Illegal logging

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Illegal logging" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Environmental law
Pollution control law
Environmental impact assessment Air quality law Water quality law Waste management law Environmental cleanup law
Natural resources law
Species protection Water resources law Mining law Forestry law Fisheries law Game law
Reference materials
Environmental journals International environmental agreements Environmental laws by country Environmental lawsuits Environmental ministries Supranational environmental agencies
Related topics
Administrative law Bankruptcy law Climate change litigation Earth jurisprudence Earth law Ecocide Energy law Environmental crime poaching Environmental personhood Environmental justice Insurance law International law Land law Land use Law of the sea Property law Public trust doctrine Rights of nature Right to a healthy environment War and environmental law Wild law
v t e

Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.

Illegality may also occur during transport, such as illegal processing and export (through fraudulent declaration to customs); the avoidance of taxes and other charges, and fraudulent certification.^[1] These acts are often referred to as "wood laundering".^[2]

Illegal logging is driven by a number of economic forces, such as demand for raw materials, land grabbing and demand for pasture for cattle. Regulation and prevention can happen at both the supply size, with better enforcement of environmental protections, and at the demand side, such as an increasing regulation of trade as part of the international lumber Industry.