Greenpeace Amazon Timber Investigation 2014 Daniel Brindis Greenpeace USA Forest Legality Alliance
Model “Green” home at Chicago Museum
Valencia Street, Mission District, San Francisco. Nearby SF Greenpeace Office
Credit: Rainforest Relief
Photo: Para State April 2014
Para State
Recent 2013 Report from Research Institute IMAZON (Belem, Para) - Within Para State between August 2011- July 2012 78% of logging in an area of 157,239 hectares was done without authorization 67% of this activity was in private lands (including abandoned or disputed lands), 25% in land reform settlements. 8% in Protected Areas. Compared to the year before there was an increase of 151%. “Forest Management Transparency Report - State of Pará (2011 to 2012)”
7 & 14 April 2014
context Regulatory. Since 2006 there were public policies seeking to • increase the role of Sustainable Forest Management – SFM in the local economy: Law of Public Forests Management (2006) • Decree with new regulation of SFM in private properties • (2006) Plan of Community Sustainable Forest Management (2010) • Governance. Also in 2006, there was a radical decentralization of • the Forest Management in Brazil. The individual States became the main responsible for approving, monitoring and evaluating SFM Plans.
context SFM. Sustainable Forest Management Plans can be made for public • or private forests Public forests: there is a bidding process, organized by the • Federal, State or Municipality government. SFMP are monitored by the same agent who grants the concession; Private forests: land owners and settled farmers in the • Amazon can use their 80% Legal Reserve for sustainable logging. They have to present a plan to the State Dept./Secretariat of Envirnoment, who also should monitor the plans.
SFMP in private properties need to go through the following steps • before having their first tree cut: 1. The property is licensed (LAR); 2. The SFMP operator is registered at CEPROF System, and has a CEPROF number (sort of “id” that register trade of wood and non-wood products). 3. The SFMP is presented and approved; 4. The Annual Operative Plan (POA) is presented and approved; 5. The SFMP operator receives a 1 year authorization, to log the part of the area indicated in the POA (AUTEF).
Breaking Down the Two Systems- (1) legal timber extraction and (2) legal timber trade: • SIMLAM: this is the properties’ system, where is registered • the licenses with the properties’s information (size, where the legal reserve and permanent protection areas are, SFMP, etc.). It is also where the AUTEF are registered, always linked to licensed properties; Sisflora: timber trade system, where the amount, the kind • and destination/origin of timber products (roundwood, sawnwood, etc.) are registered. The CEPROF number of each company keeps their track;
SIMLAM Private SFMP Properties (CEPROF) CAR > LAR Settlements AUTEF wood credits Sisflora Market Mills (CEPROF) Industry (CEPROF)
pre-info about the investigation HOW TO PUT HOW TO PUT LEGAL ILLEGAL TIMBER IN DOCUMENTS OUT 6. SFM in already 1. Logging in public or deforested/logged areas protected areas 7. Overestimated number of 2. SFMPlans overlapping public valuable trees in SFMP or protected areas inventories 3. Area deforested 8. SFMP with no logging at all before/without authorization 9. Overestimation of wood 4. Forest Management/logging credits at Sisflora before/without authorization 10. Invented credits at Sisflora 5. SFM areas overlogged
summarized results The 18 cases’ assessment. Heavy illegalities • No sign of logging, record of sale • No roads, closed roads • No stumps, trees not cut • No area for piling wood • Overlogging • Visual degradation • Wrong identification of tree species • Logging in Permanent Preservation Areas • In Vitória Régia case: Kilns and gold-digging • Paperwork claiming logistical/ ecological • impossibilities
summarized results of the Ipê research The 18 cases’ assessment. Other illegalities • No numbering of trees; • Infrastructure (roads, areas for piling wood) • different from the approved; Bad logging: other trees overthrown • Bad environmental management: • degradation of small rivers Trees “forgoten” in the piling areas •
Example 1: Virola Jatoba Sustainability Project Model established in part with Dorothy Stang who was active in the area Intended to be low impact, as part of private partnership Felled trees logged by community members abandoned and not accepted by company, overall poor forestry (high impact) Trees marked for logging not logged but timber credits still used
Example 2: Ceser Busnello Local personality previously cited for holding bogus land title and possessing +4000 Meters, Murdered in 2012. Had utilized a forester to draw up his PMFS that was also arrested by federal police and convicted for environmental crimes. Our team found that volume estimates were exaggerated or miscalculated to generate excess credits, almost all of these credits had been sold.
Methodology Overall AUTEF analysis. • The field visits were conducted under the legal compliance assessment • criteria outlined in the Guide for Forest Management Plan Field Inspections, the official handbook used by the Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) We then mapped out sales of the ‘credits’ accompanying the timber • through Sisflora to identify which sawmills have bought from these forest management plans, and to which exporters the sawmills have sold to. Trade Data- (includes volumes, prices, species) •
summarized results of the Ipê research Research in Research in Brazil the other countries • 104 EXPORTING 18 CASES 72 MILLS COMPANIES/MILLS
Due care? • Considering the high incidence of illegality and broken system, relying on documentation alone should not constitute due care under Lacey. ( more care is due ) • No matter the amount of due care, there are strict liability provisions in Lacey. • Due care may require more investment by buyers and include strategies designed to address the blind spots in the BR control system.
Updates since publication (EUTR): • Spanish timber • French timber Federation AEIM association issued classifies Br. Amazon communiqué for Para Timber as ‘high risk’ State Government UK Competent • At least 2 EU competent authority (National authorities have intiated investigations related to Measurements Office) announced illegalities outlined in investigation our investigation
Updates since publication (Brazil) • MPF filed lawsuit that affirmed that the all the plans that we visited in our investigation should be suspended or canceled immediately. • Last week PA/SEMA denied our claims but during the same week announced the hiring of a team to develop Sisflora 2.0 - outlined the use of geo - referenced RFID chips for individual trees - – BUT: No timeline, uncertainty of whether or not SEMA will have monitoring capacity, utilizing the firm Tecnomapas, who has two live lawsuits against it from the MPF for poorly managing the timber control system. (history repeating…)
Obrigado! 24/07/13
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