Wood is a valuable commodity, especially for countries with plentiful forestry which mostly are developing countries. However, developing countries have a continuous and unsolved problem of exploitation. Ever wonder why most Southeast Asian countries are still categorized as developing countries when they are rich in natural resources?
Developing countries are noted with corrupt government and poverty. Given their rich natural resources, corrupt government officials do not hesitate to exploit their country’s commodity to other countries (mostly Western developed countries) massively. One chronic action that is still not cured until now is illegal logging.
Illegal logging is defined as harvesting timber that violates national prevailing law. Usually, it includes taking timbers from protected forests, chopping endangered and protected plant species and exceeding logging quota. According to a 2012 study by Chatham House, the most heavily deforested countries are Brazil and Indonesia. Around 75% forestland were illegally cleared from 2000 to 2012. It causes the loss of billions of dollars and prevents the supplying country from growth. In Indonesia alone, illegal logging costs the country $6.5 to $9 billion between 2003-2014. This is more than a quarter of the country’s 2018 infrastructure budget!
Consumer markets such as US, EU, Australia and Japan had released regulations, like the Lacey Act in the US, to reduce the volume of illegal timber imports into the country. Yet, the supplying countries are less sensitive to sustainability issues, so they ignored such legislation, even when it came from the consumer side. These illegal timbers are cheaper than legal ones because they escaped taxes and duties. Such logging is usually facilitated by organized crime networks who cooperated with corrupt government officials, which makes it harder to diminish for it has been so deep-rooted.
Besides economic loss, deforestation significantly contribute to climate change due to the reduction in carbon sequestration capacity. Corrupt minds only think of quick profits without thinking much about how their country, their home, will dry out of natural resources. Thus, they never imagine that there will be nothing left for their descendants. When there is no resources to keep us alive, money won’t matter because there is nothing left to buy.