The World Humanitarian News recently reported that as much as fifty to ninety percent of all illegal logging done in Africa, Asia, and the Amazonian basin is the responsibility of organized crime groups. It is estimated that illegal logging is a thirty to one hundred billion dollars per year business. This amazingly accounts for around thirty percent of the world’s timber trade. These logs are harvested from countries such as Indonesia and Brazil, and are then shipped to the major importing countries. Major importers of illegal timber are the US, Japan, and China. Illegal logging is on the rise due in part to weak environmental laws, corruption, and criminal groups adopting more advanced technologies such as getting into government websites and obtaining permits. The criminal groups also shift activity between countries around the world in order to avoid detection. Not only are the forest and wildlife being harmed, the people that live in these regions are experiencing extreme violence and threats of violence. Protectors of park boundaries are also in grave danger, as can be seen by two hundred men in Congo being killed in the past ten years trying to do so. Deforestation is also responsible for around seventeen percent of man-made emissions, which is also a large problem. Because the demand for wood is growing and the profits are high and the risks are low for illegal loggers, the process is continually growing and becoming harder to combat. While there is a law enforcement program, budgeted at thirty million dollars each year, responsible for reducing these crimes, their efforts could never begin to diminish the illegal logging trade.
This article was very informative and easy to read. Many facts and statistics on illegal logging were presented. The article mentioned the violence that people who live in these regions face, but it did not go in to any detail. I believe that this is a very important aspect of illegal logging, and therefore should have been more highlighted. The ineffectiveness of law enforcement was also mentioned, but was not explained. In my opinion, more details on exactly why it is ineffective and what can be done to help should have been given. Overall, this article was very interesting and providing great information concerning illegal logging and the global sensation that it is.
9/27/12 12:02 PM
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