Case Studies

In February 2022, the Argentine National Gendarmerie intercepted two trucks carrying a total of over 4 tons of marijuana concealed within illegal timber shipments. The first seizure occurred near Nueve de Julio, Buenos Aires province, where a truck was found carrying more than 3 tons of marijuana hidden among wooden beams. The second seizure took place near Puerto Avellaneda, Misiones province. Upon noticing the presence of uniformed personnel, the driver abandoned the vehicle, which was found to contain 1,002 kilograms of cannabis sativa concealed in a timber shipment. 

Source: https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/argentine-gendarmerie-seizes-drugs-hidden-in-timber-shipments/ 

Keywords: Latin America, Argentina, timber, trade and transport, drug trafficking, smuggling

Corruption is a significant issue in the Bolivian timber industry, with false or fraudulent documents being issued by government officials. Companies launder illegal timber into supply chains by fraudulently obtaining paperwork, falsifying the Forestry Origin Certificate (CFO), or selling timber without a CFO. Most of this illegal timber comes from protected areas, indigenous territories, or natural forests. 

Illegal timber is laundered out of Bolivia by loggers making fraudulent declarations of greater numbers of trees than exist, artificially inflating the number of trees in authorised forest management areas or logging plans. This allows them to supplement their timber consignment with illegally extracted timber from other areas. 

René Noel Sivila Céspedes, a former Forest and Land Authority (ABT) official, reportedly signed 2,096 documents authorising the clearing of protected areas between 2015 and 2018. A 2018 report by the ABT found that the agency authorised the cutting of at least two protected species at far higher rates than is permitted by law. 

Keywords: Latin America, Bolivia, timber, primary production, corruption and bribery, fraudulent documentation, illegal timber trade

Source: https://www.forest-trends.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Bolivia-Timber-Leaglity-Risk-Dashboard-IDAT-Risk.pdf 

Illegal logging in Bolivia’s forests is contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. High-value woods are being harvested almost to extinction, pushing loggers deeper into protected areas. Parks at risk include Madidi, Carrasco, Ambaró, and Isiboro-Sécure, all of which are adjacent to the Amazon region. In Madidi and Ambaró, an entire trafficking network has sprung up around the pilfering of valuable mara wood (Swietenia macrophylla), also known as big-leaf mahogany. The tree species has been classified as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. It has also been granted Appendix II protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), indicating that its trade must be regulated to prevent exploitation that threatens its survival. In 2011, the head of Bolivia’s forests agency warned that the overexploitation of mara wood had left the species on the brink of disappearing.

According to an investigation by Eduardo Franco Berton, a Bolivian environmental journalist who has investigated the illicit timber trade, traffickers are still financing the extraction of mara wood. The pilfering requires organized crews that head deep into national parks, crossing rivers and canyons, to reach isolated stands of mara trees. Loggers chop down trees that can reach up to 45 meters in height and then use buzzsaws to cut them into planks measuring 3 to 5 meters in length. Carriers then transport these planks on their backs for up to two miles across challenging terrain. Once the carriers reach a river drop-off point, the timber is strung together by rope to form long rafts called callapos. The rafts carry 150 planks on perilous journeys up to three days on Amboró’s Yapacani, Ichilo, and Mataracu rivers. The trips can earn sailors some $700. Trucks then pick up the timber, bringing it to warehouses. The best wood is selected and smuggled to neighboring countries. From Madidi, located northwest of La Paz, the wood is moved to San Pedro de Putina Punco, Peru, while wood extracted in Amboró is moved across the long porous border between Bolivia and Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. The timber is often concealed in other truck cargo. Timber that reaches Brazil and Peru has been exported to international markets, such as China and the United States.

Keywords: Latin America, Bolivia, timber, primary production, trade and transport, illegal logging, illegal timber trade, smuggling

Source: https://insightcrime.org/investigations/protected-areas-illegal-timber-strongholds-bolivian-amazon/

According to Mongabay, it was uncovered in February 2023 that three landowners had orchestrated the largest single instance of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon's history, clearing 6,469 hectares of forest in Pará state. This large-scale land grab, conducted between February and May 2020, cost at least $2.5 million and is expected to yield nearly $20 million in profits from selling the land for soy farming or cattle ranching. This took place along the BR-163 highway, between the districts of Castelo dos Sonhos and Vila Isol, regions known for their economic activities, including gold mining, timber, cattle, and soy farming. The land, initially public and belonging to the Brazilian federal government, was illegally appropriated and cleared without environmental authorisation. This deforestation, larger than the area of Manhattan, represents a significant loss of biodiversity and a contribution to climate change, as well as a breach of Brazilian environmental laws. The three key figures behind this land grab are Jeferson de Andrade Rodrigues, Delmir José Alba, and his brother Augustinho Alba. They all have a history of environmental fines and infractions.

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, illegal deforestation, agriculture

Sources: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/the-20m-flip-the-story-of-the-largest-land-grab-in-the-brazilian-amazon/

The Brazilian Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region convicted three companies for the illegal logging and subsequent transportation and trade of wood from the Rondônia region of the Legal Amazon. The companies involved are Celia Ceolin EPP, BV Indústria e Comércio de Madeiras Ltda ME, and Madeireira Mil Madeiras Ltda EPP. Each company was fined US$100,000 and ordered to plant 10 hectares of the protected Brazilian tree that had been illegally exploited. The conviction followed Operation Guardians of the Mountains in 2008, where authorities were able to seize 600 cubic metres of timber illegally logged in the Amazon, as well as 17 trucks. The wood had been sawn without authorisation, whereas Mil Madeiras had falsely advertised on their website that they operated in an environmentally conscious manner, claiming certification from Brazilian environmental authorities. However, the exploitation of Brazilian nut wood, found during the Operation, has been prohibited since the early 1990s. The court also found that, in addition to the illegal cutting of protected trees in the Amazon, the companies laundered the timber by mixing the illegally logged wood with legal logs, and their records never mention the Brazil nut. 
  

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, environmental crime, illegal timber trade
  

Sources:  https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/16100-brazil-sentences-three-companies-for-timber-laundering 

https://www.mpf.mp.br/regiao1/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-r1/empresas-sao-condenadas-pelo-transporte-e-comercio-ilegal-de-madeira-de-castanheira-extraida-da-amazonia-legal 

A report by InSight Crime demonstrates the growing ties between drug trafficking and illegal timber logging in Brazil’s Amazon. The report details how timber shipments from the Amazon are now being used to conceal drugs, primarily cocaine, for export to foreign countries. From 2017 to 2021, authorities seized nearly nine tons of cocaine hidden within timber shipments destined for European countries. In addition to drugs being hidden in timber shipments, the ties between illegal timber logging and drug trafficking is also the consequence of organised crime groups in Brazil diversifying their activity. Indeed, organised crime groups in Brazil have also become involved in illegal mining, land grabbing, logging, gold trading, and invading indigenous lands. Criminal gangs have been known to buy land illegally in the rainforest to profit from logging and to establish marijuana plantations, particularly in Pará’s “Marijuana Polygon.”. From 2015 to 2020, more than two million marijuana plants were seized across the Amazon region, with 55% of these seizures occurring in Pará. 

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, trade and transport, drug trafficking, serious organised crime, illegal logging, illegal mining

Sources:  https://insightcrime.org/news/intimate-relationship-between-cocaine-illegal-timber-brazil-amazon/ 

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), seven individuals were detained in Pará, Brazil after suspicions of illegal Amazon timber trade. Among those detained is a former employee of the Pará Environmental Secretariat (SEMAS). Investigation began in 2019, with the operation “Dark Wood” involving a total of nine search and seizure warrants and the freezing of bank accounts. The two-year investigation sought to dismantle the criminal scheme that enabled the illegal extraction of sale and timber. The scheme involved laundering wood from illegal deforestation, yielding significant profits. It disguised the origins of illicit wood, which was then exported to the United States. Yellow Ipê wood, highly valued in the U.S., was a primary target. During their investigation, the Brazilian Civil Police eventually uncovered forged documents used to simulate forest product auctions. These allowed companies to introduce fraudulent permits into the Forest Products Commercialization and Transportation System (Sisflora). Operation “Dark Wood” resulted in the detention of guilty sawmill owners and former SEMAS employees across various locations in Pará and the Federal District. The identities of the suspects and companies remain undisclosed. 

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, procurement of permits, illegal timber trade, illegal logging, fraudulent documentation

Sources:  https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/18805-brazil-detains-7-suspected-members-of-illegal-amazon-tiber-trade-ring 

A 2023 investigation uncovered that seven agribusiness giants, including Bunge, Cargill and COFCO, bought grains, notably soy, from Brazilian farmers fined for illegal cultivation on Indigenous lands in Mato Grosso. However, the grain sales invoices failed to identify the farms as being inside the Indigenous lands, falsely stating other lands of origin to allow the business to take place. In addition, the investigation found that five identified producers fined by IBAMA in 2018 for cultivating crops within Indigenous lands continued to make sales to large international grain traders during the periods of interdiction from 2018 to 2019. A practice of ‘grain laundering’ was used to facilitate this illegal trade. This practice involves mixing illegally produced grains from conservation units, seized lands, or interdicted areas with legally planted and harvested soy and corn, thereby concealing the irregular origin of a portion of the crop. The close proximity of these farms, listed on invoices as the origin of the produce, to Indigenous lands facilitated this ‘grain laundering’. Grain laundering was openly acknowledged by farmers in the Paresí Indigenous region in March 2019. 
  

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, soy, primary production, Indigenous rights, fraudulent documentation, grain laundering
  

Sources:  https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/agro-giants-buy-grains-from-farmers-fined-for-using-indigenous-land-in-brazil/ 

A joint investigation by InSight Crime and the Igarapé Institute has revealed that illegal timber harvesting is rampant in the forests of the Amazon’s tri-border regions, covering Peru, Brazil and Colombia. The investigation highlights how multinational networks target valuable hardwood species, falsifying logging and transport permits to legitimise the timber and export it. In order to further conceal the illicit activity, the timber may also be transported to places such as Leticia, Colombia, where traffickers are able to avoid certain taxes and controls. The scale of this illegal timber trafficking is extensive, with a 2012 World Bank report finding that about 80% of Peru’s timber is illegally extracted. Another aspect of this illegal trade is the exploitation of Indigenous community members by timber bosses, or "patrones,". The latter will promise jobs and earnings that almost always fail to materialise. For example, the Matsés Indigenous community entered into an agreement with timber patron Teodulfo Palomino Ludeña, who falsified documents and harvested excess timber, leading to fines and permits for the community. Timber brokers are also involved in laundering illegal timber, using their companies to legitimise illegal wood from the Amazon. 

Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, trade and transport, tax evasion, fraudulent documentation, Indigenous rights

Sources:  https://insightcrime.org/investigations/beneath-surface-timber-trafficking-peru-colombia-brazil-border/ 

Cameroon’s Congo River basin forest sector is exposed to illegal timber logging as demand for high-quality wood in Asia is growing. Due in part to ineffective forestry sector governance and management, the region is emerging as a focal area for local and international criminal actors. The Congo Basin’s rainforests supply a wide range of wood species, including African teak, rosewood, bubinga, iroko, sapele, and moabi, to key high demand markets such as China and Vietnam. It is estimated that up to 50% of the annual wood harvested in Cameroon is from small-scale logging, most of which is illegal. At the borders, traffickers falsely declare tree species to pass illegally harvested timber off as legal, with this wood then trafficked into neighboring countries and exported on to consumer markets.  

According to the research organisation ENACT Africa, both private sector and state operators can be involved in this illegal trade, with the industry in Cameroon steeped in corruption. A key concern is bribe-taking among senior officials, civil servants, and companies in exchange for timber logging permits. Unfortunately, well-meaning government authorities also often lack the resources needed to effectively monitor the country’s vast forests.  

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroon, timber, trade and transport, fraudulent documentation, illegal timber trade, illegal logging

Source: https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1712552160098-policy%20brief-30_2.pdf