11 April 2008 - Amsterdam,
International — The Brazilian environmental
agency seems to have finally woken up to
the problem of illegally
logged Amazonian timber leaving their shores.
The Brazilian environmental
agency seems to have finally woken up to
the problem of illegally logged Amazonian
timber leaving their shores.
Last week, inspectors
from IBAMA (the agency with responsibility
for regulating the timber industry), carried
out an impromptu check of timber cargo ships
at the Brazilian Port of Santarem.
Worryingly, Brazilian
customs had already given the green light
and the ship was preparing to leave. That
is until IBAMA officials discovered that
documents for the cargo on the BSLE Express
contained false information about the species
of timber onboard. This is just one of the
ways timber companies try to ‘legalise’
timber that has been illegally logged or
processed.
The companies connected
with the shipment were slapped with fines
totaling over 100,000 Euros.
It’s the first time
in two years that the Brazilian authorities
have taken this sort of action, and it follows
Greenpeace’s recent blockade at the French
port of Caen
You might remember that
a few weeks ago we stopped the cargo ship,
the Galina III, from entering that port.
The ship was carrying timber that had come
from companies involved in illegal operations
in the Amazon, and which was to be sold
in Europe.
Even though Europe imports
a huge amount of timber from the Amazon
no one is required to check whether it comes
from companies involved in illegal activities.
We wanted to highlight this. The EU is always
saying that it is leading the world in the
fight against climate change, yet here they
are inadvertently fuelling deforestation
in the Amazon by allowing illegally logged
timber to be sold in Europe.
This irony wasn’t lost
on the French government. It issued a statement
calling on the European Commission to tighten
up the law so that all timber sold in the
Europe comes from legal sources and well
managed forests. The French Environment
Minister, Jean-Louis Borloo also got in
touch with his Brazilian counterpart to
work out what else could be done to tackle
the problem.
Why is the French government
so worried? Because it knows that unless
deforestation in regions like the Amazon
is stopped we will have little hope of preventing
the worst effects of climate change. Tropical
deforestation is responsible for about one-fifth
of global greenhouse gas emissions - more
than the world’s entire transport sector.
And thanks to companies
slashing and burning the rainforest in order
to make a quick profit, the rate of deforestation
and resulting greenhouse gas emissions,
are actually increasing. Brazil is now the
fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases,
behind the US, China and Indonesia.
Rogue companies operating
illegally are driving much of this devastation.
Greenpeace’s report – ‘A Future for Forests’
estimates that up to 80 percent of the timber
from the Amazon rainforest is illegally
logged. And, it isn’t just the environmental
impact of these companies’ activities that
is worrying. Illegal logging encourages
land grabbing by farmers and speculators,
and fuels corruption and violence.
That’s why we need to
see more of the same from IBAMA alongside
action by the EU to tighten up checks on
timber imports. The prospect of more stringent
EU regulation is looking promising. In response
to Greenpeace’s blockade in Caen, the President
Sarkozy said he would look at what could
be done when France takes over the EU Presidency
this Summer.
