OFFBEAT MAIL

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Every two seconds, an area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by illegal loggers around the globe. A new World Bank report released Tuesday shows how countries can effectively fight illegal logging through the criminal justice system, punish organized crime, and trace and confiscate illegal logging profits. The report, Justice for Forests: Improving Criminal Justice Efforts to Combat Illegal Logging, says that to be effective, law enforcement needs to look past low-level criminals and look at where the profits from illegal logging go. By following the money trail, and using tools developed in more than 170 countries to go after =dirty money,‘ criminal justice can pursue criminal organizations engaged in large-scale illegal logging and confiscate ill-gotten gains. The World Bank estimates that illegal logging in some countries accounts for as much as 90 percent of all logging and generates approximately US$10–15 billion annually in criminal proc...

Illegal logging activities in the Sierra Madre mountains are again taking place despite the government's ban on commercial cutting of trees on areas that were identified to have suffered from tremendous rate of forest destructions. And the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), under the tutelage of several secretaries over the years, has introduced reform measures that would eventually put a stop these illegal activities. However, up to now the same problems have recurred despite repeated complaints from concerned citizens and cause-oriented groups who may have experienced the disastrous impacts of illegal logging to the environment. And the culprits are those individuals who only think of making hefty sums of money that could be raised from the illegal cutting of trees without any regard to its effects on their surroundings. Or it could possibly be that some individuals are being exploited by businessmen or politicians to engage in this illegal activity for their...