Thousands of cargo containers of wood have been exported from an Amazonian port over the past year without authorization from Brazil’s environmental agency, according to a Reuters investigation.
The lack of federal authorization heightens the risk that the timber was harvested illegally, according to the report.
The president of Brazil’s environmental agency changed regulations to do away with the agency’s customary authorizations for wood container exports, internal documents reviewed by Reuters showed.
Deforestation has surged in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon over the past year, and many environmentalists have pointed to a relaxing of policies by Brazil’s government as the cause.
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