Illegal Deforestation Monitor (IDM, online at www.bad-ag.info) will combine aggregated news on illegal deforestation with in-depth analysis of cases, from the Amazon to Southeast Asia.
Earthsight and Fern, the NGOs behind the site, hope that the information and analysis will bring closer attention among consumers and policy advisers to the crime that underpins the multi-billion-dollar trade in agricultural commodities.
Half of all recent tropical deforestation was due to commercial agricultural expansion that was illegal in some form, according to a study published in 2014.[1] This is driving climate change and biodiversity loss, is depriving poor countries of revenues and has had a devastating impact on rural and indigenous people. About half of this illegal deforestation was ‘embodied’ in exports of forest-risk commodities like palm oil, beef, soy, cocoa and coffee. Common illegalities include high-level corruption, breaches of local land rights, clearance of greater areas than permitted and the flouting of controls meant to minimise impacts on the environment.
Some upcoming cases to be covered by IDM during its first few weeks will explore:
- How the illegal expansion of cattle ranching into the Gran Chaco has driven deforestation to the highest rate in the world, and threatens the lives of one of the world’s last uncontacted indigenous groups;
- How cocoa farms are destroying all of the forest in many protected areas in Ivory Coast, wiping out primate populations;
- How large palm oil firms are illegally destroying forest and indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon.
Sam Lawson, the founder of Earthsight, said: “The impacts of illegal agribusiness on forests and forest-dependent people are severe and are being felt across the world. Media and local organisations are reporting on this epidemic in most countries but we believe this is the first time the stream of cases will be aggregated in one place, publicly, so that the full extent of this crisis can be appreciated.”
Though their imports of relevant commodities are driving the destruction, to date there has been little action taken by major consuming nations to address their role. Last year, a report by Fern showed that the EU was one of the world’s largest importers of illegal deforestation commodities. It found that one football pitch of forest was illegally felled every two minutes to feed the EU’s demand.[2] Despite high-level promises and increasing pressure from non-government groups, the EU has yet to take decisive action.
This stands in stark contrast to the situation with timber, where the EU has taken pioneering steps to address its role as an importer through the Forest, Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan, known by its acronym FLEGT. The action plan led to the EU banning the import of timber illegally harvested or exported, and also led to bilateral agreements with major source countries. EU-based NGOs have advocated for a similar prohibition, and comprehensive policy response, to the trade in commodities like oil palm, beef and soy grown on land illegally cleared of forest.
Nicole Polsterer, from Fern, said: “The EU must act urgently to address its role in this global problem. Such actions must be at the core of a new, comprehensive EU Action Plan on Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The new IDM website will help ensure that this issue can no longer be ignored by EU policymakers.”
Notes:
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- For further information contact Sam Lawson: [email protected]
- Earthsightis a London-based non-profit committed to harnessing the unique power of primary investigative research to bring attention to pressing issues of human rights and environmental justice.
www.earthsight.org.uk
- Fern is a non-governmental organization and a Dutch Stichting created in 1995 to keep track of the European Union’s involvement in forests and coordinate NGO activities at the European level.
www.fern.org