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TEN WAYS TO
CONDUCT ILLEGAL
LOGGING
Many protected areas include an abundance of rare wood spe-
cies in high demand for panels, floors and furniture. They may
also hold some of the last remaining concentrations of high-
density wood for charcoal.
A 2007 UNEP-UNESCO report documented illegal logging
in 37 of 41 protected areas in Indonesia, including large-scale
deforestation of a UNESCO World Heritage site and an endan-
gered orangutan habitat (UNEP-UNESCO 2007). Loggers, with
armed guards, moved into parks and cut down the forests with
unarmed rangers facing lethal risk, bribes or simply lack of re-
sources to enforce the park boundaries (UNEP-UNESCO 2007).
Other examples include cutting wood for charcoal in endangered
mountain gorilla habitat in Eastern Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), where militias drive villagers into refugee camps,
then profit from cutting and producing charcoal in the Virun-
gas national parks and selling the high-demand charcoal to the
camps (UNEP-INTERPOL 2010). Rangers in Virungas have been
effective in protecting the gorilla population and saving it from
extinction, and in implementing vehicle checkpoints and destroy-
ing kilns for charcoal production, but at a great costs and high
risks. More than 200 rangers have been killed in the last decade
defending the park boundaries against a charcoal trade estimated
at over US$28 million annually, and another US$4 million on
road taxes on charcoal alone (UNEP-INTERPOL 2010).
Other examples include driving out and killing indigenous peo-
ples in reserves in the Amazon, Greater Congo Basin and South-
east Asia, where outspoken leaders have been assassinated.
LOGGING IN PROTECTED
AREAS
#1
Lake
Edward
Lake Kivu
Virunga
National Park
Volcanoes
National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla
National Park
Bwindi
Impenetrable
National Park
Biundu
Goma
Kingi
Kriolirwe
Burungu
Kibati
Kibumba
Rutshuru
RWANDA
DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC
OF THE CONGO
UGANDA
Sources: UNSC, S/2008/773; Central
African Regional Program for the
Environment, 2007; ICCN.
National Park
Illegally deforested area
between 2003 and 2006
Refugee camp
Main charcoal trade
and destinations
Patrol checkpoint
Illegal charcoal trade
5 Km 0