Manaus, Brazil - Information supplied by Greenpeace to the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA) led officials to fine two loggers the equivalent of US$200,000 for illegal logging. After an unannounced inspection over the holiday weekend, IBAMA officials seized three rafts containing over 1,000 illegal logs (approximately 2,100 cubic metres) on the Amazon River. Two tugboats were also seized.

According to IBAMA, the softwoods in the rafts, primarily samauma and virola logs, were destined for the Manaus based, Chinese owned, plywood factory Compensa. A smaller volume of hardwood was being transported to two locally owned companies. "The result of this investigation confirms that illegal logging in the Amazon continues to be the rule, and not the exception," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner.

Greenpeace has undertaken an ongoing investigation to document and expose illegal cutting and transport of timber in different areas of the Amazon since the beginning of the year. The data on the origin of the logs, location of rafts, volume, species, owners and intermediaries is cross checked against official data from IBAMA. In mid-February, early in the investigation, two tugboats were spotted by the Greenpeace team on the Tapaua River, some 600 kilometres from Manaus. The team regularly monitored their collection of logs and the construction of the rafts with the aid of an airplane, GPS (Global positioning systems) and digital cameras. The information gathered was passed to IBAMA as soon as the evidence was conclusive.

The seized logs will be donated to low-income housing projects in Amazonas State.

Both Compensa and one of the loggers, Raimundo Santos, have previous records for dealing in illegal timber. Compensa was fined twice in 1999 for buying 7,232 cubic metres of illegal logs, and Santos received four fines in 1997 alone.

"The logging industry's long standing and customary practice of ignoring the law, and of ignoring the fragility of the ecosystem itself, has virtually legitimised a pattern of destruction in the Amazon," said Adario. "When this is coupled with the government's inability to enforce the law, the final result can only be the destruction, with impunity, of this last great tropical rainforest."

According to Adario, a shortage of money for salaries and equipment allows IBAMA to only capture a fraction of the illegal timber in the Amazon. One reason for this, according to data from the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies (INESC), is that of the US$32 million of federal funds allocated for forest protection in Brazil in 2000, only US$19 million was actually spent on forest protection.

Besides investigating and exposing illegal logging operations, Greenpeace is also committed to working with the industry. A recent Greenpeace proposal to Federal Prosecutor's Office in Amazonas State put forward a comprehensive plan to regulate the sector. Under the proposal, the industry would have four years to get their operations up to the standards defined by the Forest Stewardship Council(1) for logging in an environmentally, socially and economically viable manner. The plywood companies and sawmills would have 12 months to legalise their contracts with loggers and suppliers, and would be obliged to help them to comply with current legislation.

NOTE:
1. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the only international certification system to give consumers a label providing a verifiable guarantee that wood products are coming from ecologically well managed forests.

For more information about Greenpeace's ancient forests campaign, email: guestforest@ams.greenpeace.org