Illegal logging: An organized crime that is destroying Latin American forests

http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=7480
Date Written:  2018-03-14
Publisher:  Latinamerica Press
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23240

Illegal timber trafficking is a complex type or ogranized crime that involves other crimes such as tax evasion, labor exploitation, and land invasion. Countries in Latin America need to work together to fight this crime.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Illegal wood trafficking is the most profitable crime against natural resources and the world's third most important crime, according to a report titled "Transnational crime and the developing world," published in March 2017 by Global Financial Integrity, a US-based organization that investigates illicit financial flows.

According to Insight Crime, a research center on organized crime, most illegal timber logging occurs in the Amazon rainforest. Illegal timber logging, illegal mining and drug trafficking are the most investigated crimes in Latin America.

Latin American forests are the second most vulnerable in the world to illegal timber logging, after Asian forests, says UNEP. In 2014 alone, illegal timber exports from South America - for both raw wood and sawn timber - totaled an average of US$387 million, according to the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).

Subject Headings

• Logging