Page - July 22, 2004
Illegal logging can be described as wood harvesting, transporting, processing, exporting or importing, that is in violation of national and/ or international law.
Illegalities can occur throughout the chain from source to consumer. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including corrupt means to gain access to forests, extraction without permission or from a protected area, cutting of protected species or extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits.
Illegalities may also occur during transport, including illegal processing and export as well as improper import documents.
Its impacts are far-reaching and can lead to increased fragmentation of forests, poaching of forest wildlife, haphazard human settlement, and greater incidence of forest fires.
Almost 80 percent of all logging in the Brazilian Amazon is illegal.