[Source: File Photo]

Fiji is not immune to illegal logging and the trade of illegally logged timber.

Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says in Vanua Levu alone 29 illegal logging cases were recorded from January 2017 until January 2022.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the most common illegal logging practices in Fiji include harvesting, transportation and purchase or sale of timber in contravention or violation of national laws such as the Forest Act, Environment Management Act and the iTaukei Land Trust Act among others.

He adds illegal logging also includes falsifying declaration of volume or species harvested as well as export documentation.

The Minister says other practices include transporting logs without truck passes or outdated truck passes, ignoring waste disposal and environmental impact assessment screening processes, and operating sawmills without valid licenses.

“Deliberately encroaching into forests adjacent to licensed logging areas logging in protected areas such as forest reserves, logging in prohibited areas such as steep slopes, river banks and catchment areas including buffers and removing undersized trees.”

He adds dishonest practices results in only a few benefiting from a forestry deal at the expense of the majority of the landowning units.

Sayed-Khaiyum says to curb illegal logging and help enforce our national laws and regulations the Ministry of Forestry formalized a partnership with agencies like FRCS, Fiji Bureau of Statistics, FNPF, and Ministry of Employment and the Fiji Police Force.

“The Ministry is also working closely with the Ministry of Environment to ensure that licenses for logging, sawmilling and treatment plants are issued only after an assessment has been conducted on environmental impacts and the Ministry of Environment has approved either the Environmental Management Plan or the more detailed Environmental Impact Assessment.”

The United Nations estimates that illegal logging costs the global community up to USD206b annually.

This makes it the largest environmental crime by economic value in the world today.