Declining illegal logging requires our support and solutions

Many environmentalists are complaining about how forests are managed throughout the world and how deforestation causes some problems in the change of climate due to illegal logging. This is also true for some organizations and governments about the trade regarding the timber that is harvested illegally and legally in the market. Therefore, analyzing all of those dangerous situations, all the people should be involved in the banishment of illegal logging, because this step would help to identify the areas most threatened by illegal logging, restrict the trade of illegal timber, and promote the personal initiatives of protecting forest.

First, it is very crucial in this stage to target the forest most destroyed by illegal logging, because the importance of that would be helpful for organizations, governments, or other parties to search for real strategies to protect forests and to break down the practice, for example measuring the size of the forest and seeing how to place some guard rails, for security to supervise those areas well. In addition, with this method, environmentalists, experts on forest studies, even reporters should be involved, because it will be necessary for them to make some daily estimations and statistics in order to tell how much timber is harvested illegally per month or year, and who is on the top of that and facilitating that. The bigger the forest, the bigger the practice. This is because it will be difficult to know where illegal loggers are getting in the forest for harvesting timber and where and how are they getting out of them, if there is no possibilities to master the size of the forests and its environments.

Secondly, knowing about all the damages that cause illegal logging, people must limit access to the consumption of illegal trade, and to support only the legal trade. That is because when they are in the process of purchasing or consuming wood, and they realize that some people took them without respecting the environmental principles of using forests, they must not spend their money in buying timber or products made from wood, which has an illegal source. Consequently, illegal loggers may be forced to give up the practice or join some legal organizations while noticing that their markets are going down and the selling is not progressing because they are beneficiating to any support. To illustrate, according to the European Commission (2006) in Your Voice in Europe, it was suggested if possible to promulgate a rule that in the European Market only timber harvested legally can be accepted and that the illegally harvested wood will be refused and all the products manufactured from wood must be proved regarding their sources before marketing in the European area.

Third, it is evident that we should promote some good initiatives of protecting forests that will be more likely to banish illegal logging, for example facilitating some local communities that use forest for their survival by giving them materials and insurance and encouraging their activities. We should use the same process for industries, organizations which would like to use forests with good management and respect of the rules, to give them the control of the area that they may use for harvesting and allow them to use any kind of security measure to stop illegal loggers. Moreover, we should arrest for jail or send to justice illegal loggers. The responsibility that can be given to people who use timber legally must beneficiate from the support of governments and other powerful organizations.

Some people argue about illegal logging and give evidence about its damages and negatives consequences in the world in general and the environment in particular, but they are not making any step to solve the problem rightly. They think that people who are practicing illegal logging are the main enemies of that, but on the contrary they are not making any efforts to deal with some causes that push people to undertake this sort of activity; such as poverty. In addition, they are also the ones who usually buy some products made from wood that is harvested illegally, and furthermore, they limit some laws of forest management in order that there could be some way that there is not really control in the forest. Also, they are people who support illegal loggers by giving them access to forest management, facilitating their trade, and giving them materials for using. Furthermore, if for instance illegal loggers are arrested or restricted from their traffic, they are those who intervene for them. Thus this lack of will explains that even all those campaigns, which are being made for stopping illegal logging, if they are not resulting in a fair conscience, would be theorical, and the practice will increase more and more.

In conclusion, the environment needs protection and conservation. Therefore we all should be against people who destroy that and struggle for the cracking down on their activities, whatever the circumstances. Reaching this goal, it would be better to have the good vision about the forests and more suffering for techniques to secure them, to boycott all the timber market resulting from illegal process, and to give grants and empowerment to all actions for protecting and managing the forests well.

People should learn about environment conservation; because if we don't think about those steps, it would be difficult to know how important it is for our life and what the consequences will be if we are not caring about its protection.

Reference

European Commission. (2006, December 22). Public Consultation on additional options to combat illegal logging. Your Voice in Europe. Retrieved November 04, 2007, from www.illegal-logging.info/uploads/addloptionssynthfinal.pdf