Brazilian Authorities Seize Illegally Logged Amazonian Timber
By NunoXEI • Apr 22nd, 2008 • Category: Blog
The Brazilian environmental agency seems to have finally woken up to the problem of illegally logged Amazonian timber leaving their shores. Last week, inspectors from IBAMA (the agency with responsibility for regulating the timber industry), carried out an impromptu check of timber cargo ships at the Brazilian Port of Santarem.
Worryingly, Brazilian customs had already given the green light and the ship was preparing to leave. That is until IBAMA officials discovered that documents for the cargo on the BSLE Express contained false information about the species of timber onboard. This is just one of the ways timber companies try to ‘legalise’ timber that has been illegally logged or processed.
The companies connected with the shipment were slapped with fines totaling over 100,000 Euros.
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NunoXEI is Co-Founder of TheGreenRocket.com and self proclaimed internet-surfing-guru. You can find his personal blog at NunoXEI.com, the home of his podcast, The Lowdown, his comic-related properties and his webcomic, Republic Domain.
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From the article:
“Even though Europe imports a huge amount of timber from the Amazon no one is required to check whether it comes from companies involved in illegal activities…. they are inadvertently fuelling deforestation in the Amazon by allowing illegally logged timber to be sold in Europe.”
Greenpeace certainly has an interesting take on that. Goes to say how global reaching environmental issues are in an immediate sense – not just from their effects.
Here’s a thought: Does anybody know if the “illegal” timbers are an international standard? Because if not, should it be the EU’s responsibility to ensure that companies involved in illegal activities in Brazil should not sell their products in Europe? I mean, morally, sure – forests contain a massive amount of carbon so by destroying them we are contributing to emissions, and that affects everybody. But is it their political responsibility? Consider tourism for example. Does the EU have a responsibility to ensure that the tourists it allows outside of its borders behave in the same way that they would under European law? (for example, sex tourism with children). Or better yet, should they restrict their citizens (other countries “imports” if you will) from supporting/participating in tourist facilities or activities that don’t comply with the EU’s own environmental protection policies? (Building codes, etc.)