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29 Jul 1998
In fact, Brazil has merely extended for two more years a rule from 1996, which placed a moratorium on new authortisations for logging, including mahogany. Mahogany logging is will still be allowed under existing licenses.
Existing authorizations allow mahogany logging far in excess of demand from both domestic and foreign markets. Not granting new authorizations also prevents new firms with certification that their logging activities are sustainable from entering the market. The illegal logging of mahogany across the Brazilian Amazon remains rife.
Deforestation figures from the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology show forest loss of 14,896 square kilometres in 1994, 29,059 square kilometres in 1995, and 18,161 square kilometres in 1996. The Brazilian Government suppressed the 1995 data for over a year.
In 1996, Britain imported 234,000 cubic metres of tropical timber, making this country a major user of Brazilian timber. Last year, the Brazilian Government admitted that four fifths of the timber extracted from the rain forest was obtained illegally.
Sarah Tyack, Forest Campaigner comments:
“The decision to extend the moratorium on new logging authorisations is being spun to the world's media in a thoroughly misleading way. In fact, it allows firms who obtained logging areas before this rule was introduced in 1996, and who now control four fifths of mahogany logging, to continue to operate. Much of their activity is illegal and none of their timber comes from independently certified sources. This decision is not good news for the Amazon rain forest. It is only another PR gloss sprayed over a scene of continuing destruction”.
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