Brazil: Illegal logging is on the rise in the Amazon

Illegal logging has increased by 19% in one year in the Brazilian Amazon, according to a report published Wednesday, as the largest tropical forest on the planet is currently affected by the worst fires in two decades.

An area of ​​forest equivalent to 350 football fields was illegally deforested every day on average from August 2022 to July 2023, according to the Timber Exploitation Monitoring system (Simex).

Illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon reached 126,000 hectares, compared to 106,000 in the previous twelve months. The illegally deforested area represents 35% of the total logging in the region.

Identifiable responsible persons

“This increase in illegal logging causes environmental damage, threatens traditional peoples and weakens the (legal) timber sector, while giving Brazil a bad image on the international market,” says Dalton Cardoso, of the NGO Imazon , which manages Simex and other surveillance systems.

This researcher called on the Brazilian government to strengthen controls so that logging is sustainable and creates employment and tax revenue, while remaining legal. According to the report, 71% of illegal logging took place on private land, namely 650 farms, 20 of which are responsible for a third of illegal deforestation.

This means that those responsible are identifiable in public records, and are subject to sanctions. Furthermore, 16% of illegal logging took place in indigenous reserves, endangering the indigenous people who live there.

Controversial report

This report is published a week after the announcement of the one-year postponement of the European anti-deforestation law. This new regulation to protect forests was to prohibit from the end of 2024 the marketing in the EU of a series of products, including wood, if they come from deforestation.

Brazil is one of the countries that put pressure on the European Commission to demand this postponement, which was widely criticized by environmental NGOs.

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AFP

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