Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
When we consider the varied processes
associated with the globalization of forest resources
together - including MNC activity, global timber
processing and supply chains, the operations of
the agro-industrial sector and the clandestine
business of illegal loggers - what we find is that the
conditions of forests are now intimately tied to the
ebb and flow of global capitalism (see Prudham,
2005). To these ends, the rate of forest clearance
(both legal and illegal) and the types of trees that
are being felled are connected to the fluctuating
prices of different timber products on the global
market. Ultimately, external forces and distant
decision-makers, who have little sense of the
broader biological integrity and social value of
woodlands, now determine what goes on in
different forests throughout the world.
Chainsaw Project
The Chainsaw Project is a partnership between INTERPOL and the World Bank that was
initiated in 2007. The idea behind the project was to connect environmentally oriented
research on the long-term ecological impacts of illegal logging to discussions of international
criminal justice. INTERPOL is the only international police organization, and as part of the
Chainsaw Project it sought to use its expertise in studying international forms of crime to
understand the nature and extent of the illegal timber industry. The Chainsaw Project report
sought to move beyond understandings of illegal logging that interpreted it as a series of
fairly sporadic, local activities. The Chainsaw Project report thus defines illegal logging (or
trafficking), '[a]s a succession of criminal activities undertaken at an international level by
a network of organized criminals' (INTERPOL/World Bank, undated: 3). This shift in
emphasis was based upon the realization that rising timber demand and the globalization
of the timber supply chain are now providing new opportunities for illegal logging. This
shift is also based upon the fact that the profits accrued from illegal logging are being
accumulated by international criminal organizations and strategically reinvested in order
to expand their illegal logging capability. It is precisely in these contexts that illegal logging
is now a significant contributory factor within global deforestation. Indeed, INTERPOL now
estimates that a forested area equivalent to the size of Austria is lost to illegal logging every
year (INTERPOL/World Bank, undated). This means that the amount of illegally produced
timber represents somewhere between 20 and 50 per cent of the total global timber market
(INTERPOL/World Bank, undated). On the basis of these figures, and the fact that illegal
logging tends to occur at an international level, the Chainsaw Project report stresses the
importance of establishing an environmental crimes sub-directorate within INTERPOL in
order to provide effective support for the monitoring and prosecution of criminal activities.
Key reading
INTERPOL/World Bank (undated) Chainsaw Project: An International Perspective On Law Enforcement
Illegal Logging, INTERPOL/World Bank, Rome
