In many countries illegal logging now accounts for more than 50% of total logging. Once cut, illegal logs feed an insatiable demand for exotic hardwoods in developed and developing countries. The result has been an enormous loss of both revenue and biodiversity. Consequently the issue has risen to the top of the global forest policy agenda as one of the major threats to forests, and donors and national governments are starting to develop initiatives to combat illegal logging. Yet what might appear on the surface to be a simple problem of policing and law enforcement is actually much more complex down on the forest floor.

Yet for such a massive illegal trade there is surprisingly limited knowledge available as to the major causes of illegal logging and its impacts on the environment, people, livelihoods and national economies, and thus plenty of speculation and action without evidence. It is clear that while illegal logging does have negative impacts, it also, controversially, and perhaps paradoxically, benefits many stakeholders, including local communities who have been marginalized by unjust forest policies. Law enforcement aimed at stopping illegal logging could support livelihoods, but it can also exacerbate poverty, leading to even greater harm. While there are clearly no easy answers, this book, written and edited by the world’s foremost authorities on illegal logging, sorts fact from fiction and explores the many dimensions of the causes, impacts and implications for forests, people, livelihoods and forest policy.

Published with CIFOR.