New Agriculturist: News brief - Dramatic decline in illegal logging

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Dramatic decline in illegal logging

Dramatic decline in illegal logging

Illegal logging had declined dramatically in the last decade
Global Witness

Illegal logging worldwide has dropped by almost a quarter over the last decade, states a new report published by Chatham House. In Brazil, Cameroon and Indonesia, logging has declined by between 50 and 75 per cent, which has protected up to 17 million hectares of forest from deforestation and saved 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. "Up to a billion of the world's poorest people are dependent on forests, and reductions in illegal logging are helping to protect their livelihoods," says Sam Lawson, lead author of Illegal logging and related trade and Chatham House Associate Fellow.

Covering all aspects of the trade, the new report, which looks at 12 countries that produce, consume or process timber, concludes that a decade of international effort to tackle illegal logging have had a dramatic effect. "The effort to combat illegal logging and improve forest governance has brought developed and developing countries together in a unique way with a shared sense of purpose," Lawson adds. "Our study shows that consumer interest and pressure combined with action by producer countries can yield very positive results."

Increased enforcement in Brazil and Indonesia, and the introduction of independent monitoring of forest law enforcement and governance in Cameroon, has played an important role in reducing illegal logging. But the report found that illegal logging remains a major problem in all the producer countries studied, representing up to 70 per cent of logging in the Brazilian Amazon, 35 per cent in Cameroon and 65 per cent in Ghana. A growing proportion of illegal timber is also being logged by smallscale artisanal loggers, which account for three-quarters of illegal logging in Ghana and almost all of the illegal production in Cameroon.

In 2008, companies from the United States, Japan, Britain, France and the Netherlands purchased 17 million cubic metres of illegal timber, but the report states that these countries have taken numerous actions over the last decade to help reduce illegal logging. In the United States, legislation introduced in 2008, making it a criminal offence to handle illegally harvested timber, has already placed pressure on timber producers and processors to regulate their supply chains.

Date published: July 2010