Lay of the Land

Illegal Logging in Peru Takes a Deadly Turn

Often we think of illegal logging as a threat to ecosystems and wildlife. However, this week provided a tragic reminder that illegal logging harms not only harms plants and animals, it also threatens people and communities around the globe. In a remote region near Peru’s border with Brazil, a prominent activist, Edwin Chota, was shot and killed, along with three community leaders. Suspected in the killings were illegal loggers, who have long tried to extract tropical hardwoods in nearby forests.

A Ka’apor Indian watches a group depart on a jungle expedition. Lunae Parracho/Reuters

Unfortunately, these slayings are not an isolated occurrence. According to a recent report by Global Witness, more than 900 people were killed from 2002 to 2013 while trying to protect the environment and land rights. While this violence has spread around the globe, Latin America has been particularly impacted, with Brazil accounting for nearly 450 of these cases.

Fighting Illegal Logging with Your Cell Phone

Courtesy of Rainforest Connection 

Illegal logging accounts for up to 30 percent of all timber traded worldwide, harming communities, undercutting American jobs, and increasing carbon pollution. With criminal operations moving deep into remote areas of forest, fighting back may seem impossible. However, a new startup is proving that it’s possible to fight illegal logging with used cell phones. Rainforest Connection, based in California, has partnered with the Zoological Society of London to develop a real-time monitoring system that will be deployed in vulnerable African forests.

So how does the monitoring system work? The company, Rainforest Connection, recycles used Android cell phones, then powers them with a unique solar array that can generate power in the shade - key to operating in the understory of a rainforest. The phones are then placed throughout a forest, generally high in trees to avoid detection, where they function as listening devices. Each device detects the sounds of chainsaws up to two-thirds of a mile away and relays the data to Rainforest Connection’s online system, which is able to pinpoint the location of the sound. Once the location is identified, an alert is sent to local officials responsible for policing illegal logging, allowing them to respond immediately.

Trading Human Rights for Timber

 

Siakor gives his account of illegal logging in DC.

Earlier this month, environmental activists from Liberia and Peru came to the U.S. to share first-hand accounts of illegal logging, the destruction it brings to their communities and forests, and what we can do to bring the harmful practice to a halt.

Speaking at a series of lectures in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, including Senate and House briefings on Capitol Hill, Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor of Liberia and Julia Urrunaga of Peru highlighted the Lacey Act, a historic piece of U.S. legislation and the most effective tool we have to stop illegal logging and associated trade.

 

Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor

Siakor is a local hero and a global award-winning figure. In 2006, he received a Goldman Prize, the world’s largest prize honoring environmental activists, after risking his life to expose that Liberian
President Charles Taylor used proceeds from illegal logging to fund civil war. As founder of the Sustainable Development Institute in Liberia, he still works to rally grassroots activists to empower communities and expose corrupt environmental practices.

Julia Urrunaga, Peru Director for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), also works to bring forest crime to the light of day. In Peru, she helps to give voice to locals and promote policies that help eliminate illegally sourced timber and forest products from global markets. After years of investigation, Urrunaga and EIA released “The Laundering Machine,” a report uncovering illegal logging and timber laundering throughout the Peruvian Amazon.

Across the world, criminals are taking advantage of otherwise unprotected forests with illegal logging, engaging in illicit activities along the way. The illegal logging process begins when companies and crime syndicates cut trees without authorization, launder them with counterfeit or mismatched permits, and send them to unsafe sawmills. Eventually, the timber or wood products are then shipped, with none the wiser as to where it came from or what was sacrificed to make your coffee table. 

The Lacey Act - Leading the Fight Against Illegal Logging

A Siberian tiger cub.

From furniture to paper and pencils, wood products are a part of our everyday lives. Though wood products are now more than ever coming from sustainable sources, up to 30 percent of wood traded internationally has been harvested illegally. Not only does illegal logging damage the environment, it disrupts our climate, hurts communities, and threatens American jobs.

Thankfully, with a landmark law called the Lacey Act, the United States is helping lead the fight against illegal logging. To get a snapshot of the costs of illegal logging and how you can help, take a look at our new webpage.

Deforestation, which is driven in part by illegal logging, is one of the largest sources of climate-disrupting pollution. Each year deforestation accounts for roughly 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, around 17 percent of global climate-disrupting pollution. Further, illegal logging threatens valuable habitat for endangered animals and plants. A great report from the Environmental Investigation Agency details how illegal logging in the Russian Far East, allegedly to supply the flooring giant Lumber Liquidators, is threatening the last 450 Siberian tigers in the wild.

Illegal logging also threatens communities that live in and around forests. The illegal harvesting and removal of timber deprives countries of roughly $15 billion a year in tax revenue. Instead of funding public improvements that benefit communities, revenue from illegal logging funds underground crime.

Trade in illegally harvested timber threatens American jobs by driving down the price of wood products. Cheaper wood might sound good, but it actually places a huge burden on American companies. In fact, it’s estimated that lower prices due to the trade of illegally harvested wood products ends up costing U.S. companies $1 billion annually.

Thankfully, the United States has taken the lead in fighting the trade of illegally harvested wood. In 2008, the U.S. Congress amended the Lacey Act to ban the import of illegally harvested wood. Now, companies that import wood products must identify the species and origin of their products. Violators of the law face fines and jail time. Led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal government has opened investigations into companies that are alleged to knowingly import illegally harvested timber.

Since its amendment, the Lacey Act has shown a strong track record of requiring companies to identify the source of imported wood, both leading to more sustainable supply chains and helping decrease illegal logging. Currently, opponents of the Lacey Act are trying to weaken this landmark law. To help ensure the U.S. continues to lead in the fight against illegal logging and climate disruption, tell the President and Congress to fully enforce the Lacey Act!

--Jesse Prentice-Dunn, Representative, Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program