Follow The Money To Catch Illegal Loggers: World Bank

Deborah Zabarenko PlanetArk 22 Mar 12;

The same follow-the-money approach used to catch drug kingpins and human traffickers could be used to track down the big operators behind large-scale illegal logging, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

Around the world, illegal loggers cut down an area of forest the size of a football field every two seconds, generating criminal proceeds of between $10 billion and $15 billion annually, the Bank said in a report,

"You have a crime, it's generating proceeds, and one way to enlarge your toolkit is to follow the money," said Jean Pesne, manager of the Bank's Financial Market Integrity unit, which released the report, "Justice for Forests."

Deforestation of protected land may be done to harvest old-growth trees and exotic woods or to clear land for large-scale agriculture or cattle grazing. But it can lead to soil erosion and cuts down on trees' ability to lock up climate-warming carbon dioxide.

The report, which does not differentiate between the reasons for tree-cutting, advocates the use of financial tools more familiar in the pursuit of organized criminals to combat illegal deforestation.

The full range of crime-fighting tools should be used to catch illegal logging organizations, rather than the low-level operators who cut down the trees. These tools include electronic surveillance, undercover operations and witness protection, according to the report.

Preventive measures have been tried to curb illegal logging, but have been "without significant impact," the report said.

"Use money as both intelligence and evidence," Pesne said by telephone. "What are these criminal organizations, how are they structured, and what are the intermediaries who are interfering with their work? ...

"These are sophisticated tools that are better suited to go after the big fish."

Any intermediaries would have to be paid at some point, making them the beneficiaries of a crime, and law enforcement officials could follow the flow of dirty money from the criminal organization to corrupt officials, Pesne said.

Most countries where illegal logging takes place have laws in place to track these funds, but making them work requires cooperation from the private sector, especially financial institutions obligated to report suspicious transactions, the report said.

These techniques would probably be most effective in more sophisticated countries with a strong judiciary and the ability to train financial investigators, Pesne said.

Indonesia and Brazil, both countries with substantial illegal logging, have started moving to probe the big players in those criminal enterprises, he said.

In Africa, Pesne said, countries such as Cameroon, Congo, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo have worked to prevent illegal logging but they could begin to use the follow-the-money techniques.

(Editing by Paul Simao)

Illegal logging makes billions for gangs, report says
Richard Black BBC News 21 Mar 12;

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Illegal logging generates $10-15bn (£7.5-11bn) around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank.

Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organised crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials.

Countries affected include Indonesia, Madagascar and several in West Africa.

The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a major impact in some nations, and urges others to do the same.

It also recommends that aid donors should fund programmes that strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and legal authorities to tackle the illegal timber trade.

"We need to fight organised crime in illegal logging the way we go after gangsters selling drugs or racketeering," said Jean Pesme, manager of the World Bank Financial Market Integrity team.

The analysts calculate that an area of forest the size of a soccer pitch is illegally logged every second.
Chainsaws of supply

The report picks out a number of ways in which illegal timber is managed in a similar way to other prohibited commodities such as drugs.

But currently, it says, "most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored.

"All too often, investigations - in the rare event that they do take place - are amateurish and inconclusive, and the few cases taken to court tend to be of trivial significance, prosecuting people whose involvement in crime is due to poverty and exploitation."

This last comment highlights the very differing scales of illegal logging, which encompasses everything from mechanised teams to individual villagers taking wood for fuel.

However, it says, a number of countries including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are getting tougher, and starting to bring prosecutions higher up the criminal food chain.

Western countries, consumers and businesses can also play a significant role in cleaning up forestry, the report says.

Three years ago the US amended the Lacey Act, and now companies operating in the US are obliged to prove that their wood comes from legal sources.

A number of businesses are being investigated under the amendment, notably the iconic Gibson guitar company.

The EU has introduced similar legislation, and a growing number of companies will only buy wood that is demonstrably legal and sustainably harvested.

In 2010, a report from the London-based Chatham House think-tank concluded that these and other measures had reduced illegal logging by about a quarter over the preceding eight years.

It urged Japan, as a major timber consumer, to introduce its own legislation; and as Chinese consumption grows, campaigners are increasingly turning their attention there.

Two years ago the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) discovered that beds made of illegally obtained Madagascan wood were selling for up to $1m in Beijing.