Illegal Logging
 Illegal logging harms our communities and our climate. Factsheet (PDF)
Indonesia's national parks and protected areas are being illegally logged at breakneck speed in order to feed U.S. and global demand for paper and wood products. A recent study by United Nations Environmental Program found that up to 88% of Indonesia's logging is done illegally. This illegal logging has devastating environmental and social impacts - the deforestation not only threatens the continued existence of species such as the endangered orangutan, but also accelerates global warming, increases the risk of deadly landslides, depresses timber prices worldwide, and deprives the Indonesian government of much-needed tax revenue.
The Sierra Club and United Steelworkers are supporting a case that has been put before the Department of Commerce to impose tariffs on paper imported from China and Indonesia on the basis that these countries subsidize their paper industries. The combination of poorly enforced timber laws, weak banking regulations, and below-value timber concessions in Indonesia act as subsidies that incentivize unsustainable logging practices. We hope that this case will impose cost on illegal logging so that it is no longer profitable enough to justify the risks.
On April 1, 2007, the Washington Post ran an article exposing the rampant illegal logging that supplies China’s voracious wood-processing industry with timber. Chinese exports provide the U.S. market with timber products that are bought by shoppers with little inkling of the wood's origins or the environmental costs of chopping it down.
Read the full article.
Illegal logging factsheet (PDF)
Illegal logging factsheet citations(PDF)
Indonesia Paper Subsidy Allegation(PDF)
Read our press release. (PDF)
More in the Dayton Daily News.
Visit the Blue-Green Alliance.
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