Illegal logging 'worth billions'

21 March 2012 Last updated at 01:11 GMT  By Richard Black Environment correspondent  Illegal logging has been blamed for a number of flooding incidents, notably in the Philippines Illegal logging generates $10-15bn (£7.5-11bn) around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank.

Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organised crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials.

Countries affected include Indonesia, Madagascar and several in West Africa.

The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a major impact in some nations, and urges others to do the same.

It also recommends that aid donors should fund programmes that strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and legal authorities to tackle the illegal timber trade.

"We need to fight organised crime in illegal logging the way we go after gangsters selling drugs or racketeering," said Jean Pesme, manager of the World Bank Financial Market Integrity team.

The analysts calculate that an area of forest the size of a soccer pitch is illegally logged every second.

Chainsaws of supply

The report picks out a number of ways in which illegal timber is managed in a similar way to other prohibited commodities such as drugs.

Brazil's deforestation rate has risen and fallen in recent years, as enforcement has changed

But currently, it says, "most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored.

"All too often, investigations - in the rare event that they do take place - are amateurish and inconclusive, and the few cases taken to court tend to be of trivial significance, prosecuting people whose involvement in crime is due to poverty and exploitation."

This last comment highlights the very differing scales of illegal logging, which encompasses everything from mechanised teams to individual villagers taking wood for fuel.

However, it says, a number of countries including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are getting tougher, and starting to bring prosecutions higher up the criminal food chain.

Western countries, consumers and businesses can also play a significant role in cleaning up forestry, the report says.

Three years ago the US amended the Lacey Act, and now companies operating in the US are obliged to prove that their wood comes from legal sources.

A number of businesses are being investigated under the amendment, notably the iconic Gibson guitar company.

The EU has introduced similar legislation, and a growing number of companies will only buy wood that is demonstrably legal and sustainably harvested.

In 2010, a report from the London-based Chatham House think-tank concluded that these and other measures had reduced illegal logging by about a quarter over the preceding eight years.

It urged Japan, as a major timber consumer, to introduce its own legislation; and as Chinese consumption grows, campaigners are increasingly turning their attention there.

Two years ago the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) discovered that beds made of illegally obtained Madagascan wood were selling for up to $1m in Beijing.

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Sarkozy denies claims of illegal campaign cash

PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office vigorously denied claims in a new book that he personally took undeclared campaign cash from the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune five years ago — claims that come just as the race for next year's presidential elections is heating up.

Sarkozy's allies suggested the accusations are a campaign ploy against the unpopular president. Similar accusations first surfaced last year.

Still, questions about how Sarkozy financed his 2007 campaign could stain his likely bid for re-election in April and May. Critics have long deemed the conservative leader too cozy with the rich, criticism that carries particular sting now that the French economy is stalling and many of his supporters are disillusioned with his leadership.

The leader of France's main opposition party, Socialist Martine Aubry, called for a new investigation into whether Sarkozy received illegal campaign cash from Liliane Bettencourt, Europe's richest woman.

An accountant for Bettencourt said a year ago that she gave €50,000 ($72,000) in cash in 2007 to Sarkozy's party treasurer for the presidential campaign — well beyond the €4,600 legal limit on individual donations. The accusations came during a series of investigations into the heiress' finances.

A book being released Thursday suggests that Sarkozy himself received undeclared campaign money.

'Timing is dubious'
The book, "Sarko m'a tuer" ("Sarko Killed Me"), quotes investigating judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez as saying a witness she questioned "told me that he or she had seen cash handed over to Sarko," a nickname used for Sarkozy.

Prevost-Desprez says, however, that the comment came outside the formal questioning and wasn't recorded in judicial documents. The book does not say how much cash was handed over.

Prevost-Desprez was later taken off the case. The book quotes her as saying she came under political pressure and that witnesses were afraid of testifying because the case is so sensitive for Sarkozy.

Prevost-Desprez could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The book's authors said the judge verified the passages quoting her before it was published.

"This is about amounts of money which were not declared, money given outside the traditional channels," Gerard Davet, one of the book's two co-authors and an investigative journalist at Le Monde, told The Associated Press.

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Sarkozy's office called the claim of illegal campaign cash "scandalous, unfounded and untrue."

Government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said that "the approaching presidential campaign should not be the occasion for all kinds of slanderous accusations.

"I think the timing is dubious," Pecresse told reporters Wednesday.

Aubry, who is seeking the Socialist presidential nomination to try to unseat Sarkozy, said on BFM television Wednesday, "I hope ... that a new investigation will be opened."

The overall investigation into Bettencourt's finances is still under way, and now being led by a magistrate in Bordeaux.

Author Davet said finding the truth is a challenge in this case.

The witnesses questioned by the judge "were frightened. They were very worried. Why? Because in France, the courts, the judicial system depends on the government," he said.

"We journalists, as well, have had big problems during the Bettencourt case. My apartment was burgled. My computer was stolen. And the secret service tried to learn who my sources were," Davet said.

Le Monde filed a lawsuit last year accusing Sarkozy's office of using counterintelligence services to identify a source leaking information about the investigation. Sarkozy's office said it had never given such instructions to an intelligence agency.

___

Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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US art dealer busted in huge illegal ivory haul

NEW YORK — Federal officials seized roughly a ton of ivory in one of the largest U.S. seizures on record and arrested the owner of an African art store accused of smuggling carved elephant tusks into the United States, authorities said Tuesday.

Victor Gordon, 68, pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn to charges of conspiracy, smuggling and violating the Lacey Act, an anti-trafficking law aimed at curbing illegal shipments of protected wildlife, including ivory from elephants and rhinos.

The indictment said Gordon paid a partner to purchase raw elephant ivory in west and central Africa and have it carved to his specifications. He also told the partner to dye or stain the carvings to make them look older than they were and to ship them to his Philadelphia art store, prosecutors said.

Authorities seized hundreds of tusks sold or owned by Gordon in Philadelphia and other places in Pennsylvania, and in New York, Missouri and Kansas, according to the indictment, in what was described as among the largest U.S. seizures of elephant ivory on record.

"The amount of the elephant ivory allegedly plundered in this case is staggering and highlights the seriousness of the charged crimes," said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

If convicted on all charges, Gordon faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He has been released on $1 million bail.

African elephants are listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Importing, buying or selling African elephant ivory brought into the United States after 1989 is illegal unless the items are more than 100 years old.

The law was intended to protect African elephants from the high global demand for ivory, which led to devastating and widespread poaching, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said.

At a news conference in Philadelphia, authorities displayed what they said was roughly $1 million worth of intricately carved tusks at the center of the case.

"It is shocking. It is depressing. It is enraging," said Richard Ruggiero of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Story: Ivory burned to make point about elephant killings

Illegal ivory trading was largely responsible for a sharp decline of the elephant population in much of Africa, he said. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, the elephant population in 1979 was 350,000 to 400,000 but now is only about 12,000 to 15,000, he said.

Although the United States has implemented steps to crack down on the illegal ivory trade, officials said, prices and demand continue to create a market for the banned goods in international and domestic markets.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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