Forest Related Crimes:

In many tropical countries noncompliance of forest-related laws and the poor governance are a main driver of forest destruction. Wrongdoing in forests can take a number of forms; poaching is one facet, illegal logging and associated trade another. It involves the ignorance of rules and regulations for forest conservation and forest management, harvesting of forest products, and broader issues, such as the application of corrupt practices and the abuse of power. The present chapter offers a holistic overview on forest crime by first structuring the term in four different categories and by briefly describing estimation techniques and trends in illegal logging. It also deals with policies addressing forest law enforcement and governance and the role of actors in enforcing forest laws and governance. The chapter concludes with a short forest sector law compliance outlook. Even well-designed SFM and REDD+ schemes will fail unless there is firm political commitment to address insufficient law compliance, corruption and the lack of transparency.

Forests, as a part of the world’s ecosystem, are        one of the passengers traveling on the same train         as human species. However while man is the main passenger of train, forests, in the form of coal, fuel the train’s heating system. One day, when the coal resources are exhausted the train will not be able to move. The constant move of the train depends on the continuous source of energy. Therefore the most important word as of late is sustainability, which is essential for the continuity of life. There are a number of definitions currently in use. There is some consensus that a transition to a sustainable way of life means taking steps to try to reduce the risk of environmental and related problems that will seriously affect or jeopardize the human species at some future time to thereby ensure that future generations have a reasonable prospect of a worthwhile existence.

In addition, thousands of rivers hydroelectric power plants have been established due to the increase in energy needs. These plants have changed the water regime of rivers and environmental destruction has occurred. New roads and bridges due to increased traffic have greatly damaged the forests in and around the cities. Due to the short-term programs of the governments, rural nature-human conflicts have moved to cities today.

India is the seventh largest country in the world occupying 2.4 percent of the world area. However, only 1.8 percent of forests cover lies in India. In spite of recent efforts to increase forest cover through reforestation, being carried out mainly under Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Indian forests are in a devastated condition, with just over 21 percent of India under forest cover in 2007. Dense forests cover only 12 percent of land. The policy requirement is that the forest cover should be 33 percent of the area of the country, and all of this should be closed forest. However, we are far from achieving this figure.

Forests in India are under immense pressure today and are reducing at an alarming rate due to the rapid population explosion of human and livestock, over-utilization and exploitation of forest resources, conversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes, expansion of agriculture and other illegal activities such as illegal logging, poaching and unauthorized occupation of forest land. The paper would also be dealing with this issue, apart from sustainable development and precautionary measures in relation to forests. Until before 1976, forest and wildlife were State subjects in the Indian Constitution. The forest departments are regulated forests in accordance with the Forest Act of 1927. Recognizing the significance of forests and wildlife, the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution deleted both from the State list and placed them in the

Concurrent list, bringing them under the purview of both the Central and State governments. Now, Centre and States may legislate on issues pertaining to forests and protection of wildlife.

Worth almost USD 152 billion a year, the illegal timber industry accounts for up to 90% of tropical deforestation in some countries and attracts the world’s biggest organized crime groups. It causes serious economic, environmental and social damage and fuels conflict in forest regions where criminal gangs compete for available markets.

Tax evasion, corruption, violent crime, fraud and money laundering, and even the hacking of government websites to obtain permits, are commonplace on the forestry crime landscape.

Human encroachment into forested areas, driven by illegal logging and agricultural expansion, is increasing human contact with wildlife’s infectious diseases. This drives their transmission to humans, particularly when the demolition of forests displaces disease-carrying species out of the forest and into urban areas.

INTERPOL set up a dedicated Environmental Security Programme in 2010. This week, to celebrate the programme’s first decade of action, we focus on how INTERPOL has enabled countries in all parts of the world to tackle the wide range of serious crimes associated with the timber industry.

Regional and global police operations since 2010 have allowed national law enforcement to take their investigations beyond borders and work with police across the world in securing evidence, apprehending suspects, obtaining prosecution and convicting suspects involved in illegal logging and the wide range of associated serious crime.

INTERPOL has conducted dozens of global police operations against forestry crime over the past decade, resulted in the seizure of more than 1 million cubic metres of illicit timber (worth in excess of USD 1.5 billion) across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Operations have seen the involvement of national forest enforcement authorities, police, customs, Financial Intelligence Units and other specialized forces, together carrying out targeted inspections and investigations against transport vehicles, retail premises, finances, individuals and also surveillance and monitoring at ports and transport centres.

INTERPOL recognizes the importance of strong partnerships in developing a coordinated response to forestry crime.         Our activities against forestry crime are all externally funded and dependent on sustainable partnerships.

INTERPOL works in close collaboration with governmental, non-governmental and international organizations to identify, target and disrupt transnational organized criminal groups involved in environmental crime. These partners also help us to provide our member countries with technical and logistical support.

We would particularly like to acknowledge the valuable support from our Forestry Crime Working Group (FoCWG) and our partners and encourage other national, regional and international stakeholders and the wider international donor community to support our vital work to stop organized crime affecting our environment.

Tackling forestry crime: ten years in ten feats

1. Greater police awareness: a decade of action has given police forces in 194 countries a firm grasp of INTERPOL’s intelligence analysis, operational and technological support capacity. It has helped the world’s police community to recognize the institutionalized global timber trafficking scheme enabled by high-level corruption, and given front line officers the knowledge and skillsets required to tackle it effectively.   Today, recognizing the serious impact of illegal timber trade, destination countries are also actively tackling the crime area, initiating investigations even though the initial timber crime is actually committed in other parts of the world. More and more police forces are creating their own dedicated forestry crime units to address the organized crime networks behind timber crime.
2. Addressing emerging trends: tackling forestry crime is comparable to the global war against drugs: the crime and the criminals keep on adapting. INTERPOL has spent the past decade working closely with investigators across the globe, sharing ideas, techniques and information to identify patterns in the forestry sector. Notable trends include the detection of timber laundering throughout the production process and the laundering of illegal timber with legal timber during transport and processing.
3. Stronger operational capacity: ten years coordinating global law enforcement operations has enabled countries to collect intelligence, identify trends and risk indicators, and perform intelligence-led investigations at national, regional and global level. To maximize on operational opportunities, INTERPOL has kept countries consistently abreast of technological innovations which can strengthen investigations, such as the use of timber forensics and high tech tools to remotely monitor and identify logging concessions and illegal logging sites.
4. All-inclusive investigations: INTERPOL strives to ensure police officers in all continents and at all levels focus on the broad organized crime networks rather than individual offenders. For the past decade we have provided tailored advice, mentoring, policing tools and training across the criminal justice chain, supporting investigations, prosecutions, adjudications and confiscations of criminal assets. This has boosted forestry crime investigations worldwide and triggered operations and asset recovery efforts, depriving criminal groups of illegally obtained money and proceeds of crime.
5. Stronger transnational cooperation: using INTERPOL’s secure global police communications network called I-24/7, police forces today fight forestry crime together, across borders, monitoring the global crime landscape and steering financial investigations to follow the money which drives organized crime. Cooperation between forestry officials, customs, border agents and the police has been crucial over the past ten years to tackling timber trafficking effectively. The main focus has been on tax fraud and corruption investigations against logging companies, plantations and the mills who work with organized crime networks. 6.          Addressing the taboo head-on: corruption is one of the main factors that facilitates forestry crime. A decade of INTERPOL anti-corruption training – both online and in class – has enabled police forces, forestry investigators and forest law enforcement agencies in all continents to detect, investigate and prosecute corruption better, and deal with the challenges necessarily involved in doing so. Digital and mobile forensics for anti-corruption investigations are high on the agenda of each training course, in addition to best practices for detecting corruption in the forestry sector, particularly in relation to timber contracting and licensing.
6. Tailored capacity building: INTERPOL has spent a decade

strengthening national investigative and operational police capacities through regular training schemes delivered to the wider range of timber crime stakeholders. We have been building capacity at frontline, investigation, prosecution and border levels of forestry enforcement. This has led to more investigations and prosecutions linked to logging, trading, processing, manufacturing, exporting or importing illegally gained wood products. We have built multiple national task forces to ensure enforcement of timber laws and regulations.

• Publications: regular publication of globally recognized law enforcement manuals, used today by law enforcement across the world to tackle illegal forestry comprehensively. The last ten years has also seen the publication of operational and tactical analysis reports on forestry crime.
• INTERPOL Notices: Many INTERPOL Notices have been issued over the past decade for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence related to forestry crime. INTERPOL colour-coded Notices enable countries to share alerts and requests for a wide range of forestry crime information worldwide.
• Crime convergence: a decade of detecting links between forestry crime and other serious organized crime, which acts as an enabler for fraud, corruption, tax evasion and money laundering.

The original intention of the framers of the Forest Act was to safeguard the forests from feudal and imperial interests of the state. An analysis of the above discussed Godavarman Thirumalpad Case shows how the courts tailored the needs of the changing times into the prevailing meachanism. The role of judiciary played in protecting forest and wildlife, by leaving the core areas uncovered by law as fields appropriate for legislative action rather than for judicial formulation, is significant. Besides, emphasizing the importance of forests, the courts endeavored to protect the rights of tribal people and persons affected by development projects, who form part of the forest environment. Relying on the ‘public trust’ doctrine to protect and preserve forest and natural resources, they tried to enforce the concept of sustainable development to solve the environment-development dilemma. The decisions bear ample testimony to the increasing judicial concern for creative purposive interpretations of the law, with a view to protecting the forest and wildlife environment.

The first measure to solve these problems is to improve the unproductive and corrupted areas. Policies should be developed in order to live an average living standards in rural areas, and measures must be taken to reverse urban migration. Solving urban problems should be done without damaging natural resources. The basic solution to the traffic problem is public transport systems. Public transportation should be encouraged and extended rather than individual transport. As a result, people would not be able to come out victorious in the war with nature. Humanity needs to find new ways to live in harmony with nature instead of fighting.