New forestry law

[jim king]

The new forestry law for Peru was finally pushed thru Peruvian congress by US pressure before the next President comes to power.  It is without question the most repressive law possible prohibiting anyone but large well financed companies from logging for lumber.  Private property owners and small loggers are out of luck and are not allowed to cut a tree for resale even if it leaning over a house without a $1000 permit.

This law will now force people in rural areas out of small scale logging and into more slash and burn.  This is the trend being set by the US Government.  Without question the most absurd law I have ever seen.  The US prohibiting freedom to work and promoting slash and burn.  The US Govt spent tens of millions of dollars to get this law thru.  I have no idea why or what idea may be behind this.  It is too bad that there is none of the 200 pages in English for outsiders to read and see what the US is pushing.

Statement by Ambassador Ron Kirk on the Passage of Peru's Forestry and Wildlife LawWASHINGTON, D.C. – “Yesterday, the Peruvian Congress passed a new Forestry and Wildlife Law. This law sets out key reforms called for under the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) Annex on Forest Sector Governance aimed at combating illegal logging and illegal trade in wildlife. Passage of this law is the result of significant work and extensive consultations with Peru’s indigenous and local communities, and represents a milestone in Peru’s implementation of its PTPA environmental commitments. We welcome passage of this important law and look forward to continuing to work with the Government of Peru to further implement its PTPA commitments.

“The United States has worked closely with Peru over a period of two years while it developed legal provisions to strengthen forest sector governance as called for under the PTPA Annex on Forest Sector Governance. In addition to passage of the Forestry and Wildlife Law, the Government of Peru has made other unprecedented changes to its legal and regulatory regimes to implement its commitments under the Annex, including amending its Criminal Code to increase penalties for forest, wildlife and environmental crimes and assigning ecological police officers and prosecutors to regions in Peru. It also created a Ministry of Environment to take the lead on natural protected areas and to assume other important environmental duties.

“We look forward to working closely with the Government of Peru as it works to fully implement the Annex on Forest Sector Governance.”

BACKGROUND

The Annex on Forest Sector Governance, part of the Environment Chapter of the United States - Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), is the first set of provisions in any U.S. trade agreement that identifies specific action required to address an environmental concern, in this case, the improvement of forest sector governance. The PTPA is also the first trade agreement in which the environmental obligations are subject to the same state-to-state dispute settlement procedures, remedies, and sanctions as commercial obligations. The Annex on Forest Sector Governance reflects the commitment of both countries to take concrete measures to combat trade associated with illegal logging as well as illegal trade in wildlife and further promote sustainable management of Peru's natural resources.

The Government of Peru conducted extensive consultations with indigenous and local communities and other stakeholders in Peru in the lead up to passage of the Forestry and Wildlife Law, including three rounds of national consultations in Lima and numerous outreach sessions in affected regions and communities throughout Peru.

USTR will continue to keep the U.S. Congress and relevant stakeholders apprised of Peru’s progress on implementation.
.Office of the United States Trade Representative   •   http://www.ustr.gov/   •   accessed on: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:23:06 -0400

[woodtroll]

What agency of the US gov has pushed this? Which agency will regulate it?
I get that there is a lot of pressure from NGO's but who do they pressure?

[jim king]

woodtroll :

The arm of the US government here that pushed this thru is USAID  " US Agency For International Developemrnt" .  They fund the WWF to do these things to the tune of tens of millions of dollars just here in Peru.  You can only imagine how much they are spending world wide.  The Free Trade Agreement is of great benifit to Peru and the US threatened to cancel it if Peru did not pass the law thought up by the WWF.
http://www.usaid.gov/pe/

This was done because the Eco Nuts at the last moment got an attachment to the free trade agreement between Peru and the US saying that Peru had to better protect its part of the Amazon.  What is really special about this is USAID finances an anti drug campaign to the tune of hundreds of millions also and the new forestry law prohibits a landowner from cutting and legally selling a tree thus forcing them into deforestation for subsistance farming and cocaine.  Iquitos and this area of Peru are now the world capital of cocaine due to the great efforts of the US Government doing exactly the wrong thing.

Many web sites if you search  -------- usaid peru cocaine

This is government at its best, the whole thing would make a good Laural and Hardy movie.

[woodtroll]

Wow, it looks like a branch of our State Department.
Aid to bribe your country to do what we want, wait I am sorry I meant incentives not bribe.
I will stop here it moves away from forestry pretty quick.
All I can say is, "sorry for my government's heavy handed blundering methods."

[Kansas]

Am I understanding you correctly that they can't log, but can clear ground for farming, just not sell the logs? Or am I misunderstanding something.

[jim king]

Kansas:

Sorry for not answering , I just noticed your question.  The law prohibits people from cutting even one tree on thier property for resale without a permit that costs about $1,000 now.  They are not legally allowed to cut any trees but it is impossible to enforce the law on thousands of privately held parcels throughout the jungle unless wood shows up in town where it is easily spotted without a permit.

This is pushing deforestation for subsistance farming and cocaine production to new levels.

The people are thus forced to illegally slash and burn for subsistance farming as they cannot selectivly cut a few trees a year for resale.  The US Government is throwing millions at this to hire forest police and set up new agencies to be sure that no wood is allowed in town.

Luckily we are getting a new president who says he is going to change the law again so the 10`s of millions that the US Government is throwing at this to finance the wishes of the WWF was all in vain.

I hope 

[BrandonTN]

And the USAID is not aware of the real-world effects of this law? Pretty incompetent bunch if "international development" is their forte. Someone trying to get elected in the US, maybe.
Thanks for sharing it, Jim. Important we Americans hear these things.


 

[roquevalente]

hello, with great interest I have been reading your news from Peru because we are located in neighbouring Bolivia. I do not undertand your article, you have to get a license worth $1000 in order to legally cut down the tree?
Here we pay much more but then everything is also legal and can be sold anywhere. So the point is what I do not understand is your conclusion: you must pay now $1000 and so people will slash and burn?? Can you explain. Here in Bolivia slash and burn is also permitted but only of you have done all your legal paperwork and of course pay pay. So what does this government want , I do not understand.

[jim king]

roquevalente:

The law here in peru does not allow a single tree to be cut for resale without a $1000 permit.  That permit can be used for up to 80 acres but will cost more than $1000.  No permit straight to jail but slash and burn is ok.

It is legal for anyone to slash and burn without a permit for agricultural use which is for subsistance farming and cocaine growing.

Each tree to be harvested must have a number painted on it and a GPS point on a map approved by the Dept of Natural Resources or it is illegal.

I will scan part of a map later as the secretary is off today.  This is a WWF dream job.  Today there is a major uprising in town to throw out all the non Profit groups living off thiese phoney laws and try to get some order.  I dont think it will happen as the Non Profits have to much money for bribes.

You ask me what the government wants ?  They want the bribes from the WWF and others.  They could care less about the extreme poverty in the jungle villages or the care of the Amazon.

Do you have similar problems there?

[roquevalente]

do I have similar problems here? No actually not, all trees removed is tightly controled, this is true for both harvesting and slash and burn as cattlerangers do.
So WWF is supporting this slash and burn result, very very strange. I am sure there is corruption, here in Bolivia you can also just slash and burn, hower if they find out (if you don't pay them) then the fines are really serious, I was once late with presenting my legal documentation for 600m3 roundlog ipe and the oficial fine was nothing less then 140.000$ !!. Even joining the corruption game it costs lots of money so much more secure and cheaper is to simply play by the rules. I am not familiar with acres but here a truckload of ipe rough sawn boards (11,000 BFT) on documention costs you nowadays USD 3000,-. I still do not understand why WWF would support slah and burn, unless they are also corrupt.

[jim king]

I still do not understand why WWF would support slah and burn, unless they are also corrupt.

That is the understatement of the year.  We just has a very large meeting yesterday here in Iquitos to ban NGO´s and up the dtreet right now there is a bit of a problem with the police trying to keep order.

Do a search on NGO Iquitos and you should find "Aproximadamente 5,970,000 resultados (0.22 segundos) " all asking for money.  That means we have about 15  web pages asking for money for every citizen of the city.

[jim king]

To do a harvest plan here the first thing you must do is have a certified forester do an inventory of the trees to be harvested.  This is a partial of a map showing the trees to be cut.  It does not show well on the scan but each species has a different symbol.
 

This is another step of a plan that has about 100 pages.  Each tree is identified by species and with the GPS coordinates.

[roquevalente]

yes we have exactly the same, each tree identified by a GPS coordinates, but this is good not bad. On the long run if you do not work sustainable like this, you will get the bad image such as brazil where entire states are converted into soyfields. This is not good for your timber image either. So purely looking at economic benefits, the GPS type of system costs money and time, but it will keep our forests (if their is no corruption) and so we can keep on making money as exporters. Don't forget in the near future there will be project implemented in US and Europe that requires you - the exporter - legal origen of the wood, so these scans you made are your back up and good selling point for your customer.

[Ironwood]

Interesting read on both your situations and perspectives. Thanks


 Ironwood

[JV]

I was reading the December issue of Woodshop News and found an article where Gibson Guitar Corp. has been raided over imported wood.  The Lacey Act of 1900 originally to protect wildlife has been amended several times including 2008 to prevent illegal logging acts.  Seems Gibson purchased some wood imported from India and though they broke no environmental laws they susposedly broke an Indian law about the number of hours involved in processing before the lumber was shipped.  The Lacey Act does not address this, but agents said they broke an Indian law so it is illegal.  According government agents, it is the responsibility of the buyer to apparently check through the entire chain of supply to verify the legality of the imported wood.  I would assume this would apply eventually  to the purchaser of a guitar if they have their way.  Makes plastic look more appealing.

[roquevalente]

yes the client does have an obligation to check and this is to be done for example by the copies of the concession such as my peruvian collegue has scanned in at this forum threat.
This checking obligation is ruled by civel law, so not specially custom made for wood importing. If you buy a stolen bike for $10 then you 'should have known', however if you bought this same bike in a decent store for $100 then you could not have known.
This issue here is that you can prove that you have complied with your legal obligation for checking the origen. With wood the the aforementioned scans are more then enough.

[woodtroll]

That makes more sense for tracking a log from the stump.
It does seem tedious and like you could manipulate the system if you wanted.

Glad we do not have to do that here.

[SwampDonkey]

The whole thing is ludicrous. If the government of Peru was interested in forest management they would have a management plan in place to limit how much, where and when and how it is to be cut. All I see a bunch of chaos. Private property should be managed by the owner and the folks educated in how to do it sustainably. You have hospital and health care, what about forestry educators?

If we had to do that here, the plastics industry would love it because they wouldn't have to compete with wood products.

[jim king]

If the government of Peru was interested in forest management

The government of Peru has no serious management plan .  These laws are all made and pushed thru congress by money supplied by the US Govt and given to the WWF to create these nightmares.   If the WWF and all the other Non Profit types could not keep passing these laws the people could make a living and the do gooders would have no teason to beg for money to supposedly help the poor.

It is ironic that we live in the richest part of the world and the rural families live in extreme poverty and must slash and burn the jungle to live.