Study: Illegal logging widespread in Peru

A 14-year-old policy to encourage sustainable logging in Peru'sAmazonian forest has unwittingly led to large-scale plundering, a study saidThursday.In a paper published in Scientific Reports, researchers said illegal logging was a"plague" on the Amazon watershed -- a haven of biodiversity and precious hardwoodspecies such as mahogany and cedar."Much of the timber coming out of the Peruvian Amazon is sourced outside ofauthorised concession areas," the researchers wrote.A team led by Matt Finer of the Center for International Environmental Law inWashington trawled through data kept by agencies meant to enforce Peru's 2000Forest and Wildlife Law.The legislation empowers the government to award concessions for up to 40 yearson public land between 4,000 and 50,000 hectares (10,000 and 125,000 acres).These contracts come hedged with conditions: loggers must submit a five-yearharvesting strategy, including a highly detailed, year-by-year plan that identifies each individual tree to be cut, with Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.Finer's team found that by September 2013, the authorities had scrutinised 388 ofthe 609 logging concessions.More than 68 percent of the 388 were found either to have committed "majorviolations", or were suspected of it.In 181 cases, the license was revoked. More than half of the recorded violations werefor taking timber from a non-concession area or for unauthorised cutting of cedarand mahogany.Additional work by non-government monitors and satellite images supported thesefindings, the paper said.It faulted the system for placing too much trust in documents and for carrying outchecks at ports rather than on-site, which thus enabled trees taken illegally to beeasily laundered. The investigation touches at the heart of difficulties to protect remote carbon-capturing tropical forests, which is one of the goals of UN efforts to combat climatechange.Some observers say the answer lies in putting forests under the control of localpeople, who have a more credible record of protecting the resource.Alberto Pizango, head of the AIDESEP campaign group gathering dozens ofindigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, said the investigation backedwidespread anecdotal evidence."This new study supports the stories we are hearing from communities across theAmazon," Pizango said in a statement."The findings also reinforce our demand that the government help us to protect ourlands, and that it recognise our rights over the forests where our peoples have livedfor hundreds of years."Pizango and other leaders have been accused of inciting clashes between police and native people in the Amazonian town of Bagua in 2009 that left 34 dead.