Companies Using Illegally Cut Logs for Wood

 

Article Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/americas/corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=earth

Photo Link:  http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantula-Habitats/Rainforest-deforestation-Peru

The article “Corruption in Peru Aids Cutting of Rain Forest” by William Neuman and Andrea Zarate can be found in the New York Times under the date of October 18^th, 2013.  This article is about how terrible the corruption in Peru is and how it holds back the authorities from putting a stop to illegal logging.    

 A major topic in the news for several years now has been the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.  This is a terrible problem in northern South America, and government officials have been taking steps to try and stop the logging industry from cutting down these trees.   One of the countries caught up in this issue is Peru, over half of which is covered with densely packed rainforest trees.

Peru has passed laws to try and put illegal logging to a halt, but these laws are not working.  According to the World Bank, about 80% of Peru’s logging exports are illegal, and that the paperwork used to ship the wood is doctored, to make the trade appear legal.  Many of this wood is shipped to the United States, we can buy it from seemingly innocent hardwood floor companies. 

Francisco Berrospi was an environmental prosecutor from Peru, whose goal was to investigate illegal logging by taking these companies’ trucks, chain saws, or trees, and report them to the local authorities.  Despite his good intentions, he had a lot of trouble following through with this because of the corruption he ran into. “It’s uncontrollable.  The bosses give jobs to people they trust and then take a cut of the bribes they get,” he says, referring to the corruption in Peru.

In this quote, Berrospi suggests that the corruption in Peru is very hard to control. He says that  the bosses of wood companies eventually feel forced to to accept deals by the logging industry that tell them to use illegally harvested wood. These companies use this wood to make their products, which we buy here in the United States and in other countries around the world.

This article reminds me of the information we learned in the last unit in my biology class.  We learned that in ecosystems, all organisms depend on others for their energy.  If the population of one species changes, the population of all organisms that feed on it will change too.  The deforestation happening illegally in Peru is effecting this ecosystem as well as humans.  All of the animals feeding on the trees’ leaves will decrease in population because the amount of trees in this ecosystem is decreasing.

This article makes some key points about the logging problem in Peru and the dishonesty by the government that is causing it.  I think it is terrible that important people like environmental prosecutors can't get wood companies to stop using illegally harvested wood.  All of the companies using wood from Peru should realize what they are doing and try and take steps to fix this issue.  To fix this, they can either get trees from a different area, or make sure they are getting legally harvested ones.  The companies are harming the environment in the rainforest by chopping down trees, while the government is harming the people by making them think it's ok to chop down trees without consulting the prosecutors.  

There is definitely a mix up with who is in charge in Peru.  The environmental prosecutors like Mr. Berrospi are depending on the authorities to help them stop the companies.  The government is slightly confused on what the laws are because some of them are actually violating the laws themselves.  These people must take charge and help the prosecutors deal with companies pulled in by the corruption and are cutting down rainforest trees.  Peru is definitely able to fix this problem within a few years so people can be reassured that their wood floors were not made from illegally harvested logs.