Illegal logging brings millions to gangsters

The majority of illegal logging operations managed by organized crime, and most of the profit diverges pockets of corrupt officials.
 
The most affected countries are Indonesia, Madagascar and some in West Africa.

The only way to influence the situation - loggers attract criminal liability, according to the Bank.

It also recommends that, to finance programs aimed at increasing the capacity of law enforcement agencies to combat the illegal timber trade.

"We must fight organized crime by cutting down the forest, on the same scale as the selling drugs or racketeering, said Jean Pesme, manager of the World Bank's Financial Market Integrity.

Analysts have estimated that every second of illegally felled timber, an area the size of a football field.

Report by Richard Black, offers a few ways to prevent deforestation, similar to the methods of combating other prohibited goods such as drugs

In recent years, the level of deforestation in Brazil has fallen since measures had been taken.

But now, he says, "the majority of forest crimes go unnoticed or ignored".

Too often, an investigation - if any exist - are amateurish and unfinished, and only in a few cases, it comes to litigation.

Illegal logging is carried out by specialized organizations to ordinary villagers, cut trees for fuel.

Many countries, including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea toughen criminal prosecution of illegal logging.

Western countries, consumers and businesses should also be involved in the protection of forests, the report said.

Three years ago, the United States amended the Act, according to which companies operating in the US are required to prove that their wood cut legally.

According to the law, are currently being tested dozens of enterprises, in particular, the famous company Gibson.

The European Union has introduced similar legislation, and increasing numbers of companies will buy wood, cut in accordance with the law

In 2010, in the report of the London center Chatham House, reported that these and other measures have reduced illegal logging by about a quarter compared with the previous eight years.

He urged Japan, as a major consumer of timber, introduce their own legislation on the protection of forests; and because the growing wood consumption in China, campaigns are increasingly turning their attention to.

Two years ago, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found that the bed made of illegally obtained wood from Madagascar, in Beijing, sold for $ 1 million.