Illegal timber trade links to US, Europe

ALMOST 2 000 container ships carrying illegally harvested timber from the Brazilian Amazonian state that will host this year’s UN climate summit has reached Europe and the US in recent years, showed an investigative report by an environmental NGO.

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The report released yesterday by London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), featured satellite imagery, records and interviews with industry sources to trace about 53 000 cubic meters of timber to four sites in the state of Para that had been sanctioned, were under embargo or had other irregularities such as illegal gold mining.

Para capital Belem will host the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference or COP30 – from November 10-21.

“The findings suggest a pervasive culture where corrupt deals and the manipulation of legal frameworks are widespread,” the EIA, founded in 1984, said in the report, Wrongdoing or negligence was rife.

“At nearly every step of the supply chain, from permitting to harvesting to exporting, it said.

Laws in the US, Europe and Brazil to stem illegal logging have existed for decades, but the many loopholes that allow the illicit industry to thrive underscores the difficulty of policing a complex forest.