Greenpeace Amazon Timber Investigation 2014 Daniel Brindis - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Greenpeace Amazon Timber Investigation 2014

Daniel Brindis Greenpeace USA Forest Legality Alliance

Model “Green” home at Chicago Museum

Valencia Street, Mission District, San Francisco. Nearby SF Greenpeace Office

Credit: Rainforest Relief

Photo: Para State April 2014

Para State

Recent 2013 Report from Research Institute IMAZON (Belem, Para) - Within Para State between August 2011- July 2012 78% of logging in an area of 157,239 hectares was done without authorization 67% of this activity was in private lands (including abandoned or disputed lands), 25% in land reform settlements. 8% in Protected Areas. Compared to the year before there was an increase of 151%. “Forest Management Transparency Report - State of Pará (2011 to 2012)”

7 & 14 April 2014

context

• Regulatory. Since 2006 there were public policies seeking to

increase the role of Sustainable Forest Management – SFM in the local economy:

• Law of Public Forests Management (2006)
• Decree with new regulation of SFM in private properties

(2006)

• Plan of Community Sustainable Forest Management (2010)
• Governance. Also in 2006, there was a radical decentralization of

the Forest Management in Brazil. The individual States became the main responsible for approving, monitoring and evaluating SFM Plans.

context

• SFM. Sustainable Forest Management Plans can be made for public
• r private forests
• Public forests: there is a bidding process, organized by the

Federal, State or Municipality government. SFMP are monitored by the same agent who grants the concession;

• Private forests: land owners and settled farmers in the

Amazon can use their 80% Legal Reserve for sustainable

• logging. They have to present a plan to the State

Dept./Secretariat of Envirnoment, who also should monitor the plans.

• SFMP in private properties need to go through the following steps

before having their first tree cut: 1. The property is licensed (LAR); 2. The SFMP operator is registered at CEPROF System, and has a CEPROF number (sort of “id” that register trade of wood and non-wood products). 3. The SFMP is presented and approved; 4. The Annual Operative Plan (POA) is presented and approved; 5. The SFMP operator receives a 1 year authorization, to log the part of the area indicated in the POA (AUTEF).

• (1) legal timber extraction and (2) legal timber trade:
• SIMLAM: this is the properties’ system, where is registered

the licenses with the properties’s information (size, where the legal reserve and permanent protection areas are, SFMP, etc.). It is also where the AUTEF are registered, always linked to licensed properties;

• Sisflora: timber trade system, where the amount, the kind

and destination/origin of timber products (roundwood, sawnwood, etc.) are registered. The CEPROF number of each company keeps their track;

Breaking Down the Two Systems-

Private Properties CAR > LAR SFMP (CEPROF)

SIMLAM

Market

Sisflora

Mills (CEPROF) AUTEF Settlements Industry (CEPROF) wood credits

pre-info about the investigation

HOW TO PUT ILLEGAL TIMBER IN

• 1. Logging in public or

protected areas

• 2. SFMPlans overlapping public
• r protected areas
• 3. Area deforested

before/without authorization

• 4. Forest Management/logging

before/without authorization

• 5. SFM areas overlogged

HOW TO PUT LEGAL DOCUMENTS OUT

• 6. SFM in already

deforested/logged areas

• 7. Overestimated number of

valuable trees in SFMP inventories

• 8. SFMP with no logging at all
• 9. Overestimation of wood

credits at Sisflora

• 10. Invented credits at Sisflora

summarized results

• The 18 cases’ assessment. Heavy illegalities
• No sign of logging, record of sale
• No roads, closed roads
• No stumps, trees not cut
• No area for piling wood
• Overlogging
• Visual degradation
• Wrong identification of tree species
• Logging in Permanent Preservation Areas
• In Vitória Régia case: Kilns and gold-digging
• Paperwork claiming logistical/ ecological

impossibilities

summarized results of the Ipê research

• The 18 cases’ assessment. Other illegalities
• No numbering of trees;
• Infrastructure (roads, areas for piling wood)

different from the approved;

• Bad logging: other trees overthrown
• Bad environmental management:

degradation of small rivers

• Trees “forgoten” in the piling areas

Example 1: Virola Jatoba Sustainability Project Model established in part with Dorothy Stang who was active in the area Intended to be low impact, as part of private partnership Felled trees logged by community members abandoned and not accepted by company, overall poor forestry (high impact) Trees marked for logging not logged but timber credits still used

Example 2: Ceser Busnello

Local personality previously cited for holding bogus land title and possessing +4000 Meters, Murdered in 2012. Had utilized a forester to draw up his PMFS that was also arrested by federal police and convicted for environmental crimes. Our team found that volume estimates were exaggerated or miscalculated to generate excess credits, almost all of these credits had been sold.

Methodology

• Overall AUTEF analysis.
• The field visits were conducted under the legal compliance assessment

criteria outlined in the Guide for Forest Management Plan Field Inspections, the official handbook used by the Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA)

• We then mapped out sales of the ‘credits’ accompanying the timber

through Sisflora to identify which sawmills have bought from these forest management plans, and to which exporters the sawmills have sold to.

• Trade Data- (includes volumes, prices, species)

summarized results of the Ipê research

18 CASES 72 MILLS

• 104 EXPORTING

COMPANIES/MILLS

Research in Brazil Research in the other countries

Due care?

• Considering the high incidence of illegality and

broken system, relying on documentation alone should not constitute due care under

• Lacey. (more care is due)
• No matter the amount of due care, there are

strict liability provisions in Lacey.

• Due care may require more investment by

buyers and include strategies designed to address the blind spots in the BR control system.

Updates since publication (EUTR):

• Spanish timber

Federation AEIM classifies Br. Amazon Timber as ‘high risk’

• French timber

association issued communiqué for Para State Government

• At least 2 EU competent

authorities have intiated investigations related to illegalities outlined in

• ur investigation

UK Competent authority (National Measurements Office) announced investigation

Updates since publication (Brazil)

• MPF filed lawsuit that affirmed that the all the plans that we

visited in our investigation should be suspended or canceled immediately.

• Last week PA/SEMA denied our claims but during the same week

announced the hiring of a team to develop Sisflora 2.0- outlined the use of geo-referenced RFID chips for individual trees- – BUT: No timeline, uncertainty of whether or not SEMA will have monitoring capacity, utilizing the firm Tecnomapas, who has two live lawsuits against it from the MPF for poorly managing the timber control system. (history repeating…)

24/07/13

Obrigado!