Green Carbon, Black Trade

EXPORT AND TRADE IN ILLEGAL LOGS

A key challenge in combating the global illegal wood trade is the fact that illegal wood crosses borders as a laundered “legal” product. Transnational crime, or the transnational trade in laundered products, provides a particular law enforcement challenge as national law enforcement has no international jurisdiction unless through specific operations or special agreements.

Furthermore, domestic law enforcement efforts in a region or locality may simply result in companies closing down lo- cal operations and increasing illegal logging elsewhere in the country or abroad. Crack-downs on illegal logging in Indonesia in the mid-2000s resulted in increased logging in other parts of the country, a shift towards more advanced laundering and cover operations, and an increase in demand of timber prod- ucts from other countries, such as the Central Africa region.

Indeed, Chinese companies increased imports of timber from the greater Congo Basin and Central African region substan- tially during the 2000s (UNEP-INTERPOL 2011; Hiemstra van der Horst 2011). China is probably the largest importer of wood products with illegal origin. Other primary importers of illegal logs or wood products are Japan, the EU and the US.

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