EIA: 90 Percent of Wood in Shipments from Peru Is Illegally Logged

Peruvian wood imported to the United States in January 2015 was largely illegally sourced, according to a report released by the U.S. government.

The report, released this month, summarizes verification reports from Peru’s independent forest oversight organization, OSINFOR, and Peruvian customs authority, SUNAT. SUNAT discovered that randomly selected shipments of Peruvian wood destined for the U.S. in 2015 contained an average of 90 percent illegal wood, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.

“It is time for Peru to address this organized crime with the urgency it requires,” said Julia Urrunaga, EIA’s Peru program director, in a statement. “Illegal logging is not just about the stolen trees and ecosystem destruction, but also about corruption, human rights violations and the threats of violence against and assassination of brave local leaders and public officers that fight to stop it.”