Abstract
Illegal logging is perceived to pose significant obstacles to the achievement of sustainable management of forests in the tropics. Equally importantly, it gives rise to or supports other undesirable outcomes – networks of corruption, generating significant volumes of “black” money and fuelling speculation, crime, or trafficking. However, illegal logging of tropical timber is not homogeneous and its characteristics depend, among others, on the supplying markets, at the national or the international scales. Available approaches to reduce illegal logging, at different levels of governance, in the producing and consuming countries are reviewed and their potential contribution is assessed.
Highlights
Illegal logging and associated domestic and international trade in illegally harvested logs is perceived to pose significant obstacles to the achievement of sustainable management of forests
A follow-the-money approach will be feasible only in situations where the banking sector is well developed and offers an attractive option to “park” money earned from illegal logging and trade
What have been the impacts of the multiplicity of global efforts undertaken to control illegal logging? The findings from a report provide some insights (Lawson and MacFaul 2010)
Summary
Illegal logging and associated domestic and international trade in illegally harvested logs is perceived to pose significant obstacles to the achievement of sustainable management of forests. The plan of this paper is as follows: Section 2 characterizes the nature of illegal logging in the context of domestic consumption and trade; Section 3 presents facts on illegal logging principally fuelling international trade; Section 4 indicates the differences, similarities and potential areas of interaction in the context of the problems described in Sections 2 and 3. This forms an important intermediate step in our search for solutions; Section 5 discusses available solutions and their potential to address the problems; Section 6 summarizes and concludes
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