illicit timber harvesters in all of Amazonia. The Areia settlement, created by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in 1988, lies adjacent to the reserve.
- Areia’s residents have suffered for decades from threats of violence and murder from the illegal loggers, with many locals abandoning their land or giving in to the criminals. Organic farmers Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Pereira and Daniel Pereira have resisted, holding onto their plot, with Osvalinda founding the Association of the Women of Areia.
- Hounded by hired gunmen and threatened with death, the two have become isolated and are now seeking outside support for their cause. Federal agencies have offered little help, and there are allegations that the illegal loggers are being shielded from prosecution. Similarly desperate situations are occurring among peasant farmers across Amazonia.
‘High risk’ that China’s timber from PNG is illegal: New report
- China, as the main destination for Papua New Guinea’s timber, could help tackle illegality in PNG’s forestry sector with stricter enforcement, according to a new report from the watchdog NGO Global Witness.
- The report contends that companies operating in Papua New Guinea continue to harvest timber unsustainably, often in violation of the laws of a country that is 70 percent forest.
- Global Witness calls for a moratorium on logging operations and a review of permits to harvest timber.
- The organization also argues that Chinese companies should increase their own due diligence to avoid purchasing illegally sourced timber.
Myanmar’s milling industry devastated by new logging policies
- According to domestic media reports in Myanmar, about 80 percent of Burmese logging mills have shut down amid stricter logging policies.
- Myanmar recently ended a one-year ban on domestic logging for export on anything other than certified and stockpiled wood.
- The government logging oversight entity, Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), claims a drastic reduction in the illegal harvest and export of both teak and non-teak wood, which is part of why mills are now shutting down.
In Peru, a new president is faced with old conservation challenges
- Vizcarra has inherited the task of making critical decisions on the long-term, global benefit of an intact Amazon against short-term profits from mining, extraction and both legal and illegal logging.
- Nowhere is this struggle for balance more critical than in the country’s nature reserves and national parks such as Manu National Park.
- Manu is renowned as one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots, with greater numbers of certain plants and animals than any other park on the planet.
- Critics cite a legacy of neglect and question whether the Vizcarra administration will do any better enforcing the nation’s environmental protection laws.
Rampant timber smuggling in Myanmar as forest service restructures
- As Myanmar works to restructure to private sector management of the country’s forestry and timber resources, reports of illegal logging are surging.
- Until now, a government entity called the Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE) has been managing forestry resources and overseeing the export of timber products.
- Myanmar instituted a domestic logging ban from 2016-2017 that forbade private export of timber resources, but it did little to stop illegal activity.
- Since April of this year alone in just one of the country’s seven regions, there were 276 reported cases of illegal logging, along with 656 tons of seized timber and 59 vehicles.
EU demand siphons illicit timber from Ukraine, investigation finds
- Corrupt management of Ukraine’s timber sector is supplying the EU with large amounts of wood from the country’s dense forests.
- The London-based investigative nonprofit Earthsight found evidence that forestry officials have taken bribes to supply major European firms with Ukrainian wood that may have been harvested illegally.
- Earthsight argues that EU-based companies are not carrying out the due diligence that the EU Timber Regulation requires when buying from “high-risk” sources of timber.
Illegal loggers ‘cook the books’ to harvest Amazon’s most valuable tree
- A new study finds that illegal logging, coupled with weak state-run timber licensing systems, has led to massive timber harvesting fraud in Brazil, resulting in huge illicit harvests of Ipê trees. This process is doing major damage to the Amazon, as loggers build roads deep into forests, causing fragmentation and creating greater access.
- To reduce document fraud, the Brazilian federal government this month required that all states register or integrate their timber licensing systems within a national timber inventory and tracking system known as Sinaflor. While this should reduce fraudulent paperwork, onsite illicit timber harvesting practices remain a major problem.
- Better oversight of forest management plans and more onsite inspections of timber operations are needed to curb illegal logging practices and to prevent harvesting on public lands and in indigenous reserves. The high value of Ipê wood — selling for up to $2,500 per cubic meter at export — makes it very profitable for illegal loggers.
- Ipê wood is largely shipped to the U.S. and Europe. Analysts say that buyers all along the timber supply chain turn a blind eye toward fraud, with sawmills, exporters, and importers trusting the paperwork they receive, rather than questioning whether the lower prices they pay for Ipê and other timber may be due to timber laundering.
Maroon 5’s James Valentine on why he’s working to stop illegal logging
- On today’s episode, we speak with multiple-Grammy-winning musician James Valentine about his work to stop illegal logging and make concert tours more environmentally friendly.
- As lead guitarist of Maroon 5, Valentine has traversed the globe numerous times on tour, taking the band’s music around the world. But late last year, Valentine went to Peru with a much different mission: he was part of a group of musicians who spoke in Lima in support of the “No More Blood Wood” campaign. He also visited a sustainable logging operation in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve in 2016.
- Valentine is here to tell us about his experiences in Peru and Guatemala and to tell us all about the work he and Reverb are doing to keep illegal wood out of musical instruments, lower the environmental impact of touring, and engage music fans in environmental action.
How deforestation risks for investors can become opportunities for conservation (commentary)
- Deforestation can damage a company’s reputation and business performance, presenting a real risk for investors.
- Recent research showcases examples of how companies have suffered from failing to properly manage deforestation-related issues. Impacts include multi-million dollar fines, loss of key customers, falling share prices, and even liquidation.
- Investors and companies can reduce these risks by adopting, implementing, and transparently reporting on credible zero-deforestation policies, and joining partnerships to improve production in key landscapes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Where does your timber come from? Genetic analysis may soon tell you
- Illegal trade in tropical timber costs countries billions of dollars in revenue each year and threatens regional and national biodiversity.
- Researchers tested the potential of two genetic analysis techniques to pinpoint the geographic origin of timber trees and thus verify claims that trees are harvested in legal quantities from permitted locations.
- They successfully assigned samples of tali, a highly exploited African timber tree, to the forest concession of origin using genetic markers.
- Their findings suggest that genetic analysis can differentiate the geographic origin of tropical timber at the scale of forest concessions and can serve as forensic tools to enforce timber trade legislation.
The cutting-edge technologies allowing us to monitor ecosystems like never before
- On today’s episode, we discuss the cutting-edge remote sensing technologies used to monitor ecosystems like rainforests and coral reefs. We also listen to a few ecoacoustic recordings that are used to analyze species richness in tropical forests.
- Our first guest today is Greg Asner, who leads the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) at Stanford University’s Carnegie Institution for Science. Asner invented a technique he calls “airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy” that utilizes imaging spectrometers mounted on the Carnegie Airborne Observatory airplane to produce highly detailed data on large and complex ecosystems like tropical forests.
- Our second guest is Mitch Aide, the principal investigator at the University of Puerto Rico’s Tropical Community Ecology Lab. In this Field Notes segment, Aide will play us a few of the audio recordings he’s uploaded to Arbimon as part of his recent research and will explain how these recordings are used to examine species richness in tropical forests.
More murders: Conservationists allegedly killed by soldiers in Cambodia
- Three people have been shot and killed by soldiers in northeastern Cambodia, apparently in retaliation for seizing equipment from illegal loggers.
- A police report names three individuals as responsible for the killings: a border police officer and two border military officers.
- Illegal logging and timber smuggling is commonplace between Cambodia and Vietnam, and officials from both countries are often complicit.
- Around 200 land activists were murdered worldwide in 2016, up from 185 in 2015.
Environmental reporting in Vietnam often a comedy of errors
- Vietnam’s global press freedom ranking is one of the lowest in the world.
- Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam 175 0f 180 in its 2017 annual press freedom index.
- Environmental journalists in Vietnam, including citizen journalists and bloggers, routinely face roadblocks and sometimes jail time.
Luxury British yacht makers vow to examine supply chains
- Highly durable and aesthetically beautiful Burmese teak is prized for boat decking, particularly in luxury yachts, but natural teak from Myanmar is often exported illegally.
- According to a recent alert from Britain’s Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), many British-made luxury yachts contain decking from illegally-sourced Burmese teak despite EU regulations in place to prevent its sale and export.
- Luxury yacht companies interviewed at the London Boat Show stress that although they plan on investigating their supply chains, they maintain that their Burmese teak decking is legally and ethically-sourced.
Illegal Burmese wood used in British boats, says organization
- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says decking on luxury yachts made in the UK have illegal wood on them.
- EU rules dictate that point of origin in the chain of sale must be legally-sourced teak from Myanmar.
- Princess Yachts International and Sunseeker International, both singled out by the EIA in their statement, will be at the London Boat Show this week.
Musicians and Indigenous communities join to fight illegal logging in Peru
- Artists from the United States, Scotland and Peru traveled to Amazonian communities as part of the “No More Blood Wood” campaign.
- The campaign hopes to raise awareness about the often-illegal origins of the resources that are used to create musical instruments.
Major Dutch timber company found guilty of dealing in illegal teak
- The Dutch Food and Safety Authority has ruled Dutch company Boogaerdt Hout in violation of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) for placing illegal Burmese teak on the EU market. The company has two months in which to clear its supply chain of illegal wood.
- The EUTR is part of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan and aims to reduce illegal logging by banning the sale of illicitly sourced timber and timber products in the EU.
- While most teak on the market today comes from plantations, some is still illegally sourced from Myanmar.
- The extraction of Burmese teak has been denounced by conservationists, who say its trade is helping fuel rampant illegal logging in the country.
Does community-based forest management work in the tropics?
- To find out if community-based forest management is effective, we read 30 studies that best represent the available evidence.
(See the interactive infographic below.)
- Overall, community-based forest management does not appear to make a forest’s condition worse — and may even make it better.
- The evidence on socio-economic benefits is mixed, but what research there is suggests that community-based forest management sometimes aggravates existing inequities within communities.
- This story is part of a special Mongabay series on “Conservation Effectiveness”.
Myanmar struggles to fight the crimes of illegal logging
- Illegal logging uses the same mechanisms employed by organized crime, yet enforcement agents in Myanmar must use environmental protection laws to combat smuggling.
- During a series of seizures in January of this year, the forestry department seized hundreds of tons of illegally logged teak bound for China.
- One of the key witnesses to the case, who was released by police, later led forestry officials to a cache of 375 tons of illegal teak.
- One expert says that illegal logging should be processed through the criminal justice system, not by the forestry department.
Checkpoint China: The shadowy world of timber smuggling
- Beyond the logistics of moving and selling illegal timber, a former smuggler says he used to pay thousands of dollars in bribes to officials to move his products.
- The mobile checkpoints move from place to place, giving Myanmar’s timber management authority the element of surprise.
- Sometimes smuggled timber is abandoned, other times the smuggler is captured, surprise search and seizure operations have become a strong deterrent.
The wily ways of a Myanmar-China border town
- One of many towns of the Myanmar-China border, Bhamo, Myanmar has long been a hub for illegal trade with China, including illegally logged charcoal currently sold.
- Most of the charcoal is bound overland for brisk business with China, yet Bhamo still finds itself without enough money coming in.
- Bhamo has a long history of diversifying its products and services to survive and get ahead.
- This glimpse at Bhamo is part of a series on illegal logging in Myanmar published this week by Mongabay. More reporting, photography, and a short docu-video in this series can be found at Mongabay.com.
The charcoal hunters
- Investigative reporter Emmanuel Freudenthal and photographer and videographer Nathan Siegel take you behind the scenes of their reporting.
- The report is one of a multi-part series on illegal logging in Myanmar, published this week by Mongabay.
- More reporting, photography, and a short docu-video in this series can be found at Mongabay.com.
Brazilian police nab Amazon timber thieves who faked forest credits
- Federal Police arrested and fined participants in an illegal logging and forest credit fraud scheme operating in Pará, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Mato Grosso states.
- The timber thieves were aided in this crime by gaps in the government’s licensing program and poor control of the timber production chain in Pará and Mato Grosso; lapses which authorities are now moving to correct.
- The timber thieves cut rare ipê trees on the Amazon’s Cachoeira Seca indigenous reserve, then used falsified records and a variety of companies to move the timber to other states and export the wood, used for expensive decking in the U.S., Argentina, Panama, France, Germany, the UK, United Arab Emirates and South Korea.
- Fines for illegal timber harvesting are only R$ 5,000 (US$ 1,587) per hectare; and for failing to submit proper reports, between R$ 1,000 and R$ 100,000 (US$ 317 to US$ 31,700), insignificant amounts that do little to deter a crime that can yield very high profits for perpetrators. These fines have not been increased since 2008.
Temer guts Brazil’s slavery law, to the applause of elite ruralists
- Brazil has about 155,000 people working in conditions analogous to slavery, many used by elite ruralists who have become wealthy via environmental crime. Slave labor, for example, is often used in the Amazon to keep illegal deforestation and illicit agribusiness hidden and off the books.
- President Temer has issued a decree — known as a portaria — narrowing the definition of slavery. Holding people in economic servitude, in conditions analogous to slavery, is no longer illegal. Now slaves must be held against their will, and two government officials must catch the slaveholder in the act.
- The easing of the slavery law, experts say, is Temer’s way of rewarding the bancada ruralista, the agribusiness lobby, which includes about 40 percent of the Congress and continues to support Temer and to reject on-going rounds of corruption charges against the president.
- Outrage over the weakening of the slavery law is widespread in Brazil and abroad. NOTE: this story was updated on 10-25-17 to report that Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) has temporarily suspended implementation of Temer’s slavery decree until an STF ruling can be made.
Leading US plywood firm linked to alleged destruction, rights violations in Malaysia
- An investigation has found that Liberty Woods, the top importer of plywood in the US, buys wood from a Malaysian company that has faced numerous allegations of environmentally unsustainable logging and indigenous rights violations.
- Environmental NGOs have accused the timber industry in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, of clearing too much forest too quickly, polluting streams and rivers and failing to obtain consent to log from local communities.
- Satellite imagery analysis in 2013 showed that, between 2000 and 2012, Malaysia had the world’s highest deforestation rate.
- In Sarawak, where logging company Shin Yang is based, only 5 percent of forests remain relatively untouched.
Does forest certification really work?
- Based on a review of 40 studies of variable quality, we found that certified tropical forests can overall be better for the environment than forests managed conventionally.
- But there wasn’t enough evidence to say if certified tropical forests are better than, the same as, or worse than conventionally managed tropical forests when it comes to people.
- We also found that profits and other economic benefits can be hard to come by for certified logging companies working in tropical forests.
- This is part of a special Mongabay series on “Conservation Effectiveness”.
US retailers halt sales of hardwood flooring linked to illegal logging in PNG
- A report released today by London-based NGO Global Witness has prompted major US retailers to discontinue sales of exotic wood flooring linked to illegal logging in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
- Global Witness reports that an investigation into the 9,000-mile-long chain of custody that timber travels on its way from PNG to Chinese factories and ultimately store shelves in the United States determined that as much as one-third of the wood exports coming from the South Pacific nation in recent years was produced by clear-cutting rainforest concessions that local communities say were granted to logging companies in violation of their rights under PNG law.
- The majority of timber produced in PNG is shipped to China and turned into flooring, furniture, and plywood, among other products, much of which is sold domestically. But the US buys $15 billion-worth of wood products from China every year, more than any other country.
- Many Chinese companies don’t do their due diligence, Global Witness reports, putting US companies at significant risk of violating the Lacey Act.
Brazil’s Temer threatens constitutional indigenous land rights
- President Temer, influenced by the rural lobby in congress whose votes he needs to not be tried by the Supreme Court on corruption charges, has okayed new criteria meant to delegitimize indigenous land boundary claims, legal experts say.
- One rule rejects any indigenous demarcation of land where Indians were not physically present on a traditional territory in 1988, which would disqualify many legitimate claims.
- Another allows government to undertake “strategic” public works, such as dams and roads, without indigenous consent, violating the International Labor Organization’s 169 Convention, signed by Brazil.
- The administration also introduced a bill likely to be passed by congress that reclassifies 349,000 hectares (1,347 square miles) of Jamanxim National Forest in the Amazon, gutting protections, allowing economic activities — logging, ranching, farming and mining — and legitimizing land grabs there.
Leaked terms of huge EU-Japan trade deal spark environmental alarm
- A new trade deal between the European Union (EU) and Japan is set to become one of the biggest ever.
- The deal would alleviate certain trade barriers, improve access to automobile and machinery industries for both Japan and the EU and establish new protocols for the resolution of investment disputes.
- Conservation NGOs are critical of the deal’s terms, which they say lack “any binding obligations” to environmental protection, and will result in lower standards against illegal logging.
International illegal logging conference touches on myriad issues
- A core issue at this year’s conference was the FLEGT process.
- FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) is the EU’s answer to fighting the global scourge of illegal logging.
- Collectively around the world, illegal logging is the highest-value environmental crime, at $51-$152 billion per year, according to a 2016 report by Interpol and the UNEP.
Norway vexed as Brazil sends mixed message on Amazon forest protection
- Last week, Brazil’s President Michel Temer fully vetoed MP 756, and partially vetoed MP 758, two provisional measures which he himself introduced and which Congress approved that would have cut conserved Amazon lands by 600,000 hectares (2,316 square miles).
- Almost simultaneously, Brazil’s environmental minister, José Sarney Filho, announced urgent plans for the administration to introduce a new bill to Congress to dismember the same conservation units described in the vetoed MP 756.
- Also last week, Norway gave a stern warning to Temer on his visit to Oslo, telling him that Brazil could lose millions of dollars from the Amazon Fund if Brazil’s deforestation rates continue rising.
- 7,989 square kilometers of Brazilian rainforest were lost between August 2015 and 2016. A rise in annual Amazon deforestation to 8,500 square kilometers would reduce Norway’s funding to Brazil to zero. Brazil defended itself, claiming preliminary annual data shows a recent leveling off of its deforestation rate.
Brazil on verge of legitimizing Amazon land theft on a grand scale, warn NGOs
- Brazil’s president has until 22 June to approve or veto two bills (PLC 4 and PLC 5) turning over more than 600,000 hectares (2,317 square miles) of federally protected Amazon forest to illegal loggers, illegal miners and land thieves.
- The measures, initiated by Temer and already approved by Congress, are seen as a reward to the bancada ruralista (rural lobby of agribusiness and mining) for its aid in bringing Temer to power through the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016.
- Large portions of the Jamanxim National Park and of the National Forest of Jamanxim would have their protections downgraded to an Area of Environmental Protection, where logging, mining and private property are allowed.
- Mongabay recently went to the region to observe conditions there: we found major illegal mining operations underway within federal conservation units and interviewed miners who have been exploited by mine “owners” under conditions analogous to slavery.
Vietnam pledges to investigate massive illegal logging violations as international pressure grows
- The report, released May 8 by the Environmental Investigation Agency, detailed how corrupt government officials in Vietnam are helping to funnel millions of dollars in illegal timber from Cambodia into Vietnam.
- Vietnam imports an average of 4.5 million cubic meters of roughly 150 different species of wood from over 100 countries.
- In the midst of an agreement with the EU to ensure the source of its timber is legal, Vietnam is now under tremendous scrutiny.
Bill Laurance on the “infrastructure tsunami” sweeping the planet
- We recently heard Bill argue that scientists need to become more comfortable with expressing uncertainty over the future of the planet and to stop “dooming and glooming” when it comes to environmental problems.
- We wanted to hear more about that, as well as to hear from Bill about the “global road map” he and his team recently released to help mitigate the environmental damage of what he calls an “infrastructure tsunami” breaking across the globe.
- We also welcome to the program Michelle LaRue, a research ecologist with the University of Minnesota’s Department of Earth Sciences. Her current work is focused on using high-resolution satellite imagery to study the population dynamics of Weddell seals in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.
- In this Field Notes segment, Michelle will also play for us some of the calls made by adult Weddell seals and their pups, which couldn’t be more different from each other and are really quite remarkable, each in their own way. But you really have to hear them to believe them.
New report details enormous corruption, illegal logging along Vietnamese border with Cambodia
- The findings are based on months of undercover field research made public by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
- Approximately 300,000 cubic meters of logs have been smuggled from Cambodia and legalized in Vietnam through these quotas since last November, with kickbacks as high as $13 million.
- The related report from the EIA comes on the eve of Vietnam’s bid for a FLEGT agreement on timber with the EU.
A fight to control chainsaws in Myanmar could turn the tide on illegal logging
- In remote areas where illegal logging is most rampant, officials struggle with outreach to poor villagers about recently implemented laws that make most chainsaws illegal.
- Many times faster and more efficient than traditional handsaws and axes, chainsaws are also dangerous tools that can cause serious injury or death.
- Unregulated chainsaw use is nearly impossible for forestry officials to track or regulate, as most illegal logging is taking place in remote areas that are extremely difficult to reach.
Singapore convicts rosewood trader in historic CITES seizure
- Late last month a high court in Singapore found Wong Wee Keong guilty of importing rosewood from Madagascar in 2014 in violation of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).
- Environmental groups are heralding the ruling, which reversed the decision of a lower court and sidestepped conflicting claims about the legality of the shipment by Malagasy authorities.
- The outsized shipment to Singapore was larger than all of the other seizures of rosewood in the world, combined, over the past decade.
Paul Simon on his new tour in support of E.O. Wilson’s Half-Earth initiative
- The 12-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter recently announced on Mongabay.com that he is embarking on a 17-date US concert tour, with all proceeds benefitting Half-Earth, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
- Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso interviewed Paul Simon about his long-time friendship with E.O. Wilson and why Dr. Wilson’s Half-Earth idea inspired him to get involved in this environmental cause.
- We also feature another Field Notes segment, this time with Zuzana Burivalova, a conservation scientist at Princeton University who has recorded the soundscapes of over 100 sites in the Indonesian part of Borneo.
Denmark prohibits companies from selling Myanmar teak on European Union markets
- The ruling comes after evidence that Danish timber company Keflico had violated the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) was brought to light by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO.
- According to a statement issued by Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency, audits were carried out at seven Danish companies that had imported teak from Myanmar in the last four years.
- The results of the audits showed that authorities in Myanmar had not provided adequate documentation of where the timber for any given purchase came from and whether or not it was legally harvested, thereby making it virtually impossible for Danish companies to avoid importing illegal wood.
Current regulations unable to control trade in products from slave labor, expert says
- Kevin Bales is co-founder of the advocacy group Free the Slaves and professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
- In his recent book, Blood and Earth, Bales discusses his research to uncover connections between labor rights and the protection of nature.
- In this interview with Repórter Brasil, Bales discusses how current regulation is largely unable to stem the trade in products manufactured through slave labor and recommends governments devote more resources to combatting it. He also highlights a few promising developments that are helping to boost corporate transparency.
Suppliers of Lowe’s in the US and Walmart in Brazil linked to slave labor in the Amazon
- Slave labor-analogous conditions were revealed by investigation of logging camps in Pará, Brazil.
- A supply chain investigation of the timber harvested through these camps has found links to markets in Brazil and the U.S.
- Major retailers with links to intermediaries that sourced wood from logging camps found to use slave labor practices include Lowe’s, Timber Holdings, and Brazilian Walmart stories. Timber Holdings has used wood from Brazil in major renovation projects for New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park.
Slave labor in the Amazon: Risking lives to cut down the rainforest
- Investigations show conditions analogous to slave labor as defined by Brazilian law are not uncommon at small logging camps in Pará, Brazil.
- A recent bust of one labor camp by a team headed by the Ministry of Labor led to the rescue several men living in substandard conditions. Interviews of the men and observations by Repórter Brasil indicate their lives were forcibly put at-risk at the camp.
- Workers from other logging camps came forward to report instances of nonpayment, and being threatened by guns when they demanded their pay.
- Although the job is life threatening and illegal, and wages aren’t guaranteed, workers report often having no other choice but to work at the logging camps.
Investigation reveals slave labor conditions in Brazil’s timber industry
- The report was the culmination of an investigation into slave labor practices in the state of Pará’s timber industry led by the Integrated Action Network to Combat Slavery (RAICE).
- The investigation found several conditions used by Brazilian law to define slave labor were occurring at logging camps, including forced work, debt bondage, isolation, exhausting working hours and life-threatening activities.
- According to the report, workers at the camp often felt forced into illegal logging because of dire economic circumstances.
Study finds more than 350k trees illegally felled in Madagascar’s protected areas in five-year span
- More than 350,000 trees were felled between March 2010 and March 2015, the study states, despite being in areas that have been granted official protected status.
- At least one million logs were illegally exported from Madagascar during those years — that’s more than 150,000 metric tons-worth of logs, per the study.
- The primary target of illegal loggers is rosewood and palisander, both species belonging to the genus Dalbergia, though other precious hardwood species like ebony (in the genus Diospyros) are targeted as well.
Chain saw injuries in Myanmar tied to illegal logging
- The dangers of chain saw use in Myanmar are compounded by a lack of training and protective gear in rural areas where inexperienced loggers can end up seriously injured or dead.
- Though a license is required to own a chain saw, one can also be rented fairly easily.
- A chain saw can cut down a tree many times faster than a hand-held saw, speeding up the movement of illegal timber from Myanmar to its main export destination, China.
Vietnamese luxury wooden furniture makers feel pain of regulations and deforestation
- In the small furniture production town of Đồng Ky, many items are carved from species of rosewood and other rare hardwood species now under increased CITES protection, about 70 percent of which are exported to markets in China.
- Vietnam sources its rosewood largely from neighboring Southeast Asian countries, where stocks are dwindling and forests are threatened by development.
- Customs data compiled by Forest Trends and provided to Mongabay shows that even with increased restrictions, roughly $116 million worth of sawn timber and rosewood logs entered Vietnam from Cambodia between January and October 2016.
- Despite an existing legal framework for import and export of timber, enforcement remains a challenge. Vietnam is in the process of negotiating a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union under the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, in the hopes of selling its timber products in more-regulated European markets.
Smuggled to death: how loopholes and lax enforcement have sealed the fate of Siamese rosewood
- Thailand’s Thap Lan National Park is on the frontline of the deadly battle against the illegal rosewood trade, but the root cause of the problem lies outside the park’s borders.
- Siamese rosewood has been listed under CITES Appendix II since 2013, but loopholes in trade rules and poor oversight allowed the trade to persist.
- A key loophole was closed at last year’s CITES CoP17. Now, campaigners fear for the future of lookalike species like Burmese rosewood and padauk.
No let-up in Thailand’s relentless, violent Siamese rosewood poaching
- Rosewood, famed for its blood red hue, is the world’s most trafficked wildlife product. It accounts for a third of all seizures recorded by the UNODC from 2005-2014.
- Most of the valuable Siamese rosewood has already been logged out in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, leaving Thailand’s remaining stands prey to cross-border incursions by poaching gangs.
- Seven wildlife rangers died in 2015 in incidents related to the Siamese rosewood trade, along with an unknown number of poachers, but the trade continues unabated.
Attacks on journalists in Myanmar highlight complications, dangers for the media
- Soe Moe Tun’s murder was followed the next day by a roadside attack on journalist Kyaw Thura Myo.
- Myanmar is on the Committee to Protect Journalists list “10 Most Censored Countries” list.
- Reporting on the illegal logging industry in the country has exacerbated security risks in the past year.
Interpol says corruption in global forestry sector worth $29 billion every year
- According to the report, the cost of corruption in the global forestry sector is some $29 billion annually.
- Bribery is the most common form of forestry corruption, followed by fraud, abuse of office, extortion, cronyism, and nepotism.
- Interpol notes in the report that studies over the last decade have repeatedly shown a strong correlation between levels of corruption, illegal logging, and deforestation rates.
Peru pledges tougher stance against illegal timber
- The new measures stem partly from a 2015 shipment of timber which Peruvian officials found was almost completely illegally sourced.
- Peruvian government estimates indicate that a full 90 percent of all sourced timber from Peru is illegal.
- Peru has also developed Operation Amazonas to compare the timber sourcer’s reported point of harvest with government field verification data.
Illegal logging ‘ravaging’ Myanmar’s Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Reserve
- Indawgyi is Myanmar’s most important wetland site and under consideration as a biosphere reserve and a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its global biodiversity value.
- Myanmar’s timber is worth about $550 million a year on the international market, according to the World Bank. A country-wide logging ban has increased concerns over illegal logging activity in certain parts of the country.
- The domestic energy market that uses timber for fuel is a key driver of deforestation in Myanmar, particularly in the region of Indawgyi.
Sweden sets legal precedent with prosecution of Myanmar teak trader
- Sweden’s forest agency, Skogsstyrelsen, prosecuted the trader, Almtra Nordic, under the EUTR after an investigation found that the company could not demonstrate who harvested its timber or where it was cut prior to the company purchasing it from the state-operated Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE).
- The EUTR, which came into force in 2013, bans the sale of illegal or high-risk wood in EU markets and requires companies to perform the due diligence necessary to ensure their risk of importing illegally logged timber is negligible.
- A Swedish administrative court confirmed a previous ruling that MTE’s documentation did not provide adequate proof that a shipment of teak was produced legally because it failed to provide critical information about the logs’ origins, the logging company that harvested them, and whether or not the harvester was in compliance with Myanmar’s forest legislation.
In a border town, a favorite African fuel has an uncertain future
- About five percent of Africa’s workforce – about 20 million people – are employed by the charcoal or firewood industry
- Traders say that a large part of their operating expenses go to bribes, payoffs, and security
- Despite health risks, charcoal remains a popular and cost-effective option for household cooking
Myanmar’s logging ban feeds shadow economy of illegal trade
- Despite efforts by local authorities, a nationwide logging ban has heightened illicit trade of wood in Myanmar’s second-largest city.
- An intricate network along the Irrawaddy River is leading illegally logged timber and logs into the city.
- Even some business owners sympathetic to the logging ban find it necessary to operate outside the law.
In Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, a rapidly disintegrating mangrove forest
- Myanmar is a known “hot spot” in Southeast Asia for mangrove loss from aquaculture, agriculture, and logging.
- MKWS is often described by researchers as one the most degraded mangrove systems or national parks they have ever seen.
- MKWS is a 53-square-mile wetland mangrove reserve located in Myanmar’s far south.
Papua New Guinea activist receives prestigious award for protecting forests
- In a statement, the Alexander Soros Foundation said that it had given the annual award to Pavol “for his courage and commitment to protecting his community’s land and forests from the illegal and aggressive operations of one of the world’s largest logging companies.”
- Industrial logging is the main driver of forest degradation in the country — and “the majority of timber production in PNG is illegal in some way,” according to a 2014 report by Chatham House.
- Since 2010, Pavol has been defending the rainforests in his home district of Pomio against the operations of Malaysian conglomerate Rimbunan Hijau, which is responsible for a third of all PNG log exports.
Despite conservation efforts, Tanzania’s forests still under pressure
- Tanzania boasts one of the world’s largest tree covers.
- Deforestation could cost the country’s economy up to $3.5 billion dollars by 2033.
- Reforestation work is linked to sustainable environmental management, community development and poverty alleviation.
Victory for forests: Rosewood gets enhanced protection at wildlife summit
- Rosewood refers to a large group of deeply-hued, durable timbers used for making expensive furniture as well as musical instruments like guitar. Majority of rosewoods belong to Dalbergia genus.
- At a recent conservation meeting, governments voted to include all rosewood species belonging to Dalbergia genus under CITES protection, launching a clampdown on the illegal trade of rosewood.
- This increased CITES protection means that all international trade in Dalbergia rosewoods will be subject to trade restrictions.
Youth, women, indigenous group pay the price of logging in Kenya
- Members of the Ogiek indigenous group have been subject to evictions from their forest homeland as part of a government effort to restore the Mau forest, a critically important watershed where deforestation and illegal logging are persistent problems.
- Many Ogiek are impoverished, living in camps for displaced persons. Children with poor access to schooling are turning to work in the region’s thriving timber industry.
- A new law giving local communities more control over their forests may improve the situation, but advocates say it needs to go further in specifically addressing the needs of marginalized women and children.
Interpol issues notice about illegal timber trading operation in Brazil
- The notice, issued on August 30, stems from an investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police that uncovered a technique employed by illegal timber traders in the country.
- The method in question involves obtaining fraudulent forest management plans that declare a higher density of a high-value timber species within a timber concession than actually exists on the ground, allowing criminals to harvest timber from unauthorized areas and report it as if it was legal — in other words, to launder their illegal timber.
- The Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA first notified the country’s federal police of suspected illegal logging activities carried out by a sustainable forest management project called JOVINO VILHENA – Fazenda Esmeralda, based in Santarém, Para State, Brazil, on February 6 of last year.
Timber from Peru 90 percent illegal, finds report issued by U.S. gov’t
- The report, released yesterday, found shortcomings of implementation and enforcement of Peru’s conservation laws majorly contributed to the export of illegal wood.
- The report comes after multiple shipments of illegal timber destined for the U.S. were intercepted.
- U.S. officials and conservationists urge Peru’s new government to increase efforts to stem the flow of illegally harvested timber.
In Latin America, environmentalists are an endangered species
- At least 185 environmental activists were murdered worldwide in 2015, nearly two-thirds of them in Latin America, according to a June report from the U.K.-based NGO Global Witness.
- The reasons for the killings vary, but many are related to a surge in development in remote parts of the region. There, governments have been granting concessions for hydroelectric dams, mines, and other projects, often without consulting indigenous or farming communities already occupying the land.
- With little government assistance, some members of these communities are opposing environmental destruction on their own and paying the ultimate price.
Using Big Data to combat the illegal timber trade in Brazil
- BVRio’s analysis found that more than 40 percent of the forest management operations in the Brazilian states of Pará and Mato Grosso between 2007 and 2015 were at medium to high risk of having involved severe breaches of the law.
- Only 10 percent of the cases examined by BVRio showed no indications of irregularities.
- BVRio is already looking to expand its Big Data tracking system to tropical forest countries in West Africa and Southeast Asia, starting with Ghana and Indonesia.
‘An optimistic place to start’: Myanmar enacts national logging ban
- Myanmar lost 5 percent of its tree cover from 2001 through 2014, with rates scaling upward over that time.
- The ban will stave off logging activity for one harvesting season, leaving the country to depend on its reserve timber stockpiles.
- Logging activities have been banned in the Pegu Yoma region for 10 years.
- Legality concerns remain, with conservationists calling for strict controls over stockpiled timber to ensure illegal harvests aren’t laundered through the system.
DART-TOFMS: Finding the chemistry in wood
- Kristen Finch, a lab technician at the US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory, is using the Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-TOFMS) machine to determine the full chemical profiles of wood samples.
- Her team has found that the chemical composition of wood core samples varied between wood collected in the Coast range of Oregon state and the Cascades range, both in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
- If DART-TOFMS can accurately and reliably provide species and geographic source wood identification, it would be the fastest and most cost-effective tool for wood identification, a key step in reducing illegal logging.
Corruption is driving unsustainable, illegal rosewood trade in Cambodia and Laos: Report
- The booming Chinese demand for hongmu furniture — luxury items particularly prized by China’s growing middle class — has pushed several rosewood species to the brink.
- In response to the crisis provoked by the hongmu trade, Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensisspp) was listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2013.
- But that listing “has largely failed” to protect the species from levels of trade that threaten its survival in the wild because of the actions of Laos and Cambodia — both parties to CITES and key range states for Siamese rosewood — which have “fundamentally undermined efforts to curb trade,” according to the EIA report.
Policy makers meet to discuss forest conservation and ‘the future of humanity’
- At the conference, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Norway’s minister of climate and environment, Vidar Helgesen, signed an agreement pledging stronger collaboration on forests and climate change.
- Germany’s Parliamentary State Secretary, Thomas Silberhorn, announced an increase in his country’s contribution to 200M Euros.
- Several speakers at the conference urged more inclusion and consideration of Indigenous Peoples.
Search warrant executed at Global Plywood over alleged Lacey Act violations
- A search warrant executed earlier this month at the premises of California-based Global Plywood and Lumber was issued on the basis of probable cause that the company had smuggled illegal timber into the United States in violation of the Lacey Act, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reports.
- The warrant describes proactive collaboration between authorities in the U.S. and Peru to hold players in the illegal timber trade accountable, according to the EIA.
- This is the latest in a string of Lacey Act enforcement actions taken by the US government since the law was amended in 2008 to prohibit the trade in illegally forested wood and wood products.
How “due diligence” is helping curb the illegal timber trade in key markets
- Due diligence in the context of the global timber trade is, essentially, a principle that says companies must have valid paperwork for the wood they’re buying, going all the way back to the point of harvest, and be able to show that they’re assessing and mitigating the risk of illegal wood entering their supply chains.
- According to Washington, D.C.-based NGO Forest Trends, this principle is being implemented in key markets such as the EU, Australia, and the US via a variety of laws that aim to prohibit the trade in illegal timber, including the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), the US Lacey Act, and Australia’s Illegal Logging Prohibition Act (ILPA).
- A total of 495 company inspections and 300 corrective actions were reported by EU and Australian enforcement officials in the past half year, which Forest Trends said shows that countries are increasingly stepping up enforcement against companies that fail to comply with the requirements of the law.
No logging ban for Myanmar despite reported announcement
- A couple weeks ago, news outlets reported an environmental ministry official announced a complete ban on hardwood logging in Myanmar. However, a more senior official later rejected the announcement.
- Myanmar has been a hotbed of illegal logging for years, with hundreds of millions of dollars of timber sold annually to China and elsewhere despite a 2014 timber export ban.
- Conservation NGO Environmental Investigation Agency has been examining Myanmar’s illegal logging trends for years, and says these logging ban rumors may actually be increasing deforestation as loggers rush to cut down trees before a ban is enacted.
Kenya’s forests squeezed as government pressures environment groups
- The Kenyan government has accused some civil society groups of militancy, terrorism, being espionage fronts for foreign powers, money laundering, tax evasion, or failing to account for donor funding.
- Human rights groups say the accusations are meant to justify deregistering targeted groups, effectively closing them down by paralyzing their operations.
- Attempts to quash civil society are no anomaly among unscrupulous Kenyan politicians, but the extent to which these attempts are harming the country’s fragile ecosystems is new.
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