{"id":2769,"date":"2022-04-25T10:13:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T10:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatetransform.com\/?p=2769"},"modified":"2022-06-17T07:13:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T07:13:58","slug":"what-is-illegal-deforestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatetransform.com\/what-is-illegal-deforestation\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Illegal Deforestation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
Forests play a crucial role for many countries around the world in terms of environmental impact, food security and social wellbeing. The World Forestry Congress held in Durban in 2015 highlights their importance, as well as the UN\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> Sustainable Development Goals\u2014respectively, \u201cend hunger, achieve food security \u2026 and promote sustainable agriculture\u201d and \u201cprotect \u2026 terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, \u2026 and halt biodiversity loss\u201d. Stopping deforestation is one of the main aims in this regard<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/span> However, to this day many land-use protection policies face challenges to their enforcement. One of the causes for this is the staggering part of illegal deforestation in the total global deforestation.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Half of global deforestation is due to commercial agriculture<\/a>: in other words, through logging and farming<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/span> This is different to some forest fires where in Australia, for instance, they are due to arson rather than for commercial logging purposes<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The percentage for commercial agriculture is higher in tropical countries: there, it accounted for 71% between 2000 and 2012<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. <\/span>Of that 71%, as much as half was due to illegal deforestation<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Additionally, a big percentage of the illegal deforestation is intended for exportation. In short, that means the people buying illegal timber or wood products either do not have information about their supply chain, or do not care much whether their products are legal or not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Forest areas are cut down for pulp, plantation wood and timber trade as well as for agricultural commodities such as soy, palm oil and beef. A 2015 study showed that more than 30% of the wood supplied for Indonesia\u2019s Industrial Forestry sector was illegal wood. It likely came from trees unsustainably harvested during the clear-cutting of forests for palm oil plantations<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Illegal logging<\/a> is a complex issue that involves not only sellers, but also governments and timber buyers, whether they be local or international<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. <\/span>Indeed, in this case, if there was no demand of wood to illegal loggers, they would not be harvesting as much timber.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Deforestation happens on the largest scale in countries which have the most forest cover: that is, in tropical rainforests. Many countries in this geographical area lack good governance and clear policies in terms of land-use: the regulations are often complex, contradictory, and implemented with great difficulty<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In some cases, forestry companies have also had a hard time respecting them. The three most deforested countries, which as a result also have the highest part of illegal deforestation, are the following:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This means that a major part of the palm oil that other countries import from South-East Asia is sourced illegally\u2014according to these numbers, as much as 39% of the Malaysian palm oil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe importance of illegal deforestation<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why and where is there illegal deforestation?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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