STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
5
Organized crime plays an increasing role in deforestation and
illegal logging in all rainforest regions. This includes the illicit
trade in endangered high-value species like rosewood, logging for
timber, advanced laundering through plantation front companies
targeting pulp and paper production in Asia, and control of the
distribution of the rapidly rising charcoal trade, especially in
Africa. The global value of forest crime, mainly commercialization
of illegally logged timber, is estimated by UNEP and INTERPOL to
be between USD 30 and 100 billion annually. By comparison, the
global value of all official development assistance was reported
by OECD to reach USD 134.8 billion in 2013.With the dramatic
rise in organized forest crime, enforcement capacity will become
essential to any success.
Few measures have been taken to address the role of companies
or investment funds involved in tropical deforestation, whether
they are domestic or trans-national actors. Within some sectors,
including those representing major drivers of deforestation, the
industry itself, responding to mounting pressure from civil society
actors, consumers and public opinion, have adopted internal
policies meant to exclude deforestation and human rights violations
from their commodity chains. Such initiatives represent important
contributions towards reduced deforestation. Voluntary actions
should, however, be followed by the development of public policies
and internationally agreed rules to regulate actors who continue to
cause deforestation and degradation of the world’s few remaining
rainforests. Companies and investors genuinely interested in
adhering to a no-deforestation policy can play an important part in
combating forest crime and illegal trade in natural resources.
Lack of tenure rights contributes to deforestation in many rainforest
regions and adds to the complexity. In Indonesia, for instance,
millions of people, including 50-70 million indigenous peoples,
depend on the forest. Yet, the state has claimed authority over most
of the forest, granting licenses for forest exploitation to industrial
companies at the expense of local communities who have for
generations maintained the forest ecosystems. Last year, an historic
decision by the country’s constitutional court stated that customary
forests of indigenous peoples should no longer be classified
as state forest, paving the way for a rights-based, sustainable
rainforest management. Strengthening forest communities’ rights
to their lands, and developing forest management policies in close
cooperation with the forests’ inhabitants, should be given urgent
priority in rainforest countries. This report tells five stories from five
different rainforest countries, showing the important roles forest
people can play in forest management.
Extensive rainforest destruction in the making.
The threats against the world’s remaining rainforests are immense.
Rainforest countries, which on the one hand have stated their
political intention to reduce deforestation, on the other continue
to develop plans for major infrastructure development and the
expansion of plantations and extractive industries, all of which will
increase deforestation.
A few examples from major rainforest countries illustrate this
too well: Almost 75% of Peru’s Amazon is covered by planned or
operative oil-and-gas concessions. Indonesia intends to double
the area for oil palm, and neighbouring Papua New-Guinea faces
a comparable threat. Most of PNG’s commercially accessible
rainforests have been allocated for logging, and special licences
to convert thousands of km
2
of forests to oil palm plantations are
causing controversy in the country. In DR Congo, the moratorium on
logging concessions has for many years been under pressure, and
expected expansion of roads, mining, plantations and agriculture
will lead to a steep increase in deforestation rates. Even in Brazil,
laws protecting the rainforest and indigenous territories are under
pressure. On top of the expected continued expansion of industrial
scale agriculture, the sum total of planned infrastructure and
extractive activities in Amazon countries are so extensive that they
may impact half of the remaining Amazon rainforest (se section 3).
Unless governments and the key players responsible for forest
destruction address and reverse these plans, the future of the
world’s remaining rainforests is grim.
