Green Carbon, Black Trade

#10

WIDENING ROAD CORRIDORS, MINING OR OTHER FELLING

Political economic networks often provide forceful driv- ers for small-scale illegal logging and timber trade. Many of these networks bring together not only powerful actors from the private sector but also government officials, in- cluding the very officials holding the responsibility to en- force logging bans, harvest regulations, and restrictions on timber trade. The operations of these networks are described in recent research on small-scale illegal log- ging in Albania, Romania and Vietnam. The research demonstrates how artisanal loggers, small traders, wood processors and government officials find ways to circum- vent national laws and forest regulations. It also reveals that the villagers living near affected forests, the media and wider society often react by calling for the applica- tion of national law and demand strict law enforcement. Nevertheless, research shows that a narrow law enforce- ment approach may easily generate counter-productive results in the case of small-scale logging. Logging bans and tighter law enforcement may actually play into the hands of the actors driving illegal logging. The reason is that a narrow enforcement approach may strengthen the position of corrupt local officials by expanding their pow- ers instead of reining in their practices. A mayor in Roma- nia, for example, wielded his legal and extra-legal powers to circumvent a ban on logging in an adjacent national park in favour of his wife’s company (Dorondel 2009). A district forest service in Albania looked away from illegal logging in return for bribes, even though it had stopped issuing logging quotas entirely (Stahl 2010). And forest rangers in Vietnam abused their enforcement powers to facilitate illegal timber trade, deriving personal profits from it (Sikor and To 2011). None of these local actors would terminate their illegal practices unless national law-makers find ways to strengthen their accountability to their constituents, as well as to national authorities. Illegal logging and political economic networks

Another very common method of illegal logging is to construct roads in protected areas or other areas for mining operations or other purposes. Forests are cut in wide corridors along the road, with the road often targeting high-valuable timber along its way. Such an incident was observed in 2008 in Sumatra, In- donesia, where objections from a critical local mayor concerned about tourism impacts and flood risks from the illegal logging resulted in a price being put on his head by the local timber mafia (UNEP 2011).

Another common method of illegal logging is to construct roads that often target high- valuable timber along its way.

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