Timber Laundering in Peru: The Mafia in the Middle
Date of Publication
2019 12:00 AM
Security Theme
Environmental Security
Keywords
Illegal Logging, Illegal Logging, timber exports, Peru, wood harvesting, Pucallpa
Description
Illegal timber in Peru is sourced and sold across the country. But most of the money laundering happens in between these destinations. Our team traveled to Pucallpa, the hub of this illicit activity. Lashed together in great long rafts or piled high on river barges, logs float in from the wildest reaches of the Amazon to converge on one part of eastern Peru: Pucallpa, the city where the destruction of the rainforest becomes legal. Hacked out of the jungle on the banks of the Ucayali river and linked to Lima by highway, Pucallpa connects the wilderness of central and northern Peru to its biggest domestic timber market and its principal international port. This makes it a key transit hub for an industry that moves around 2.6 million cubic meters of wood every year. Anywhere between 40 to 80 percent of this wood is illegal, according to estimates by government bodies and independent experts.
Timber Laundering in Peru: The Mafia in the Middle
Illegal timber in Peru is sourced and sold across the country. But most of the money laundering happens in between these destinations. Our team traveled to Pucallpa, the hub of this illicit activity. Lashed together in great long rafts or piled high on river barges, logs float in from the wildest reaches of the Amazon to converge on one part of eastern Peru: Pucallpa, the city where the destruction of the rainforest becomes legal. Hacked out of the jungle on the banks of the Ucayali river and linked to Lima by highway, Pucallpa connects the wilderness of central and northern Peru to its biggest domestic timber market and its principal international port. This makes it a key transit hub for an industry that moves around 2.6 million cubic meters of wood every year. Anywhere between 40 to 80 percent of this wood is illegal, according to estimates by government bodies and independent experts.
