Companies and governments involved in the international tropical timber trade have a well deserved bad image. Most of their activities have resulted in widespread forest destruction and human rights abuses in numerous countries, while corruption has been at the core of many of their practices. Some of those same actors now appear to be willing –after having been targeted by strong NGO campaigns- to improve their performance in both logging and international timber trade.
This has led to Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) processes to deal with the issue particularly in Asian and African forests, while the European Union has also launched a similar initiative to address imports of illegal timber in its member states.
Bulletin Issue 98 - September 2005
Illegal logging
THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: ILLEGAL LOGGING
Illegal logging has been highlighted as a major factor in forest destruction through both national and international NGO campaigns. However, the issue is not as simple as it might seem. Legal logging can in many cases be as bad as illegal logging and it is even possible to find some example showing that illegal logging can be more socially and environmentally friendly than legal logging! The above certainly does not mean that WRM supports illegal logging. What it does mean is that the issue of legal versus illegal logging is a complex one and that simplistic approaches can be dangerous. The importance of illegal logging in forest destruction varies from country to country and so does the impact of legal logging. We believe that what matters most is not the legality issue, but whether logging –both legal and illegal- is socially and environmentally friendly or damaging. Given the complexity of the issue, we have asked a number of people to share their knowledge and insights on different aspects of the problem. The following articles are the result of that effort and we hope that they will help us all to have a broader and more in-depth perspective about the issue.WRM Bulletin
98
September 2005
OUR VIEWPOINT
IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS
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13 September 2005Is the dichotomy legal logging – illegal logging the one that should prevail in a forest conservation policy? It is understood that illegal logging takes places when timber – converted into a profitable business to be exploited – is harvested, transported, purchased or sold in violation of national laws. However, laws can vary widely from one country to another, so there is no way of distinguishing between legal and illegal logging on a world scale insofar as there are no international standards in this respect. Perhaps in each case the questions to be asked are: What is legal? What should be legal? Is what is legal legitimate?
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13 September 2005Illegal logging has possibly been the most debated issue in the forestry sector at international level recently and has been attracting increasing attention in the last ten years. Governments, timber industries, donor agencies and NGOs seem to agree that it is one of the most important issues to be addressed. It also has been discussed in some high profile meetings.
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13 September 2005European NGOs estimate that more than 50% of all tropical timber imports into the EU are illegally sourced, as are over 20% of all imports from boreal forests. Furthermore in several European countries, notably in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an estimated 50% of all logging is illegal. As the EU has no mechanisms in place to control the timber imports, the EU currently launders large volumes of illegally sourced timber each year. Following pressure from environmental and social NGOs to address this issue, the European Commission adopted in May 2003 an Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).
REGIONAL AND NATIONAL EXPERIENCES
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13 September 2005The African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG) process quickly succeeded the Asia process - even though, at the time (and still) actual practical outcomes of the Asia FLEG have remained elusive. AFLEG was proposed and driven forward by the US State Department, and supported financially by the World Bank, though it was never clear what the exact purpose or expected outcomes of the process would be. The only definite ‘event’ was to be an Inter-Ministerial AFLEG ‘summit’, but even the preparations for this were chaotic. The Ministerial summit was repeatedly postponed, evidently because the would-be host – the Cameroonian government – was ‘not ready’, as well as because of post-9/11 fears of possible terrorist attacks.
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13 September 2005Much is being said about “illegal logging.” In Costa Rica, the present government’s forestry policy has been limited to establishing, with the generous support of FAO, a team to analyze and take action against illegal logging. According to the government this is the forestry sector’s fundamental problem. Based on dubious data, the estimate was that between 25 and 35 per cent of timber consumed comes from illegal sources. However, from the ecological standpoint, we see the need to “clarify the picture” and identify in the first place the different versions of “illegal logging.”
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13 September 2005Peru’s forests are under siege. Throughout the Peruvian Amazon, illegal and destructive ‘legal’ loggers are engaged in large-scale and destructive extraction of remaining high value caoba: “mahogany” (Swietenia macrophylla) and cedro: “tropical cedar” (Cedrela odorata). Recent estimates suggest that as much as 90% of timber extracted in the Peruvian Amazon is illegal. Official figures report that most Peruvian hardwood timber is exported to Mexico, the USA, Canada and Belgium. Much of this timber is imported in violation of international environmental agreements (like CITES).
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13 September 2005Jakarta, we have a problem! Indonesia has a major problem with illegal logging. New Minister for Forests, Malam Sambat Kaban, calls illegal logging a ‘wild cancer’. ‘If this ‘virus’ is not eradicated soon…’ he says, the country’s forests would only survive another 15 years. He cites statistics that 60 million of the country’s 120 million hectares of forests have already been degraded or destroyed, most in the last 20 years. Some 2.8 million hectares are still being ruined each year. His answer is law enforcement and reforestation, but local NGOs say the main solution would be to close the excessive pulp factories, sawmills and plywood plants, which have the capacity to chomp through about 80 million cubic metres of timber a year.
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13 September 2005Asia Pulp & Paper(APP), one of the world’s largest paper and pulp producer, was accused by Greenpeace for conducting illegal logging of forests in southwestern China’s Yunnan province, the most biologically diverse area in China. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in August, 2002 between APP and the Yunnan provincial government regarding the company’s eucalyptus forest-pulp-paper integration project. While the project was waiting for approval by the central government, APP started immediately to fell trees without any permits, to clear land for its 1.83 million hectares forest-pulp plantation.
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13 September 2005According to the most recent official estimates (Forest Survey of India, 2003 State of Forests Report), India continues to lose its forest cover. The 2003 estimates record a net minus change of nearly three million hectares of ‘dense forests’, which means serious and continued deforestation in forests with canopy density of 40 percent and above. Because satellite imageries acting as source of these data are still treated as ‘classified’ in the country, and ‘ground-truthing’ (if any) exercises are carried in a similar clandestine manner, one never knows exactly how much forest vanishes each year, and where. From the State of Forests Report, it can be seen that degradation of forests is not confined to any particular province/region, but it is happening, almost uniformly, everywhere.
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13 September 2005Many European NGOs believe that government procurement has a great potential to contribute to responsible forest management globally. According to WWF figures, governmental purchase of timber and timber products is estimated to account for 18 percent of total timber imports into G8 countries. Worth $20 billion annually, this constitutes a formidable economic force in the international timber market.