Thu, Sep 27, 2012 -
Report Spotlights Almost 30 Ways of Procuring
and Laundering Illegal Timber Compromising
Security, Climate Mitigation and Sustainable
Development Efforts
Illegal logging now
accounts for between 15 and 30 per cent
of the overall trade globally
Rome, 27 September 2012
- Between 50 to 90 per cent of logging in
key tropical countries of the Amazon basin,
Central Africa and South East Asia is being
carried out by organized crime threatening
efforts to combat climate change, deforestation,
conserve wildlife and eradicate poverty.
Globally, illegal logging
now accounts for between 15 and 30 per cent
of the overall trade, according to a new
report from the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) and INTERPOL.
Further Resources
Download the report Green Carbon: Black
TradeDownload the report CARBONE VERT, MARCHÉ
NOIR (French)Download the report CARBONO
LIMPIO, NEGOCIO SUCIO (Spanish)Press Release
in FrenchPress Release in ChineseUNEP/GRID-ArendalForests
worldwide bind Carbon Dioxide and store
it - known as Green Carbon - and help mitigate
climate change. However deforestation, largely
of tropical rainforests, is responsible
for an estimated 17 per cent of all man-made
emissions - 50 per cent more than that from
ships, aviation and land transport combined.
The Rapid Response Report
entitled "Green Carbon: Black Trade"
says that the illegal trade, worth between
US$30-100 billion annually, hampers the
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
forest Degradation (REDD) initiative - one
of the principal tools for catalyzing positive
environmental change, sustainable development,
job creation and reducing emissions.
With the increase in
organized criminal activity, INTERPOL has
also noted associated crimes such as murder,
violence and atrocities against indigenous
forest dwellers.
The report concludes
that without an internationally coordinated
enforcement effort, illegal loggers and
cartels will continue to shift operations
from one haven to another to pursue their
profitable trade at the expense of the environment,
local economies and even the lives of indigenous
peoples.
The report was released
at the World Forest conference in Rome at
an event with UN REDD, a coalition of UNEP,
the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
REDD and the expanded
REDD+ initiative provide national and international
legal frameworks, including agreements,
conventions and certification schemes, to
reduce illegal logging and support sustainable
practices. The report said that if REDD+
is to be sustainable over the long term,
payments to communities for their conservation
efforts need to be higher than the returns
from activities that lead to environmental
degradation.
"Funding to better
manage forests represents an enormous opportunity
to not only address climate change but to
reduce rates of deforestation, improve water
supplies, cut soil erosion and generate
decent green jobs in natural resource management,"
said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP Executive Director.
"Illegal logging
can however undermine this effort, robbing
countries and communities of a sustainable
future, if the unlawful activities are more
profitable than the lawful ones under REDD+,"
he added.
According to the report,
criminal groups are combining old-fashioned
tactics such as bribes with high-tech methods
such as hacking government websites. Illegal
operations are also becoming more sophisticated
as loggers and dealers shift activities
between regions and countries to avoid local
and international policing efforts.
While significant progress
has been made through programmes such as
REDD+, most efforts are targeted at encouraging
and creating incentives for legal trade
- not combatting crime. Unfortunately, current
economic incentives are rarely effective
in reducing collusive corruption and illegal
logging activities as there is little risk
of being apprehended.
"The threat posed
to the environment by transnational organized
crime requires a strong, effective and innovative
international law enforcement response to
protect these natural resources and combat
the corruption and violence tied to this
type of crime, which can also affect a country's
stability and security," said Ronald
K. Noble, Secretary General of INTERPOL.
Estimates in the report
that show the scale of the problem is much
wider than previously thought come from
improved knowledge of methods employed to
launder illegal timber.
The report describes
30 ingenious ways of procuring and laundering
illegal timber. Primary methods include
falsification of logging permits, bribes
to obtain permits (up to US$50,000 for a
single permit in some countries), logging
beyond concessions and hacking government
websites to obtain or change electronic
permits.
One new way to launder
millions of cubic metres of wood is to mix
it with legally cut timber and process it
and launder it through saw, paper, pulp
and board mills. Another big scam involves
selling timber and wood originating from
wild forests as plantation timber - often
with government subsidies for plantations.
Specific examples of
illegal activity include the following:
Brazilian authorities
in 2008 said that hackers working for illegal
logging cartels in the Brazilian state of
Pará gained access to transport and
logging permits, allowing the theft of an
estimated 1.7 million cubic metres of forest.
A Brazilian federal prosecutor accused 107
companies, 30 ring leaders and some 200
individuals of involvement, and sued these
companies for almost US$1.1 billion.
In 2009 another Brazilian
federal prosecutor investigated a scam allegedly
involving some 3,000 companies in the timber
sector, which illegal timber "eco-certified"
and exported to the US, EU and Asia.
In Indonesia, the amount
of logs allegedly produced through plantations
increased from 3.7 million cubic metres
in 2000 to over 22 million in 2008. UN Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates suggested
that less than half of the plantations actually
existed, reflecting a massive organized
laundering operation.
In Kalimantan, Indonesia,
a bribe for a logging permit of around 20
km2 costs US$ 25-30,000. Import-export discrepancies
suggest as much as a threefold difference
in claims between officially exported and
actually imported timber between Kalimantan
and Malaysia - suggesting massive tax fraud.
In the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), over 200 rangers in the
Virunga National Park, famous for its gorillas,
have been killed over the last decade defending
the park boundaries against militias operating
a charcoal trade estimated at over US$28
million annually.
In Uganda, the report
describes incidences of military personnel
escorting loggers through border check points
from the DRC to bring high-value illegal
timber onto local markets for sale.
A much-heralded apparent
decline in illegal logging in the 2000s
was in fact a shift from obvious activity
to more advanced laundering operations by
organized criminals, the report adds. In
many cases, a five-fold increase in timber
sold as "plantation wood" occurred
in the years following law enforcement crack-downs.
In several instances,
illegal timber transported through border
crossings and harbours accounted for up
to 30 times the official volumes. However,
this laundering and smuggling of timber
will enable law enforcement to act more
firmly, as tax fraud is more strictly enforced
than environmental laws that are often weak.
Much of the laundering
is made possible by large flows of investment
funds based in the EU, US and Asia into
companies involved in the crime, including
in establishing plantation operations with
the sole purpose of laundering illegally
cut timber.
In many cases, corrupt
officials, local military and police emerge
with revenues up to ten times that available
through available legal pursuits. This seriously
undermines much needed investments in sustainable
forest operations and alternative livelihood
incentives.
INTERPOL and UNEP, through
its GRID Arendal centre in Norway, have
established a pilot-project called LEAF
(Law Enforcement Assistance to Forests)
funded by the Norwegian Government agency
NORAD to develop an international system
to combat organized crime in close collaboration
with key partners.
To complement and expand
on such efforts, the report makes the following
key recommendations:
Strengthen and consider
funding opportunities for a fully fledged
LEAF programme under INTERPOL and UNEP,
in close collaboration with REDD+, the International
Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC)
and all relevant partners.
Increase national investigative
and operational capacities through training
on transnational environmental crime.
Centralize all land-clearing
permits to one national register, which
will greatly facilitate transparency and
investigation.
Classify geographic
regions based on suspected degree of illegality
and restrict flows of timber and wood products
from such areas including shipping.
Encourage tax fraud
investigations with a particular focus on
plantations and mills.
Reduce investment attractiveness
in forests enterprises active in regions
identified as areas of illegal logging by
implementing an international INTERPOL-based
rating system of companies extracting, operating
in or buying from regions with a high degree
of illegal activity.
