Illegal Logging

Overview:

With American consumers clamoring for the rich hues of mahogany and cedar furniture, the demand for tropical timber has sent prices soaring and drives hundreds of illegal loggers into the Peruvian Amazon in search of these majestic trees. The effects of this illegal activity are disastrous for the species, the forest, and the local indigenous communities that rely on this ecosystem for their survival. In addition, illegal logging severely undermines legitimate forest trade.  The World Bank estimates that developing nations are losing as much as $15 billion each year because of illegal logging.

In Peru, most remaining mahogany is located in protected areas and territorial reserves set aside for indigenous peoples who have had little or no contact with the outside world.  When illegal loggers invade these areas, they come armed, and kill wildlife and engage in violent conflict with the indigenous groups.  They often spread deadly diseases that the isolated peoples have no way to combat, and build roads in protected areas, damaging the ecosystem and opening up the area for further logging of other, less valuable tree species.  If the illegal logging of mahogany does not stop, the tree could become commercially extinct in the next 5 to 10 years.  Without proper controls in place to address illegal logging, other species will soon follow in mahogany’s footsteps in a destructive pattern of overexploitation and depletion.

According to Peruvian officials, more than 80 percent of mahogany is logged illegally, but they are having a difficult time regulating the trade because timber traders falsify permits and documents, manipulate the national forestry database, and misrepresent the locations and quantities of mahogany in their concessions.  The Natural Resources Defense Council, with help from local groups in Peru, is working to stop imports of illegally logged Peruvian mahogany to the United States, the world’s largest mahogany importer.  Eliminating the market for illegally imported tropical timber means that the illegal loggers will not be able to sell the timber they cut, and as their operations will no longer be profitable, they will stop destroying the forests and livelihoods of the people living near these forests.

Protected areas and indigenous reserves:

Forced Labor:

International Labor Organization Report (Spanish) "El Trabajo Forzoso en la Extraccion de la Madera en la Amazonia Peruana"

Studies:

• Project Las Piedras Final Report Socio-economic and ecological study into the impact of illegal logging on the Las Piedras river in Madre de Dios, Peru.  Adobe Acrobat, 718kb.
• Proyecto Sepahua Preliminary Report  Cultural and socio-economic investigation into the use of resources, especially wood, in and around Sepahua, Ucayali, Peru. Adobe Acrobat, 490kb. 

• Illegal Mahogany Logging in the Districts of Iñapari and Iberia, Madre de Dios, Peru: The Role of the Newman Lumber Company.  The case against the Newman Lumber Company, presented by the Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (Peruvian Environmental Defense Society) and the Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (Inter-American Association for the Defense of the Environment).  Adobe Acrobat, 938kb.