Loggers poaching ipé trees from a forest reserve in the Amazon rainforest built 64 miles of illegal access roads in the month of September alone, according to report on an analysis of satellite images by the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Instituto Socioambiental.
The figure is more than double that amount of roads built in all of 2016. Each mile of road costs approximately $3,556. The total cost of roads built between June and October was $420,000.
Ipé is the most valuable species in the Amazon and may be sold for $2,500 per cubic meter, the report said.
The Instituto thinks loggers are changing their strategy to avoid detection by low-resolution satellites. The roads are being made narrower, and loggers are leaving trees with fuller canopies standing to make detection from above more difficult.
