Officials in Peru knew that 70-90 percent of the country's 2005 mahogany exports, 88 percent of which was exported to the U.S., were illegally felled, according to a U.S. embassy communication leaked by Wikileaks. The communication, known as a "cable," was written by James Struble, who was then U.S. ambassador to Peru. Quoting unofficial estimates from Peru's Natural Resources Institute (INRENA), Struble said the mahogany was taken "not from the commercial concessions but from protected areas (where commercial extraction is prohibited) and from areas in indigenous territories ..." Struble also noted that the loggers exploited the indigenous people in the protected territories through forced labor. Struble said that legal exports of Peruvian mahogany had declined steadily until 2006, when the cable was written, and that since 2002 the output of illegally harvested mahogany in Peru was 60,000 cubic meters per year.
The cable can be read in its entirety at www.elcomercio.pe/wikileaks-peru/10.
