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| According to UNEP-INTERPOL report timber trade by organised crime groups is estimated to be worth between USD 30 and 100 billion |
Italy: The illegal timber
trade by organised crime groups is estimated to be worth between USD 30 and 100
billion annually according to a new joint report produced by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL.
The Rapid Response
Report, entitled ‘Green Carbon: Black Trade’, states that illegal logging now
accounts for between 15 and 30 per cent of the global legal trade and
significantly hampers the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation (REDD) initiative - one of the principal tools for stimulating
environmental change, sustainable development, job creation and reducing
emissions.
In addition to
increased organized crime involvement, the report also highlights a rise in
other crime types linked to illegal logging, including murder, corruption,
fraud and theft, with indigenous forest dwellers particularly affected.
“Funding to better manage
forests represents an enormous opportunity to not only address climate change
but to reduce rates of deforestation, improve water supplies, cut soil erosion
and generate decent green jobs in natural resource management,” said Achim
Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.
“Illegal logging can,
however, undermine this effort, robbing countries and communities of a
sustainable future, if the unlawful activities are more profitable than the
lawful ones under REDD+,” he added.
“The threat posed to
the environment by transnational organised crime requires a strong, effective
and innovative international law enforcement response to protect these natural
resources and combat the corruption and violence tied to this type of crime,
which can also affect a country’s stability and security,” said Ronald K.
Noble, Secretary General of INTERPOL.
The report highlights
30 key methods used by organized crime groups to procure and launder illegal
timber, including falsification of logging permits, bribes to obtain permits,
logging beyond legally-operated concessions and hacking official websites to
obtain or change electronic permits. Another scam involves selling timber and
wood originating from wild forests as plantation timber – often with government
subsidies for plantations.
INTERPOL and UNEP,
through the UN agency’s GRID Arendal centre in Norway, have established a
pilot-project called LEAF (Law Enforcement Assistance to Forests) funded by the
Norwegian Government agency NORAD to develop an international system to combat
organised crime in close collaboration with key partners.
To complement and
expand on these efforts, key recommendations in the report, released at the
World Forest conference in Rome, include:
- Developing a fully-fledged LEAF programme
under INTERPOL and UNEP, in close collaboration with REDD+, the
International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) and all
relevant partners;
- Increasing national investigative and
operational capacities through training on transnational environmental
crime;
- Encouraging tax fraud investigations with
a particular focus on plantations and mills.