Mahogany logging threats tribal people, says report
mongabay.com
May 30, 2007
Ahead of the CITES meeting in the Hague, a new report alleges widespread illegal mahogany logging in Peru.
The study, released by the National Association of Amazon Indians in Peru (AIDESEP), an indigenous rights group, and the Rainforest Foundation Norway, says that the Peruvian government issues mahogany export licenses in violation of international laws regulating trade in endangered species. The report says that illegal mahogany logging, often conducted in national parks and on indigenous lands, is threatening Amazonian tribes and calls on CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to suspend all exports of mahogany from Peru.
The report comes shortly after Juan Carlos Vasquez, a representative for CITES, said that Peru is meeting international commitments regarding mahogany and that its efforts have produced a decline in illegal logging. Earlier this month, the International Tropical Timber Organization reported that Peru’s environmental agency, implemented regulations for mahogany loggers that will now require forest concession holders to replant ten times the logged amount of trees. Overall, the initiative calls for the production and establishment of one million of mahogany plantlets over 5 years.
The AIDESEP / Rainforest Foundation Norway report is available at Illegal logging and international trade in mahogany from the Peruvian Amazon