22/12/2005 — How do you get a shipment of illegal logs out of the Amazon and to market in São Paolo? A team of Greenpeace activists risked their lives to go undercover to show -- for the first time -- exactly how it's done.

The head of Brazil's own Environmental Agency, IBAMA, estimates that up to 90 percent of all Amazon timber is illegally produced. What normally makes headlines is deforestation -- the wholesale clearing of land for agriculture and roads. But less attention has been paid to selective logging, the process by which pirate loggers go into the forest for only specific trees with a high commercial value. New evidence from satellite imagery shows that extractive logging is destroying just as much forest -- and perhaps more -- as deforestation operations.

We found out how this timber gets to market. And to dramatically expose the loopholes and illegalities which allow this crime to continue, we went undercover and brought along a television crew to document the precise route by which we were able to buy 40 cubic meters (1400 cubic feet) of timber, turn it into 29 cubic meters of squared stock, and transport it halfway across Brazil disguised as legally cut wood.

Step one: log it illegally
Between July and November, a Greenpeace team travelled to the Amazon state of Rondônia posing as timber buyers. They expressed an interest in purchasing not just timber, but documentation as well. It didn't take long to find both.

A man who identified himself as Vandinho offered the team 40 cubic meters of Angelim (Dinizia excelsa) logs. Angelim is used in finishing work -- door frames, floors, and ceilings. Once cut, the market price for this particular timber would be between 15,000 - 38,000 Euros (US$ 18,000-45,000). We paid the equivalent of 1,600 Euros -- in cash -- for it at the log yard.

The timber was cut without permits from the Forest Management division of the Federal government.

The logs were then transported, without a permit, to the sawmill at Serraria Fotaleza, owned by an individual presenting himself as Elias. Under current Brazilian law, the timber was now in violation on three points. It shouldn't have been cut without a permit. It should not have been transported to the sawmill without documentation. And the sawmill shouldn't cut it without certificates of origin. We paid the equivalent of 1,000 Euros to have it sawn. Cash only, of course.

Step two: buy or forge documents
Shipping logs illegally from forest to sawmill over a few kilometers is one thing. Getting those logs to market in São Paolo, over 3,000 kilometres away, is another matter. While far too few, there are inspection points on state borders and we needed a way to get past those. The illegal logging scheme depends on an "official documents broker" to get official documents to whitewash the illegal timber. Sergio Krammer in Arquimes offered his services. Sergio's niche in the illegal economy of timber trade is to provide a connection between companies that have official permits and tax receipts to sell and the pirate loggers who want to whitewash their illegal wood.
The documents cost more than the wood itself. We paid the equivalent of around 2,000 Euros each for three sets of documents, which rose in price between purchases because "the situation was getting tense" after Federal Police showed up in the vicinity.

Subsequent analysis of the documents we bought revealed them to be genuine. While forgery is also an option, real documents are not hard to obtain.

The holes on the timber control system allow logging companies to get an excess of documentation, which generates this parallel trade of official documents to legalize illegal timber. The logging companies listed on the documents purchased by Greenpeace are registered at IBAMA's.

Step three: drive by the inspectors
After being sawn, the timber was loaded into a shipping company vehicle in Cujubim, in Rondônia. The total cost for the shipment was just over 2,000 Euros, paid in cash. The shipping company was also acting illegally.

The illegal timber cargo covered more than 3,000 kilometers of Federal and interstate highways. It crossed three state borders and two inspection points - one in Vilhena (Rondônia) and another one in Cuiabá (Mato Grosso) before arriving in São Paulo.
It arrived in São Paulo on 6th December 2005 and sat in a warehouse until we picked it up for delivery to the Federal Police in São Paulo as crime evidence.

Step four: appear in front of 40 million Brazilian television viewers
We delivered the wood and a full crime file report to the authorities in São Paulo. The documentary of our sting operation was broadcast on Fantastico, one of Brazil's most popular television programmes.

"Our operation's objective was twofold: to show how Amazon illegal timber continues to feed the market and to pressure the Federal Government to correct the failures of the current logging control system," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign co-ordinator. "We recognise the Government is trying to fight illegal logging but do not believe that police operations alone will solve the problem. The current logging control system needs to be radically improved."
What will fix this?

We've presented a ten point set of demands to the Federal, State, and local authorities to strengthen laws and enforcement at every stage of the illegal logging process where we saw weaknesses. President Lula was meeting with his cabinet the day following the television exposé, and we expect attention to those demands to form part of the government's plans for 2006.

But all of us can do our part as well. While this particular shipment stopped in Brazil, much of the illegal timber taken from the Amazon goes out to the international market as well.

To ensure you're not part of this criminal chain, make sure you purchase only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber products, which ensures legal origin as well as environment-friendly and socially just production criteria.

And what about the fate of the illegal wood? We'd like to see it used to build a school or a hospital for the children of Brazil. The only beneficiaries of this destruction should be those who are innocent of its cause, and those who will most benefit from it coming to an end.