UNIS/CP/1187
7 April 2025
VIENNA, 7 April (UN Information Service) – Forest crime is interconnected with other types of illegal activities such as illegal mining, trafficking in persons and drug trafficking, says a new study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued today. The convergence of these crimes is compounding the grave impact of forest crime on the environment, local communities and global stability.
In “Forest Crimes: Illegal Deforestation and Logging”, part two of the Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment, UNODC provides the first global overview of the state of knowledge of forest crime, with a special focus on the market dynamics and criminal actors behind illegal deforestation and illegal logging.
“Our review demonstrates that actors committing forest crime are often involved in other types of crime, from drug and wildlife trafficking to using child labour to illegal mining,” said Angela Me, Chief of Research and Analysis at UNODC. “They can also be legitimate companies seeking shortcuts to increase profits. This overlap exacerbates the already dire effects of forest crime and underscores the need for a coordinated approach, stronger regulations and robust enforcement to effectively combat these interconnected threats to our biodiversity, economy and global security.”
Organized crime groups can be involved in forest crime to boost profits or increase influence and territorial control. In South America, organized crime groups launder their drug trafficking profits into land speculation, the agricultural sector or cattle ranching. In the Congo Basin and in Somalia, meanwhile, politically motivated organized crime groups have sold and taxed charcoal from illegally logged forests.
Forest crime infiltrates legal processes and supply chains, the study finds, making it difficult to police. Illegally logged timber, for example, enters legal markets through fraudulent permits, bribery and regulatory loopholes – often with the help of corrupt officials and complicit businesses – allowing it to be laundered into the global economy.
Regulating forest crime has yielded both successes and unintended consequences. Demand-side measures can reduce the supply of illegal timber at the source. However, these regulations can also cause the illegal sourced timber to shift to another geographical location. Suppliers may also simply pivot to harvesting other types of trees to bypass the administrative burden of trading in protected species like rosewood. Policy frameworks need to be responsive to evolving illegal strategies and be consistently evaluated to close any regulatory loopholes, the study emphasizes.
This study was funded with support from the Governments of France and Germany.
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This study is part 2(a) of UNODC’s first-ever Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment. UNODC will be releasing chapters on illegal mining; waste crime and trafficking and marine pollution crime; illegal fishing; and a full global analysis on how crimes that affect the environment contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Check back at unodc.org for more details.
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For further information, please contact:
Sonya Yee
Chief, UNODC Advocacy Section
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-4990
Email: unodc-press[at]un.org
"Today we mourn the one million children, women and men slaughtered in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda." — António Guterres
Forest crime is interconnected with other types of illegal activities such as illegal mining, trafficking in persons and drug trafficking, says a new study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued today.
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