《Translation of a MONGABAY article (※1)》
・According to a groundbreaking study, satellite images show that logging in the Amazon has spread not only to surrounding areas but into the heart of the rainforest.
・Based on satellite mapping in 7 of the 9 states that include Brazil’s Amazon, trees are being cut in “terrifying” fashion, and over the one-year period from 2019/8 to 2020/7, an area roughly 3 times the size of the southeastern city of São Paulo was stripped bare by logging.
・At the state level, experts point to a lack of transparency in logging data, making it impossible to calculate how much timber production is illegal.
・The report indicates that much of the activity is illegal, as logging is advancing in Indigenous protected territories and conservation areas where it should be banned.
A major concern regarding Brazil’s Amazon in Latin America is becoming a reality. Logging is expanding not only around the Amazon’s periphery but into the very center of the rainforest.
Based on satellite map data, the area logged over the one-year period from 2019/8 to 2020/7 totaled as much as 464,000 hectares in Brazil’s Amazon. This is roughly 3 times the area of the southeastern city of São Paulo. More than half—50.8%—was concentrated in Mato Grosso state, followed by Amazonas at 15.3% and Rondônia at 15%.
Marco Lentini, head of the sustainable-development NGO IMAFLORA and a participant in the mapping project, said, “About 20 years ago, we feared what we called the ‘arc of deforestation,’ where destruction would advance from the Amazon’s edges into its core. The maps we created show that this is exactly what is happening now.”
He said the logging pattern resembles that of “settlers,” adding, “We are concerned about this situation. The actions of the pioneers need to be regulated.”
This research, released in 2021/9, was conducted by the SIMEX Network—4 Brazilian environmental organizations: Imazon, IMAFLORA, Idesam, and Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV). Working together, the 4 groups are undertaking the first-ever effort to create maps of logging that cover almost the entire Amazon. They have already mapped 7 of the 9 states that make up the Amazon—Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, and Roraima. Logging in these 7 states accounts for nearly 100% of timber production in the Amazon rainforest.
While the maps cannot provide an exact count of how many trees were illegally cut from primary forests, they show that most illegal logging is concentrated along the borders of the 3 states of Mato Grosso, Amazonas, and Rondônia, with particularly high activity in Indigenous protected territories and conservation areas. So says Vinícius Silgueiro of ICV, which operates out of Mato Grosso state. “In the protected areas of this region we see not only many signs of illegal logging, but also large-scale extraction and low tax revenues,” he said.
This SIMEX map also includes the area where, in early 2021, the federal police carried out Brazil’s largest seizure of illegal timber. In that case, some 226,000 cubic meters of timber were seized across the border between Amazonas and Pará states. It later emerged that then-environment minister Ricardo Salles sought to have the seized wood released, leading to his resignation.
Across 10 municipalities in Mato Grosso, Amazonas, Roraima, Acre, and Pará, about 200,000 hectares were logged, and 78% of that logging occurred on privately owned land. The study also found that legal permits for logging are often used in a practice known as “tree laundering,” which conceals logging in restricted areas.
Moreover, a detailed study by Imazon focused on Pará found that more than half of the logging there was not authorized by the government. From 2019/8 to 2020/7, logging degraded 50,139 hectares of forest, and 55% of that lacked authorization from environmental agencies. Compared with the 12 months prior to 2019/7, when unauthorized logging accounted for 38% of the total, Imazon reports that the share increased by 20%.
Forest in Acre state (Photo: CIFOR / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])
Maps created by the SIMEX Network show logging concentrated especially in Mato Grosso, Amazonas, and Pará, in that order. Before the SIMEX project began, satellite-based identification of logging sites had been conducted only in Pará and Mato Grosso. Imazon began monitoring logging in Pará in 2008, and from 2013 ICV joined to monitor Mato Grosso. The organizations say Pará and Mato Grosso were prioritized first to ensure data transparency in states where logging was advancing.
According to Silgueiro of ICV, logging for timber production is not as extensive as outright deforestation, and once vegetation regrows on logged land, it becomes harder to locate these places by satellite.
He added, “Unlike deforestation, logging leaves vegetation standing after cutting. From satellite images we can see the ‘scars’ in the forest created by roads used to haul logs, and areas cleared for log storage. This sort of logging infrastructure helps locate where logging is taking place.”
However, he said that in most states, a lack of transparency and technical hurdles make it nearly impossible to prove whether logging is illegal. In many cases, certificates for legal forestry activities are submitted on paper, making it difficult to cross-reference certificate databases with satellite imagery. Only 2 states—Pará and Mato Grosso—have digitized management systems.
Lentini added that while forest-management certificates indicate coordinates, they lack information on the shape of the area, which hinders the identification of illegal logging sites from satellite images.
Despite these technical barriers, Lentini says there are cases where current logging is clearly illegal, such as logging in Indigenous territories and protected areas. According to the study, 6% of logging in the Amazon during the study period (28,112 hectares) occurred in protected areas, and 5% (24,866 hectares) occurred in Indigenous territories. Silgueiro says, “No permits of any kind have been issued for legal logging in these areas.”
A person engaged in logging (Photo: CIFOR / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])
A report released in 2018 by the international environmental NGO Greenpeace, “Imaginary Trees, Real Destruction,” likewise emphasized that Brazil’s systems for authorizing and regulating logging are ineffective—and may even make it harder to stop fraud.
“A major flaw in forest management in the Amazon is the inadequacy of the authorization process for sustainable forest management plans,” the Greenpeace report states. It adds that in most cases, prior field inspections to prepare these plans are either not carried out or are of poor quality when they do occur.
This lack of field inspection allows logging companies, when drafting documentation for a given area, to overstate volumes or fraudulently include high-value species. State governments then register the harvest and transport of logs that do not actually exist. Greenpeace’s investigation found that such practices occur on Indigenous lands, in protected areas, and on public lands.
According to ICV’s Silgueiro, the ratio of legal to illegal logging is 60:40. He further notes, “The more legal paperwork is issued for logging, the more illegal logging also increases,” adding, “Fraud in logging plans will not end until we use technology to determine how much timber is actually being produced and trace the origin and destination of each individual log.” He continued, “It is crucial that the production process for logs be traceable,” noting that “although the necessary technology already exists, its adoption is lagging in timber-producing states.”
The environmental impacts of illegal timber harvesting are immeasurable. Recent studies point out that, even though the Brazilian Amazon should serve as a carbon dioxide sink, factors such as logging have now made it a net CO2 source.
※1 This article is a translation of “Illegal logging reaches Amazon’s untouched core, ‘terrifying’ research shows” by Juliana Ennes of MONGABAY, a partner organization in “Covering Climate Now,” in which GNV participates as a partner organization. Covering Climate Now designated the week of 2021/10/31–11/6 as a week of coverage. We would like to take this opportunity to thank MONGABAY and Ms. Ennes for providing the article.
Writer: Juliana Ennes
Translation: Naru Kanai , Azusa Iwane
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