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Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
Illegality may also occur during transport, such as illegal processing and export (through fraudulent declaration to customs); the avoidance of taxes and other charges, and fraudulent certification.[1] These acts are often referred to as "wood laundering".[2]
Illegal logging is driven by a number of economic forces, such as demand for raw materials, land grabbing and demand for pasture for cattle. Regulation and prevention can happen at both the supply size, with better enforcement of environmental protections, and at the demand side, such as an increasing regulation of trade as part of the international lumber industry.
- ^ Jonathan Watts (24 August 2015). "Dawn timber-laundering raids cast doubt on 'sustainable' Brazilian wood". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
Most of the laundering was reportedly done through the creation of fake or inflated creditos florestais, a document that defines how much timber a landowner is entitled to extract from his property.
- ^ "Wood laundering brings illegal Amazon timber to Europe — report | DW | 21.03.2018". DW.COM. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2021-05-11.