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It has become increasingly clear that forest crime is very
common in all forests of the world. Forest crime prominently
includes illegal logging but it also affects other operations
such as forest products transport, industrial processing,
and trade. Illegal and unethical practices in the forest sector
cover a wide range:
Examples of illegal practices in the forestry
and forest industries sector (from Contreras Hermosilla 2001)
Illegal
occupation of forestlands
· Invasion of public forested lands by either rural
families, communities or private corporations to convert
them to agriculture or cattle ranching
· Practice of slash and burn agriculture in invaded
lands
· Induce landless peasants to illegally occupy
forested areas to force governments to grant land ownership
rights to them and then buying these lands from peasants.
Illegal logging
· Logging protected species
· Duplication of felling licenses
· Girdling or ring-barking, to kill trees so
that they can be legally logged
· Contracting with local entrepreneurs to buy
logs from protected areas
· Logging in protected areas
· Logging outside concession boundaries
· Logging in prohibited areas such as steep slopes,
riverbanks and water catchments
· Removing under/oversized trees from public
forests
· Extracting more timber than authorized
· Reporting high volumes extracted in forest
concessions to mask the fact that part of the volume
declared is extracted from non-authorized areas outside
the concession boundaries
· Logging without authorization
· Obtaining logging concessions through bribes
Woodlands arson
· Setting woodlands on fire to convert it to
commercial uses
Illegal timber transport,
trade and timber smuggling
· Transporting logs without authorization
· Transporting illegally harvested timber
· Smuggling timber
· Falsifying and/or reusing timber transportation
documents
· Exporting and importing tree species banned
under international law, such as CITES.
· Exporting and importing timber in contravention
of national bans
Transfer pricing and other
illegal accounting practices
· Declaring lower values and volumes exported
· Declaring higher purchase prices above the
prevailing market prices for inputs such as equipment
or services from related companies
· Manipulating debt cash flows to transfer money
to subsidiary or parent company, for example by inflating
debt repayment to avoid taxes on profits
· Under-grading, under-valuing, under-measuring
and misclassification of species exported or for the
local market.
Illegal forest processing
· Operating without a processing license
· Ignoring environmental and social and labour
laws and regulation
· Using illegally obtained wood in industrial
processing.
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As a result of these illegal and corrupt practices, governments
and local communities are deprived of large amounts of income
and development opportunities based on forest management.
The amount of income lost may be very high, particularly if
it is considered that governments tend to see forests as engines
to promote national development. The World Bank, in its recent
revised forest strategy, estimates the annual revenue loss
to governments from failure to collect taxes from forest concessions
at over US$ 5 billion. In addition, the annual market value
of losses from illegal cutting of forests is placed at over
US$ 10 billion. In a well-documented case, the income to the
Cambodian government during 1995-1997 averaged US$ 15 million,
whereas informal payments were estimated at US$ 200 million
in 1997. (World Rainforest Movement and Forest Monitor). ITTO
found that the imports of wood into consumer countries vastly
exceeded the export from their countries of origin (particularly
China, France and Indonesia from Malaysia), suggesting substantial
illegal trade flows.
Factors that contribute to illegal activities in the forest
sector have been summarised as follows (Contreras Hermosilla,
2001):
- Forest activities take place in remote places
- There is a weak or an absent knowledge of the extent of
the forest resource, which makes it hard to detect compliance
with laws and regulations
- In many countries, there is no tradition of proper forest
management and accountability
- Forestland ownership rights are often unclear or inexistent
- Being far removed from capital cities, forest officers
possess broad discretionary powers, creating opportunities
for illegalities
- Forest officers are often offered humble salaries
- In many countries there is a proliferation of regulations
and permits which are poorly operationalised, and institutions
to monitor compliance with the law are weak and understaffed
- Penalties are so light that they are not a significant
deterrent
In many countries, these causes collude with more general
problems of weak governance, such as a weak and understaffed
government apparatus, lack of funding and poorly educated
government staff. Even though much progress has been made,
there are still countries with a strongly outdated forest
legislation solely directed at regulating timber-harvesting
operations. Disregarding the role of other stakeholders and
previously underrecognised functions of the forest creates
conditions for illegal activities.
Several options are available to combat illegal logging.
Forest departments should not endeavour to manage and monitor
more forest than their institution can tackle. The legal system
should be realistic, with few and simple rules. Unrealistic
laws lead to corruption. Civic society, i.e. the media, NGOs
and local communities should help monitor forest activities
and pressure governments to act. Policymakers must not allow
processing capacity to greatly exceed the amount of timber
that companies can legally harvest. Independent entities should
audit the public forest agencies, carry out surprise controls
and verify the consistency of the information the agencies
provide. Penalties for committing illegal forest activities
need to be increased. The use of remote sensing and tracking
technologies can make it much easier to monitor illegal activities.
Voluntary certification ought to help take some of the regulatory
burden off public officials. Countries that import timber
and other forest products can stop buying goods from illegal
sources. (From Polex
Newsletter, August
2001)
Transnational companies, both from the North and the South,
are often associated with illegal activities. These companies
are often invited in on favourable terms by governments competing
for foreign investment. The economic size and negotiating
power of such companies is often larger than many small forest-rich
developing countries. Once they are established it is difficult
to monitor and enforce their compliance with the law.
Pressure to stop illegal logging comes from environmental
NGOs and environmentally aware consumers, but also from governments
both of producer and consumer countries, as well as intergovernmental
organizations and some actors in the private sector. At the
1998 G8 (Group of Eight countries) summit, the responsibility
of importing countries was recognized, and members were formally
requested to control the trade of illegal timber. In recognition
of the substantial income missed due to illegal logging, in
Asia and Africa there are intergovernmental initiatives to
combat illegal logging.
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