Amazon investigation 2001

Amazon investigation 2001

April 2001- Information supplied by Greenpeace to the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA) led officials to fine two loggers 200,000 US Dollars. After an unannounced inspection, IBAMA officials seized three rafts containing over 1,000 illegal logs and two tug boats on the Amazon river.

According to IBAMA, the softwoods in the rafts were destined for the Manaus based, Chinese owned plywood factory Compensa. A smaller volume of hardwood was being transported to two locally owned companies. The result of the investigation confirms that illegal logging in the Amazon continues to be the rule, and not the exception.

Greenpeace has undertaken an ongoing investigation to document and expose illegal cutting and transport of timber in different areas of the Amazon since the start of the year. The seized logs will be donated to low income housing projects in the Amazonas state.

Both Compensa and one of the loggers, Raimundo Santos, have previous records for dealing in illegal timber. Compensa were fined twice in 1999 for buying illegal logs and Santos received four fines in 1997. The logging industry's long standing and customary practice of ignoring the law, and of ignoring the fragility of the ecosystem itself has virtually legitimised a pattern of destruction in the Amazon.

"When this is coupled with the Government's inability to enforce the law, the final result can only be the destruction, with impunity, of this last great tropical rainforest"
Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner.