The Dark Side of the Forest
Tim Christophersen
Vice President, Climate Action at Salesforce | Board Member #GenerationRestoration | Author | Stubborn Climate & Nature Optimist
Illegal logging is causing massive economic damage to developing countries, and organized crime networks are increasingly involved in the lucrative plunder of the Planet’s forests
By Tim Christophersen
When you shop at your local mall for furniture, or paper, have you ever considered whether these wood products come from legal sources? A recent report by the UN Environment and Interpol estimates that between 10 and 30 per cent of all roundwood traded globally is actually illegal. This means that illegal logging and related trade could be worth between 50 and 152 billion US$ per year. This money is lost to poor countries who urgently need tax revenues for their development.
Based on these alarming figures, the forest team at UN Environment took a closer look at the dimensions, impacts and responses to illegal logging. In collaboration with the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, we assembled the best global experts in this field and developed a Rapid Response Assessment on Illegal Logging and Related Timber Trade. The report was launched on 3 December, during the Summit on Biological Diversity in Cancun/Mexico, and it reveals important information about the dark side of forestry.
Firstly, the nature of illegal logging varies from one country to the other and within a country between subsistence, small scale and large scale commercial operations. For the fight against illegal logging to be effective, the legislation and law enforcement should reflect the nature and scale of the illegal operations and pay special attention to the needs of local populations. These vulnerable communities, usually live inside or at the vicinity of these forests and see large amounts of wood leave their areas with minimal or no benefits to them. Policies and regulations governing subsistence logging using sawpits or chainsaws for local or domestic markets for example cannot be the same as those related to large scale commercial operations destined for international markets.
Secondly, it is important to develop sustainable livelihood alternatives to those who rely on illegal logging or illegal charcoal production for their survival. This requires that international aid flows and other investments reach those that are most in need of them: the rural poor in developing countries.
A third key finding is that organized crime networks are increasingly involved in illegal logging. The fight to take out organized criminal networks is a major challenge and will need concerted efforts, nationally and internationally, including between Interpol and the UN system. Recent successes in criminal investigations carried out by Interpol are encouraging, and should be systematically scaled up. This becomes all the more important because illegal logging supports corruption and conflicts in some parts of the world and raises serious security issues. Despite an existing export ban, troops of the African Union Mission to Somalia continue to play a substantial role in the illicit export of charcoal from Somalia, in collusion with terrorist networks and corrupt local officials. Illegal logging and related trade now account for the largest share in the global rise of environmental crime, which in total now accounts for an estimated US$259 billion per year, outstripping the illegal trade in small arms.
The UN system is starting to respond to this challenge. The recent recognition by the UN General Assembly of environmental crime as part of other organized crime is an important step in the right direction. The General Assembly calls upon all Member States to ‘make illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora involving organized criminal groups a serious crime’.
Good governance, transparency and international collaboration on law enforcement can be effective approaches to curb illegal logging. There are some good news on this front. The Supreme Court of Indonesia, in a groundbreaking ruling, just sentenced the Indonesian company PT Merbau Pelalawan Lestari to pay a record fine of 1.2 billion US$ for illegal logging. This amount might seem staggering, but it is fully justified if we consider the true value of forests, and the true costs of deforestation. With all their ecosystem services, tropical forests provide more than 16,000 US$ per hectare and year to society. And with ever-improving tools such as Global Forest Watch, we can now detect deforestation in near-real time, and anticipate where it will take place. So, illegal loggers beware: you are being watched, and the law might catch up with you sooner than you think.
This blog post first appeared on www.landscapes.org
Rotary Foundation Cadre Consultant (20 year)- #fIntrnational project evaluations) for Rotary International
6 年Tim, While the photo is dramatic, the significance of the perceived? destruction of the forests (? soon to be attacked? more seriously will be the Amazon forests)? is distressing!? It will be a further reduction of the world's lungs !
Expert juriste en Environnement et Changement Climatique
8 年Tim, ce qui est malheureux dans pays forestiers les lois sont difficilement applicable, le manque de contr?le rigoureux et l'inapplicabilité des lois qui sont à la base de l'exploitation illégale des bois
Director, University lecturer and Consultant
8 年I am a tree nerd. Even so, I find the fact that 600-800,000 humans are illegally trafficked even more disturbing (UN). 80% are female and the unregulated sex industry is often their destination. I care about trees, but I also care about people. The refugees/migrants landing in Europe now are also the victims of organised crime.
Executive Director at Transparency and Economic Development Initiatives
8 年Really dark and cutting off carbon fertilizer and carbon capture.
Senior Policy Manager bij Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken
8 年Dear Mr Christophersen, for local communities to rely on international aid has no common sense and has of course been unsuccessful. Please try to have a foreign environmental NGO to convince local communities in nearly entirely deforested regions in Western Europe to reforest their land. In general no one wants to be dependent on foreign charity, onlt self disrespectful, lazy and less scrupulous people (not the ones you want to work with, right?). And please look at the continuous failure of "Carbon Credit" that in the West has built a business valued at billions of US$. Solutions on Forest Conservation (and successfully fighting Climate Change) can only come with solutions that, at the same time, ensure Food Security and Sustainable Inclusive Economies in which all citizens have effective access to good quality infrastructure, health care, education and other goods & services that also you and me need to lead fullfilled lives. Please be a part of the solution instead of possibly being a part that is producing an ever greater divide between the North Western world and the South