Executive Summary
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Include criminal justice as part of development assistance programs to combat illegal logging. Making criminal justice a component of development assistance strategies to combat illegal logging will help countries receive the support they need to address the challenges related to forest law enforcement. The implementation of anti-money laundering measures, as well as other steps suggested in this paper, should be included as part of country assistance strategies.
Operational recommendations:
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Work together. Actors in the forest sector should actively engage in the broader effort to increase the effectiveness of forest law enforcement through investigations, prosecutions, and the confiscation of criminal proceeds. Collaboration with colleagues in the criminal justice sector will help forestry officials ensure that their particular expertise and skills are be er utilized, instead of ignored. Where multiple agencies are responsible for the same task, representatives from each agency should work together to determine who should be involved, what their individual responsibilities should be, and how they can best select their targets. A ack corruption. In combating corruption, law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should widen the scope of their activities. They will be more successful if both those who provide and those who receive the bribes—whether logging companies or high-level officials—are deterred by a real risk of punishment and the confiscation of the proceeds of their crimes. Proactively target vulnerabilities and significant offenders. Instead of using the criminal justice system to fine or to imprison low-level criminals for regulatory offenses, law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors should target major crimes and offenders. At the same time, they should perform a realistic assessment of: (i) vulnerabilities (by individual, group, forest, or company); (ii) the resources needed to take advantage of those vulnerabilities; and (iii) the resources on which they can draw. They should use the results of that assessment to identify priority targets for a dedicated strike force. Consider all applicable offenses—not just regulatory environmental offenses. In addition to regulatory offenses, forest officials, investigators, and prosecutors should consider the many different crimes that may have been commi ed in cases of illegal logging. Identifying all offenses as early as possible in the investigation will provide more options for prosecutors in bringing the case forward. Follow the money. Illegal loggers can be convicted of money laundering related to many different predicate crimes. This can result in additional jail time and/or fines above those imposed for the underlying forest crime. Furthermore, asset confiscation deprives criminals of the fruits of their crimes and makes it more costly for them to continue their operation. Enforce anti-money laundering and due diligence requirements. Regulators should strictly enforce know your customer and due diligence requirements— particularly those for enhanced due diligence in the case of transactions of PEPs