Although their claim is denied by officials, park rangers in Costa Rica believe the illegal logging of cocobolo in the country’s forests is the product of organized crime, according to an article in The Tico Times.
The trees are cut down and hidden under scrap metal, hay, oranges or other legal lumber during transportation.
Raúl Acevedo, a park ranger in the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG), which contains three national parks and a World Heritage Site, described the system illegal loggers use to remove the CITES-listed cocobolo from the country. A middleman locates the cocobolo on farms and approaches the land owners, typically poor, with more money than they can refuse. The trees are cut down and hidden under scrap metal, hay, oranges or other legal lumber during transportation. An advance car will drive ahead of the truck to scout police checkpoints. False identification papers are drawn up, and the wood leaves the country under the guise of legality.
The country is woefully staffed to fight back, the article says. Park rangers like Acevedo are the first line of defense against illegal logging in Costa Rica, both within protected areas and on private land.
“There are only 13 of us working in the ACG,” he said. “That’s one park ranger for every 110,000 hectares.”
Read the full story in The Tico Times.
