Stop Illegal Logging
Something in your house is made with illegally obtained wood. It might be laminate flooring, office paper, dining room chairs, a guitar, or even the pencil on your desk.
Illegal logging is a $100 billion global industry. With one of the planet’s largest rainforests and high levels of corruption, Peru is the land of opportunity for illegal loggers. In fact 80% of Peru’s timber comes from illegal logging. Other rainforest countries’ illegal exports are not far behind.
Forest crime isn’t an isolated event, it’s an everyday event! Usually, loggers fell trees from protected land and then mix the logs in with wood obtained from legal concessions. However, the vast quantities of illegal timber being sold make it impossible for governments not to know that much of the wood they approve for export or import is illegal.
hiding in plain sight
Illegal rainforest wood in your home
Wood
Cedar, Mahogany, Cumala, Copaiba, Ishpingo, Coubaril, Guariuba, Sande, Rosewood
Did you know that almost all of the last stands of Mahogany are on Indigenous Lands?
Today, the Ashéninka of Alto-Tamayo, Saweto in Peru are ensuring these trees continue to tower over the canopy.
When the Ashéninka community in Peru need wood for a new paddle they search for the right tree, usually a Remo Caspi or Paddle Wood Tree. They take care to select not just the right kind of tree–paddle wood is known for being flexible and light–but the right tree itself. This sustainable, thoughtful logging has kept the rainforest protected for hundreds of years. Sadly most trees being cut down in the Amazon are not so carefully selected.
HOW LOGGING ACTUALLY WORKS:
MACHINES CUT DOWN ALL TREES, RAZING THE RAINFOREST AND DESTROYING HABITATS.
Even when loggers come in to cut down certain kinds of trees–for example costly rosewood– all of the other trees in the area are frequently cut down as well–either at the same time or later on ,once loggers have cut down the more profitable trees in the area. When exotic woods are found in Indigenous areas, these communities are especially vulnerable as powerful companies pressure governments to give them permits to log, and illegal loggers enter and cut down trees without bothering to obtain permits.
Amazon rainforest prior to logging
Logging destroys the rainforest

Ready to change this picture?
1 Insist that we enforce the Lacey Act.
2 Become a Rainforest Defender.
3 Find other Ways to Make a Difference
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Just $5 saves an acre of Rainforest!