Mahogany, or "green gold", is the most valuable Amazon timber on the international market. Up to US$850 is paid per cubic metre. Loggers will travel hundreds of miles through dense forest, in search of this wood, cutting roads to gain easy access to previously untouched wilderness.
Already in Brazil, an area of forest the size of Germany has been cleared; as a result of cattle ranching and agricultural activities, but also indirectly as loggers open up new areas of forest. The uncontrolled exploration of mahogany over large areas of the Amazon forest is typical of the unregulated exploitation which dominates the economy of the Amazon region.
Until the 70s the logging industry in Brazil exploited the more accessible forest along the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic forests were closer to the big consumer centres and more easily logged.
But as these forests were exhausted, the logging industry was forced to look elsewhere. New roads had made the "upland land" forests more accessible and by 1989 the North of Brazil was responsible for 70 per cent of the national wood production.
The uncontrolled cutting of mahogany by colonisers for luxury consumer goods in Europe had led to its almost total extinction in Central America. As a result, the international trade moved to the Amazonian South; the last region where the species could be found in its native condition. The largest remaining stocks of mahogany are now found in Brazil and Bolivia.
In Brazil, mahogany trees are found in over 1.5 million square kilometres of Amazon forest. But the wood is commercially accessible in only 8,000 square kilometres; in the states of Acre, South Para, parts of Rondonia, Amazonas and Mato Grosso.
This "mahogany belt" corresponds with large concentrations of native lands and nature reserves. About 90 indigenous groups live within the mahogany belt and tribes such as the Nimbekwara and Uru Eu Wau Wau in Rondonia are constantly invaded by loggers in search of this valuable wood.
Investigations show that at least 3,100,000 cubic metres of mahogany were removed from the Amazon forest between 1971 and 1990. The direct impact of this exploitation can be estimated based on studies which show that for every mahogany tree extracted, 27 other trees are damaged and 1,450 square kilometres of forest are destroyed.
Alongside its direct impact on the forest by opening up previously inaccessible areas, the logging industry acts as a powerful catalyst of forest destruction. The building of new roads in unexplored frontiers - driven mainly by the search for mahogany - opens up the forest to farmers and ranchers who clear the land.
More than 3,000 kilometres of illegal roads have been built in the south of Para in search of sparsely distributed mahogany trees. The unplanned and chaotic development of these roads wreaks havoc on the forest ecosystem. The sale of wood has become an important source of income to owners of the big cattle ranches selling timber felled on their land.
One of the most dramatic impacts of the mahogany industry is the illegal and uncontrolled invasion of protected and Indian land. Although the commercial exploration of these areas is prevented under the Brazilian Constitution, as commercial stocks of mahogany become more difficult to find, the invasion of these areas increases. Tribes who have made agreements with the loggers typically suffer social problems and conflict within their traditional groups. Much of the mahogany exported from Brazil is now illegally cut.
But the loggers' abuse of the system has more than just social and ecological implications. Studies on logging companies in the states of Acre and Para, found that up to 95 per cent discrepancy existed between the amount of timber timber declared by the companies and the tax collected by government officials from these companies. Furthermore, corruption within Brazilian Government agencies responsible for controlling the industry are rife.
Profits from the mahogany industry in Brazil are shared between a small group of logging companies. In the State of Para most of the mahogany logging operations are run by only 23 sawmills. Most of these are owned by businessmen who have moved north as the coastal forests became exhausted. The export trade is controlled by an equally select number of agencies, generating a correspondingly small number of jobs. Any advantages or benefits incurred by the trade are easily overwhelmed by the social and ecological destruction wrought by this high profit industry.
The mahogany trade contributes little economic wealth to the region since 70 per cent of the wood is exported, mostly as sawnwood. The United States and the United Kingdom are the two principal consumers. In Brazil, the remaining mahogany is sold in the wealthy coastal towns and increasingly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Mahogany is used in the production of a variety of products from doors and windows, to furniture and toilet seats.
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