Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network
Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network
Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network
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Figure 5.2<br />
Illegal Forest Activity and Its Link with Corruption<br />
0<br />
Russia<br />
More than 20%<br />
Oth Asia<br />
W/C Africa<br />
More than 50%<br />
Brazil<br />
High corruption (TI)<br />
5<br />
USA<br />
Acceding<br />
EU<br />
Japan<br />
Oth L Am<br />
Malaysia<br />
China<br />
Indonesia<br />
Canada<br />
EU-15<br />
10<br />
–10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80<br />
High % suspicious log supply<br />
service contracting; evasion of taxes, royalties, and other<br />
fees by enterprises or by communities or private forest<br />
owners; circumvention of labor laws; and unauthorized<br />
wood processing. Although no reliable estimates are available,<br />
anecdotal evidence and stakeholder interviews suggest<br />
that in state-owned forests, financial losses from corruption<br />
can be as high as or even higher than those from<br />
stolen timber (Savcor Indufor Oy 2005). In practice, the<br />
distinctions between illegal logging and other timberrelated<br />
crime become blurred. The same perpetrators may<br />
be responsible for outright theft or corruption-related<br />
illegal logging.<br />
Corruption and other financial crimes often involve<br />
money laundering, adding another dimension to the<br />
constellation of what should be considered forest crime.<br />
In addition to the timber-related crimes, forest crime<br />
also includes such illegal activities as wildlife poaching,<br />
arson, and unlawful conversion of forest lands for other<br />
uses.<br />
Despite the magnitude of the problem and existing measures<br />
to combat corruption (see box 5.17), there are few<br />
instances of prosecution and punishment. In fact, if there<br />
are prosecutions, it is the poor, looking to supplement their<br />
meager livelihoods, who are victimized and sent to jail,<br />
while large-scale operators continue with impunity.<br />
Arguably, this is the worst form of violation of equity and<br />
justice, arising from a clear failure of governance, and it<br />
needs to be addressed.<br />
OPERATIONAL ASPECTS<br />
Understanding causes of illegal logging and other<br />
forest crime<br />
Reducing illegal logging and other forest crimes through<br />
Bank operations requires understanding the underlying<br />
causes and implementing actions that address these causes<br />
and complement national and local contexts. The ways that<br />
drivers behind illegal logging and forest crime operate are<br />
highly country and location specific, and depend on economic,<br />
social, and cultural factors as well as the type of forest<br />
resource and its ownership or tenure arrangements. An<br />
appropriate set of responses can only be defined at the<br />
country level in processes involving the key stakeholders<br />
who interact with the forest resources.<br />
Means, motive, and opportunity construct. The<br />
“means, motive, and opportunity construct” (see annex 5.5A<br />
to this note) is useful to analyze the causes of crime. In this<br />
framework, persons motivated by greed, need, or other<br />
desires employ the tools (means) available to them to exploit<br />
the existing vulnerabilities (opportunities). Illegal logging<br />
and other types of forest crime take place when these three<br />
factors are in place simultaneously (that is, when there is a<br />
motive to act illegally, the potential illegal operators have the<br />
means to do so, and the context in which they operate provides<br />
an opportunity for illegal action) (figure 5.3). The<br />
responses to illegal logging and other forest crime then need<br />
190 CHAPTER 5: IMPROVING FOREST GOVERNANCE
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