More than five years ago, the Government of Rwanda scaled up tree planting programmes in a bid to raise forest cover to about 30%.However, More than 80% of the population derives their livelihoods directly from nature and about 36% from agriculture alone.
This realization has been translated into a resolve of the Government to effectively control pollution, conserve biodiversity, and restore productive ecosystems.
However,the ever growing population exerts more pressure on the limited natural resources especially trees as they are a major source of energy, building materials and other affiliated uses.
The rate of harvest of trees is so high and this poses a bigger risk to the ecosystem. Already the change in pattern of rains and weather is being experienced with especially longer drought and floods and landslides.
A new World Bank study on illegal logging reports that a football field of forest is clear-cut every two seconds around the globe and the problem is now a “global epidemic.”
The report estimates that illegal logging accounts for 90% of all timber felled each year, generating between $10 to $15 billion. The report says the logging is mostly controlled by organised crime, and ill-gotten gains are used to pay corrupt government officials at all levels to turn a blind eye.
“Forestry’s criminal justice system is broken. Despite compelling data and evidence showing that illegal logging is a worldwide epidemic, most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored,” says the 56-page report released early this week.
“All too often, investigations—in the rare event that they do take place—are amateurish and inconclusive.”
A four-year study in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and the Philippines — four forest-rich countries — found that the probability of illegal loggers being penalized is less than 0.1 per cent
“We need to fight organised crime in illegal logging the way we go after gangsters selling drugs or racketeering,” says Mr Jean Pesme, manager of the World Bank Financial Market Integrity team that helps countries combat illicit financial flows.
Estimates of financial losses from illegal logging don’t consider “the enormous environmental, economic and societal costs— biodiversity threats, increased carbon emissions and undermined livelihoods of rural peoples,” the report says.
“Large-scale illegal operations are carried out by sophisticated criminal networks, and law enforcement actions need to be focused on the ‘masterminds’ behind these networks—and the high-level corrupt officials who enable and protect them,” the report says.
“Pursuing these important targets through the criminal justice system will require creativity and a clear focus on those criminal justice rules and procedures that prove most effective.”
The report, Justice for Forests: Improving Criminal Justice Efforts to Combat Illegal Logging, says that to be effective, law enforcement needs to look past low-level criminals and look at where the profits from illegal logging go.
By following the money trail, and using tools developed in more than 170 countries to go after dirty money, criminal justice can pursue criminal organizations engaged in large-scale illegal logging and confiscate ill-gotten gains.
The World Bank estimates that illegal logging in some countries accounts for as much as 90 per cent of all logging and generates approximately $10–15 billion annually in criminal proceeds. Mostly controlled by organized crime, this money is untaxed and is used to pay corrupt government officials at all levels.
The new report provides policy and operational recommendations for policy makers and forestry and law enforcement actors to integrate illegal logging into criminal justice strategies, foster international and domestic cooperation among policy makers, law enforcement authorities and other key stakeholders, and make better use of financial intelligence.
Despite compelling evidence showing that illegal logging is a global epidemic, most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored. In addition, estimates of criminal proceeds generated by forest crimes do not capture their enormous environmental, economic and societal costs— biodiversity threats, increased carbon emissions and undermined livelihoods of rural peoples, with organized crime profiting at the expense of the poor.
“Preventive actions against illegal logging are critical. We also know that they are insufficient,” said Magda Lovei, sector manager at the World Bank. “When implemented, the recommendations of this publication can have a strong deterrent effect that has been missing in many actions taken against illegal loggers.
“Organized crime networks behind large scale illegal logging have links to corruption at the highest levels of government. The investigation of forest crimes is made even more complex by the international dimension of these operations. Recognizing these challenges, this study calls for law enforcement actions that are focused on the ‘masterminds’ behind these networks—and the corrupt officials who enable and protect them.”
Meanwhile, Brazil stands at a crossroads in its efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest as the government considers controversial legislation governing land use. For most of the past decade, it has made a dramatic reduction in the rate of deforestation, providing a model of how it could be tackled in other rainforest areas such as Indonesia and Congo.
The Amazon rainforest covers a huge area, roughly half as large as the United States, with about 60 per cent of it in Brazil.
It is estimated that nearly a fifth of the Brazilian forest has been lost since 1970; figures from Brazil’s space research institute, INPE, show that 4.1 million square kilometres (1.58 million square miles) of Brazilian forest were still standing in 1970, compared with 3.35 million square kilometres (1.29 million square miles) today.
Like in many developing nations, there is pressure on the natural environment from commercial and agriculture interests.
According to INPE, in 1995, nearly 30,000 square kilometres (about 11,550 square miles) were cleared — that is an area about the size of Belgium or the US state of Maryland — but in 2011, the rate of loss had been reduced to just over 6,000 square kilometres (about 2,400 square miles).
Last year saw the lowest annual clearance since yearly INPE surveys began in 1988, and Brazil is aiming to reduce deforestation even further to 3,500 square kilometres annually by 2020.
Brazil’s environment ministry credits its success to a combination of support for sustainable activities and near-real-time satellite monitoring of forest regions that allows it to target illegal operations with extra agents.
Additional information (World Bank & Agencies)
