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Illegal Mahogany Trade

15 Nov 1994

Companies supplying the UK with Brazilian mahogany have continued to operate illegally, in defiance of a voluntary agreement with the UK Timber Trade Federation to halt illegal practices, according to new information obtained by Friends of the Earth.

The information will be handed today to UK and Brazilian officials involved in negotiations at the inter- governmental conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), currently taking place in Florida [].

Official Brazilian government documents now in the possession of Friends of the Earth show that illegalities recently committed by companies logging mahogany include:

- obtaining timber from 'non-authorised' areas of rainforest; - smuggling; - illegal possession and transportation of timber; - falsification of documentation; - failure to submit relevant information to the authorities. []

Simon Counsell, Friends of the Earth's Forest Campaigner, said:

"This new evidence demonstrates conclusively that the timber industry cannot be trusted to stamp out the illegal mahogany trade. Governments should impose immediate controls over the trade in order to prevent the continued destruction of the Amazon rainforest and its native inhabitants".

PAGE 2 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH Five of the companies named in the documents are members of the Associacao das Industrias Exportadoras de Madeiras do Estado do Para (The Industry Association of Wood Exporters of the State of Para - AIMEX) []. In December 1992, AIMEX members signed a commitment "not to utilise or acquire illegal logs or timber, originated from Indian Reserves". In July 1993, the National Hardwood Association, part of the UK Timber Trade Federation, agreed a "trading policy" under which UK traders resolved to buy mahogany only from signatories to the AIMEX agreement.

Help in establishing the agreement was provdied by the British Government, and a representative of certain logging companies have been found to billegal practices five Brazilian mahogany logging companies member of

ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS: [1] [2] [3]

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