Magrath, William B. --- "Corruption and Crime in Forestry" [2011] ELECD 996; in Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell (eds), "Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption

Editor(s): Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849805018

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Corruption and Crime in Forestry

Author(s): Magrath, William B.

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

9 Corruption and crime in forestry1
William B. Magrath


1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most profound and far-reaching environmental changes of the
last 50 years was the loss of around 25 per cent of the world's forest area.
Concentrated in the tropics, but also involving forests in temperate and
boreal areas, deforestation is having global consequences which science
and policymakers are still just beginning to recognize. These include an
untold loss of biological and genetic diversity with potentially long-term
consequences for agriculture and food security and for medicine and
human health; a contribution of perhaps one-fifth of the atmospheric
load of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate
change; disruption to the lives and livelihoods of many of mankind's
most marginalized and disenfranchised cultures and people; and loss of
habitat for thousands of species of plants and animals. Going along with
deforestation, the forestry sector in the developing world falls short in
contributing as it should to social and economic development. Public
forest revenues seldom achieve reasonable targets; growth and employ-
ment in forest-based industry is frequently distorted and inefficient; the
quality of forest science and technology lags badly behind that of other
agricultural and natural resource sectors. Remarkably these problems
persist; concerted international development assistance efforts, years of
international negotiations and consultations and dedicated efforts by
countless activists and civil society organizations, have not succeeded in
protecting forest resources. Understanding the failure of forestry to thrive
is therefore a pressing environmental ...