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Illegal Logging

Briefing Paper
Duncan Brack, March 2005

Download Paper here

Illegal logging and the international trade in illegally logged timber is a major problem for many timber-producing countries in the developing world.

It causes environmental damage, costs governments billions of dollars in lost revenue, promotes corruption, undermines the rule of law and good governance and funds armed conflict. It retards sustainable development in some of the poorest countries of the world.

Consumer countries contribute to these problems by importing timber and wood products without ensuring that they are legally sourced. In recent years, however, producer and consumer countries alike have paid increasing attention to illegal logging, with many of their activities being triggered by the G8 Action Programme on Forests of 1998-2002. The main initiatives include:

• A series of discussions and declarations, including the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) conferences in East Asia, Africa and (in 2005) Europe and North Asia.
• Bilateral agreements between individual consumer and producer countries to improve enforcement and keep illegal products out of international trade.
• Measures to exclude illegal timber from international markets - mainly the EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which centres on a licensing system for legal timber exported from partner countries.
• The use of government procurement policy to ensure that only legal (and sustainable) timber products are bought by government purchasers.
• Efforts to ensure that investments in the timber and related industries, whether channelled through private banks or public agencies, do not contribute to illegal activity.
• Assistance with improved law enforcement in producer countries, and the establishment of systems to track the movement of legal products.
• Industry initiatives to work with suppliers to source legal timber.

Whether these activities will be enough to control illegal activities and stem the trade in illegal timber and timber products, however, remains to be seen.