Logging in the Amazon: fraud involves several high-value trees species, study finds

Study published by Science Advances confirms previous Greenpeace investigation. Brazil urgently needs a system of licensing and control of the timber production chain

São Paulo, Brazil – Last March, a Greenpeace Brazil investigation revealed that a weak licensing system, along with indiscriminate and illegal logging of the Ipe tree is causing serious damage to the Amazon. Now, a study published today in the journal Science Advances points out that the problem in the licensing system of forest management plans in Brazil involves several trees species of high-value.

The study “Fake legal logging in the Brazilian Amazon” analyzed discrepancies between estimated timber volumes of the national forest inventory in Brazil and volumes of logging permits as an indicator of potential fraud in the timber industry in the eastern Amazon.

The researchers found a strong overestimation bias of high-value timber species volumes in logging permits. Field assessments confirmed fraud for the most valuable species and complementary strategies to generate a “surplus” of licensed timber that can be used to legalize the timber coming from illegal logging.

“We found that high-value species volumes exceeded the 90% percentile Amazon-wide inventory values in a larger proportion of logging permits than did volumes for less desirable timber species”, says Edson Vidal one of authors of the study and a professor at the University of São Paulo.

“This study confirms our previous investigation and complements to demonstrate that the pattern for fraud is very similar to other high-value timber. Brazil urgently needs a system of licensing and control of the timber production chain that is integrated, transparent, accessible and that automatically blocks the main frauds”, explains Romulo Batista, Greenpeace Brazil’s Amazon campaigner.

Greenpeace is calling on the Brazilian government and the authorities of timber-producing Amazon states to review all forest management plans and suspend all of those that display evidence of fraud in their forest inventories; to implement a transparent, centralised system, integrated with state forestry licensing systems, and to monitor the chain of custody, recording the identities of the companies that buy and sell timber at a national level, automatically rejecting to transport documents showing evidence of the most common forms of fraud.

Media:
Photos and Videos of Greenpeace investigation:
https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MZIFJX1PW4K

Press Contact:
Camila Rossi
Communication Officer, [email protected], + 55 11 9 7252-6867 / +55 11 9 8152-8476

Authors contacts:

Pedro Brancalion
[email protected]

Edson Vidal
[email protected]