Endangered species account for 10% of Brazil’s documented timber trade

Abstract

Federally listed endangered plant species have restrictions regulating their extraction and transit in Brazil. However, dozens of endangered species are important for the national timber trade. The present research addresses the question: What endangered tree species were legally traded as timber in Brazil between 2012–2016 and how significant is this trade with respect to the total volume of timber? To answer this question, we surveyed wood taxa and wood volume transported during this period as recorded by the National System for the Environment (SISNAMA). Under Brazil’s federal environmental law (L12651 Art. 35) Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) is responsible for the registration of all commercial forest products. The law stipulates that products receive a Document of Forest Origin (DOF) indicating species, quantity, commercial use, origin, and destination. We correlated this data with the federal list of endangered plant species in Brazil to aggregate the number of endangered species transported from 2012 to 2016 and the total volume associated with each species. Among the 2214 species traded, we found 38 endangered species, comprising a volume of 6 million m3, representing approximately ten percent of the total traffic of 60.9 million m3. The endangered species Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze and Mezilaurus itauba (Meisn.) Taub. Ex Mez were among the twenty species with greatest volume transported and traded, respectively 3.2 million m3 and 789,522 m3. The presence of these endangered species at the top of the list of woods transported within the national territory raises serious questions for conservation policy and practices in Brazil. Monitoring changes in deforestation rates inadequately assesses the impacts of timber harvesting on endangered native tree species. The information provided by this study should be of interest to national and international environmental agencies, international trade control agencies, conservation biologists, researchers and policymakers working to produce more effective control of harvest and trade of endangered species.