Illegal Logging has just gotten More Notoriousby | 11-02-2016 00:42 |
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![]() I recently came across the death of two patrollers in Cambodia?s Preah Vihear Protected Forest who were gunned down by illegal loggers. It was disheartening and disturbing to know that they gave up their lives for the protection of our precious forests. It is the latest in an ongoing series of violent crimes associated with illegal logging, a global industry that accounts for up to 10 percent of all timber trade. Global Witness, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing corruption and environmental abuse, with offices in London and Washington, D.C., has confirmed the killings of more than 950 forest defenders between 2002 and 2014—activists, rangers, and indigenous people and the tally is reportedly an underestimate. During the past five years the murder rate has risen to two a week. Illegal logging is irresistible because of the high prices luxury timbers like rosewood and mahogany fetch on the international market. A cubic meter of rosewood, for instance, can sell for $50,000 in China, and in Thailand a two-meter-long plank goes for $5,000. This matter becomes rather complex as media sources suggest high government officials and authorities? involvement. Funds generated from those activities—estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year—are said by the source to support the ruling party. For now, individual forest defenders often remain one of the only obstacles between illegal loggers and stolen trees. They?re doing all of humanity a huge favor by putting their lives on the line.
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160202-Illegal-loggers-murders-violence-defending-land/ PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK BROWN, PANOS |