Preventing illegal logging

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102479Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Criminology theories provide intervention mechanisms that could prevent or severely limit illegal logging in the forests.

  • Strategies for crime prevention include signage indicating boundaries, gates lining access roads, and checkpoint locations.

  • Transparency strategies include remote sensing, wood tracking operation standards, and independent certification.

  • Forestry law enforcement, forestry management, and local communities must be encouraged to actively combat illegal logging.

Abstract

This paper presents ideas and strategies to prevent illegal logging of timber. Globally, illegal logging is a substantial problem. While the exact amount of timber harvested illegally is unknown, the problem is estimated to cost USD$30–100 billion annually. Criminological theories suggest intervention mechanisms that could either prevent or severely limit illegal logging in the forests. Utilizing situational crime prevention techniques, certain strategies for prevention on the ground include signage indicating boundaries, gates lining access roads, and checkpoint locations. Transparency strategies include remote sensing, wood tracking operation standards and procedures, and independent certification. Additionally, forestry law enforcement, forestry management, and local communities must be encouraged to actively combat the problem of illegal logging.

Introduction

Illegal logging is estimated to cost the international community US$30–100 billion each year and amounts for 90% of timber exports in some countries (World Bank, 2019; Goncalves et al., 2012). Some estimate that there is a loss of US$558–639 million in the Amazon alone (Gutierrez-Velez and MacDicken, 2008). The loss to the environment is largely unknown while some have indicated that the problem of illegal logging directly affects survival of certain species (Carvalho Jr et al., 2020).

This paper follows the definition of illegal logging to include

  • logging activities in protected areas, the logging of protected species, logging outside concession boundaries, extraction of more than the allowable harvest, removal of oversized or undersized trees, and harvesting in areas where extraction is prohibited such as catchment areas, steep slopes, and riverbanks” (Casson and Obidzinski, 2002, p 2134).

This inclusive definition accurately focuses on the immediate problem of illegal logging to successfully target vulnerable forestry areas. Many regions worldwide share this problem (Banks et al., 2008). Specific examples include Ghana (Hansen and Treue, 2008), Cameroon (Alemagi and Kozak, 2010), Democratic Republic of Congo (Lawson, 2014), and Madasgacar (Innes, 2010) in Africa to the Bolivian, Peruvian (Finer et al., 2014) and Brazilian Amazon (Innes, 2010; Gutierrez-Velez and MacDicken, 2008) in South America to Bangladesh (Mukul et al., 2013), the Philippines (van der Ploeg et al., 2011), and Indonesia (Obidzinski and Chaudhury, 2009) in Asia.

This paper seeks to examine the problem of illegal logging in the forests. As such, the focus of this paper examines the problem on the ground and in the field before the timber leaves the country. While studies identify illegal logging as a problem, most of the literature explores the issue through broad and vague approaches that do not specifically address the immediate problem (Ravenel and Granoff, 2004; Smith et al., 2003) or high levels of technological sophistication and knowledge that will take years and significant investment to develop (Dormontt et al., 2015). Also, the probability of proper identification and accountability drops significantly as illegally and legally harvested timber is indistinguishable in international commerce (Rhodes et al., 2006). Because timber supply chains can be global, involving multiple transactions, processing steps and transport over long distances, much attention has also focused on “consumer market solutions” —boycotts, wood procurement standards, supply chain tracking to finished products. These also require considerable time to influence the many actors involved in the global timber market, do nothing to affect timber already en route to such markets, and could impose significant costs on nations and enterprises already providing legitimate supplies (Dlamini and Montouroy, 2017; Prestemon, 2015; White, 2018). Moreover, some scholars propose general legislative and international standard changes which have been shown to play an indirect role towards the necessary changes to combating illegal logging that may or may not be effective (Chatham House, 2015; Gulbrandsen and Humphreys, 2006; Innes, 2010; Resosudarmo and Yusuf, 2006). All of these dynamics are important to consider when addressing illegal logging, however, focusing on such components of the timber industry neglect opportunities to address some of the more proximate features of the settings in which illegal logging can flourish.

Unlike most other commodities entering legitimate international commerce, ownership claim weaknesses lead to a near total lack of even the most rudimentary of industrial security practices (Larson et al., 2013). In combination with the widely recognized need for general strengthening of the technical, environmental and social practices of industrial forestry around the world, incorporation of defensive measures such as any prudent owner of a valuable asset would employ should be a priority (Nayer, 2011). Therefore, this paper seeks to address immediate measures and certain recommendations which allow for direct solutions to prevent illegal logging and hopefully, lead to further improvements regarding the problem of illegal logging. While most of these techniques have already been introduced throughout scholarly literature and practice, this paper seeks to reorient such approaches through the lens of crime prevention (van Solinge et al., 2016). This reorientation of perspective should then allow for the prioritization of certain intervention techniques that will significantly decrease the illegal trading of timber.

Section snippets

Introduction of criminological techniques to prevent illegal logging

Situational crime prevention is a criminological technique to address crime with the intention of preventing such activity. Situational crime prevention (SCP) stems from rational choice theory in which an offender is rationally deciding that a criminal act will be advantageous rather than disadvantageous as risks to commit the crime remain low while the rewards are high, from the offender's perspective. Therefore, increasing the risks and effort to commit crime will impact the offender's

The physical and institutional setting for illegal logging

Forests around the world present a near infinite variety of environments and social circumstances. Even the developing country forests most susceptible to criminal exploitation are incredibly varied, ranging from the well-stocked moist tropical forests of the Amazon, southeast Asia, and Equatorial Africa, to the sparsely stocked drier forests of other parts of Africa, the South Asian sub-continent, and the temperate and Boreal forests of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Nevertheless,

Conclusion

This paper suggests that researchers, policy makers, resource managers, and other relevant stakeholders should place greater reliance on situational crime prevention. While recognizing the significance of the many and varied causes of illegal logging, many of which are deeply rooted in challenging political economies and are highly resistant to change, the many elements of the local context that contribute to and enable illegal logging are more amenable to direct influence. From the extraction

Funding source

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Declaration of Competing Interest

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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