Blogposts tagged 'Illegal Logging'

Making waves in the Middle Kingdom

Posted by szepangcheung - 20 April 2009 at 3:48pm - 0 Comments

Sze Pang and family Sze Pang and familySze Pang and family Sze Pang Cheung is communications director for Greenpeace in China and this article first appeared on Dimsum.

It is hard not to notice the growing environmental crisis in China even if you are living outside of the country. But the fact that many organisations are fighting this crisis in China may be out of your radar.

When I first started working for Greenpeace in early 2002, it was just about to open its first formal office in Beijing. I joined, because I was a Greenpeace volunteer and I loved it. I was wishing to broaden my perspective beyond Hong Kong. I had moved to the city with my family from Fujian province when I was five.

I have witnessed the Beijing office grow from a handful of staff to an office of almost 50 staff. But China's environmental problems have grown even faster.

Hackers help destroy the Amazon rainforest

Posted by jamie - 12 December 2008 at 10:11am - 22 Comments

High-tech smuggling operations may not be what you'd normally associate with the ongoing clearance of the Amazon rainforest, but logging companies intent on plundering it for timber have been using hackers to break into the Brazilian government's sophisticated tracking system and fiddle the records.

To monitor the amount of timber leaving the Amazon state of Pará, the Brazilian environment ministry did away with paper dockets and two years ago introduced an online system. Companies logging the rainforest for timber or charcoal production are only allowed to fell a certain amount of timber every year and this is controlled by the use of transport permits issued by the state government's computer system.

Where cattle herds go, deforestation follows

Posted by tracy - 3 October 2008 at 10:08am - 10 Comments

Forest fires in the Amazon August 2008

This week the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research published their latest figures on Amazon rainforest deforestation and the trees are falling as fast as the FTSE.

According to the institute, deforestation in August was three times higher than the same period last year. Using satellite imagery they have reported that 756 km2 were destroyed – that’s twice the rate of deforestation in July.

Will Brazil's new environment minister save the Amazon?

Posted by jamie - 21 May 2008 at 9:27am - 0 Comments

Deforestation in the Amazon

After losing respected environment minister Marina Silva from his cabinet last week, President Lula of Brazil has filled the gaping hole left by her departure. But whether the new minister Carlos Minc has the same commitment to protecting the Amazon as his predecessor, we'll just have to wait and see.

Danzer crime file (2nd edition)

Publication date:  30 November, 2004

Summary

In June 2004, Greenpeace published an initial report outlining how the Swiss-based Danzer Group had been knowingly financing illegal logging in Africa. Now we've obtained additional evidence of further unscrupulous behaviour - including suspected forgery and carrying out business dealings with an arms trafficker who is blacklisted by the UN Security Council.

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Danzer crime file

Publication date:  21 June, 2004

Summary

A Greenpeace investigation has revealed the Danzer Group, a Swiss-German company, have been involved in bribery and illegal logging and are suspected of forgery in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Forest Crime: Korindo and the trade in illegal plywood from the last rainforests of Indonesia

Publication date:  21 March, 2007

Publication date: March 2004

Summary
Illegal logging continues to play a huge part in the destruction of the world's ancient forests. Its impacts are devastating: contributing to loss of biodiversity; linked to human rights abuses and organised crime; impacting on the sustainable development of forest producing countries; and undermining the trade in timber from legal and sustainable sources. The World Bank estimates that some US $10-15 billion per annum is lost to Governments each year because of the illegal trade in timber.

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Media Briefing: UK timber traders and illegal logging

Publication date:  21 March, 2007

Publication date: July 2003

Summary
How UK timber traders such as Finnforest, Montague L Meyer continue to fuel the destruction of Indonesia's last rainforests

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Partners in Crime: summary

Publication date:  21 March, 2007

A Greenpeace investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons

Publication date: June 2003

Summary

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Partners in Crime

Publication date:  21 March, 2007

A Greenpeace investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons

Publication date: June 2003

Summary

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