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Amazon ‘illegal loggers’ arrested
An area deforested by soybean farmers is seen in Para, Brazil
Illegal logging has devastated large areas of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest
Brazil has cracked down on a network in the Amazon that allegedly forged permits to transport millions of dollars worth of illegal timber.
Federal police arrested at least 34 people in connection with the case.
The dawn raids were carried out in five different states across the Amazon.
Environmental groups have praised the crackdown, but said it was not enough to stop the illegal destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
Those arrested are accused of forging the permits necessary to move hard wood timber and selling these to logging companies.
If found guilty, they could face two to six year jail sentences.
Destruction reduced
This is a practice long used on a massive scale, allowing logging companies to cut down valuable hard wood trees across the Amazon and then export them or ship them to the south of Brazil.
For the last year the government has been trying to crack down.
In June the police arrested 48 members of the government environment agency accused of selling the permits.
The environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the latest arrests, but said such operations need to be on a permanent basis.
The government believes its actions are responsible for a drop in the rate of destruction of the rainforest this year.
But environmental groups attribute this rather to a collapse in the price of soy beans which makes forest clearing economically unviable.
They fear if the price recovers then the deforestation will once again speed up.
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