European citizens overwhelmingly want stricter controls on illegally sourced timber, according to a poll commissioned by WWF and Friends of the Earth (FoE) Europe.

With an overwhelming 92% of respondents believing it is important that a new EU wide law is introduced to halt the trade in illegal timber and timber products on the European market, WWF and FoE Europe are urging the European Parliament and EU governments to act accordingly and adopt a strong legislation without further delay.

According to the survey, carried out with citizens from 14 countries, an average 56% of polled people do not believe that nearly all wood products they buy in the EU are legal with a further 19% not being sure – undermining the efforts of companies that have been trying to crack down on illegally sourced timber and have proved determined to work towards credible and effective solutions.

“Illegal timber is still a major problem in the EU, with an estimated 16-19% of EU imports being illegal or from suspicious sources,” said Anke Schulmeister, Forest Policy Officer at WWF. “We need a specific and effective timber law in the EU, for which it is clear, there is wide public support.”
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If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a buck? That’s what rural landowners ask themselves when evaluating how to earn a living from their forests. The unfortunate answer, according to a study in Conservation Letters, is that the land beneath a fallen tree is still worth more than a standing tree, despite global efforts to reverse this order.

Using economic models, the authors found that clearing a hectare of forest for palm oil production yields a landowner anywhere from $3,835 to $9,630. By contrast, preserving that forest under the U.N.’s REDD program — the global effort to combat climate change with incentives to save forests in developing countries – would earn the owner less than $1,000. The problem is that the carbon markets where credits for avoiding deforestation trade are still voluntary. If REDD credits were part of a mandatory emissions reduction market, however, the hectare’s conservation value shoots up to $6,000.

The authors conclude that unless global climate policies legitimize carbon markets for avoided deforestation, the REDD program too will fall without a sound.

(Source: Conservation Magazine)

INTERPOL has commended the work of police officers in Indonesia following their arrest of an internationally wanted Czech national who is the subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice following his
alleged leading role in a wildlife smuggling network in Brazil.

This week’s arrest in Bali of the Czech fugitive, Ludek Hovorka, came after intensive investigative and surveillance work by Indonesian police officers who were able to locate and arrest him on the basis of the INTERPOL Red Notice and international law enforcement intelligence after he entered the country.

The operation followed extensive co-ordination between INTERPOL’s National Central Bureaus (NCBs) in Brasilia, Jakarta and Prague, and with the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, Austrian authorities and
INTERPOL’s Fugitive Investigative Support (FIS) unit at its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon. INTERPOL’s NCBs in Malaysia and Qatar also took part in tracking the international movements of the suspect.

The international manhunt for the fugitive followed information received from the Czech police authorities which was then coordinated internationally by officers at INTERPOL’s Fugitive Investigative Support unit as they coordinated international operations to track the movements of the fugitive in liaison with the relevant National Central Bureaus.