Amazon Updates
31 October 2001
Amazon Mahogany Criminals Busted - · US $7 million of
'green gold' seized
 Para
State, Brazil: The growing battle against the mahogany criminals
in the Brazilian Amazon reached flash point yesterday as an unprecedented
joint operation, between the federal police, government officials,
and Greenpeace, raided a sawmill, bringing to an end a five-day
mission which uncovered a total of 7,165 cubic metres of illegal
mahogany worth almost US$7 million on the international market.
The sawmill, empty but surrounded by logs carefully hidden in
the bush, would have been the clearing point for the illegal mahogany
found in the previous days.
Three helicopters, two planes, five trucks, 16 officials from
the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA and police, accompanied
by 11 Greenpeace activists, yesterday converged on the sawmill
outside the township of Uruara, the frontline of illegal logging
in the Amazon.
The sawmill is owned, according to IBAMA, by a frontman for Osmar
Ferreira, one of the mahogany kings identified in a recent Greenpeace
investigation as laundering illegal mahogany for export to the
US and Europe.
 The
investigation team visited four locations in the Middle Land in
the Brazilian Amazon. Behind a dam built by loggers on the Carajari
River, 1,674 cubic metres of illegal mahongany were found. These
logs were located inside public lands where logging is strictly
prohibited. Yesterday, IBAMA seized the largest haul of logs in
the whole operation - 5,385 cubic metres - which was located at
the Juvilandia farm, by the Iriri River. Two gunmen were also
arrested by the police in the area during the operation.
The seizures follow several recent Greenpeace exposes of the mahogany
corruption trail, which preceded a death threat to Greenpeace
Amazon campaign co-ordinator, Paulo Adario, and an announcement
a week ago by the Brazilian government suspending all logging,
transport and trade of Brazilian mahogany until it completes an
investigation into the industry.
High quality mahogany is only found in pristine areas of rainforest,
and so the illegal mahogany trade is directly responsible for
the destruction of these areas as it leaves behind a network of
roads and trails that other loggers can use to access the remaining
forest.
"The illegal mahogany industry has for years been driving
the destruction of the Amazon. After witnessing the rampant destruction
of this rainforest firsthand, it is clear to us that the only
course of action left to the Brazilian government is to throw
these loggers in jail and stop this industry until it can be brought
under control," said Adario.
Only a month ago, Greenpeace released photographs and video images
from a recent aerial reconnaissance clearly showing sophisticated
logging operations in lands belonging to the Amazon's Kayapó
Indians, an area where logging is strictly prohibited. Three days
ago, another flight over the area revealed that a large raft of
illegal mahogany logs was ready to be transported downstream.
IBAMA cannot investigate inside Indian lands without the support
of FUNAI, the Brazilian Indian Agency, but unfortunately FUNAI
did not take part in the operation.
A recent Greenpeace report, Partners in Mahogany Crime, found
that the mahogany trade is driving the destruction of the Brazilian
Amazon rainforest and is run by a corrupt industry which is undermining
traditional cultures, and leading the illegal destruction of the
world's most biologically diverse ancient forest.
The report details these illegal acts and the two mahogany kings,
Moisés Carvalho Pereira and Osmar Alves Ferreira, who control
most of the trade. According to information obtained from workers,
the wood seized at the Juvilandia farm belongs to Osmar Ferreira.
Much of the mahogany paperwork is falsified and the wood is then
exported by these companies to international markets, predominantly
to the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
Just four importers, DLH Nordisk, Aljoma Lumber, J Gibson McIlvain
Co Ltd and Intercontinental Hardwoods Inc accounted for more than
two-thirds of the mahogany export trade in one year from Moisés
and Ferreira. This mahogany is used largely in luxury goods such
as yachts, high-class furniture, musical instruments and coffins.
The exposure of this scandal is part of Greenpeace's global campaign
for the protection of the world's last ancient forests. Approximately
80 percent of the original global forests have already been destroyed.
Greenpeace is calling on world governments to take immediate steps
to halt forest destruction by: placing a global moratorium on
logging and other industrial activities in all large areas of
ancient forests; adopting measures to ensure that timber is produced
and traded in an ecologically, socially, and legally responsible
way; establishing a network of protected areas and; creating a
global ancient forest fund of US $15 billion annually to fund
these measures.
Read Rebeca's first and second
updates from the expedition to catch illegal loggers.
Related stories:
24
October - Brazilian mahogany mafia exposed and the government
suspends all mahogany logging and transport
26
September - Illegal mahogany logging in Amazon exposed
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