Illegal Logging, Environmental Crime, and Human Trafficking

The environmental crime of illegal logging creates a layered web of exploitation. Natural resources, protected lands, and threated species of plants and trees are exploited as well as trafficked labor. Criminal networks often force indigenous populations into slavery and other non-indigenous victims are trafficked to illegally harvest timber. Illegal logging represents 10-30% of the wood trade globally and can rise in significant tropical timber-producing countries to 50-90% as cited in a 2016 Thomson Reuters paper. According to a 2017 report from Global Financial Integrity, illegal logging is the most lucrative crime pertaining to natural resources and constitutes US $52 – $157 billion in profits. Organized crime groups as well as terrorist networks are reaping in these profits with illegal logging creating lower risk but yet very high return.

This webinar will address the following discussion questions: how is illegal logging a catalyst for human trafficking as well as other criminal activities? How does illegal logging create risks for not only those most vulnerable to human trafficking but to business and international financial institutions? How can the private sector, working with governments and civil society, combat human trafficking within this illicit industry?

Speakers will include:

Brian Huerbsch, Senior Research Analyst, Thomson Reuters

Channing May, CAMS, Policy Analyst, Global Financial Integrity

Chris McLaren, Chief Marketing Officer, Forest Stewardship Council-US