More than 70 percent of wood products from the Amazon Rainforest may come from illegal operations, according to a study from the Instituto BV RIO, a Brazilian organization that promotes and facilitates compliance with environmental law.
If the estimate is correct, considering more than 13 million cubic meters of wood products are moved from the Amazon per year, then 9.1 million cubic meters could be illegal, according to the study.
Operations in the Amazon generate more than $3 billion in annual revenue and employ more than 200,000 people.
“There is an urgent need to promote legality and sustainability in the Brazilian tropical forest sector, to maintain standing forests and the industry associated with them,” the report said.
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