The United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), recently partnered with the Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide specialized training for 24 DOJ prosecutors to enhance their expertise in handling environmental crimes.
Latin America consistently has the most documented murders of land and environmental defenders – 85% of cases in 2023. Lethal attacks against defenders were concentrated in four key countries that accounted for more than 70% of murders: Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico. Colombia is the world’s deadliest country for land and environmental defenders, with 79 murdered in 2023 – 40% of all reported cases. With the same number of murders as Mexico but less than a tenth of population, Honduras emerged as the country with the most killings per capita in 2023.
Mongabay presents a short summary of status of illegal logging and forest governance in SE Asia.
For the past 11 years, Global Witness has documented and denounced waves of threats, violence and killings of land and environmental defenders across the world, and 2022 marks the beginning of our second decade documenting lethal attacks. The world has changed dramatically since we started documenting these in 2012. But one thing that has not changed is the relentlessness of the killings.
Last year, at least 177 defenders lost their lives for protecting our planet, bringing the total number of killings to 1,910 since 2012. At least 1,390 of these killings took place between the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015 and 31 December 2022.
A man was arrested after illegally loading Lauan timber in Purok 8, Pandullian, Barangay Mabantao, Kapalong, Davao del Norte, on April 13. The operation was launched by the joint force of the Special Operations Group XI, Kapalong Municipal Police Station, Regional Mobile Force Battalion XI, and 1102nd MC.
Anti-illegal logging operatives seized P432,000 worth of undocumented lumber in Allen, Northern Samar over the weekend. The 288 pieces of illegal cut lumber were loaded in a wing van truck when intercepted by the Philippine Coast Guard and Northern Samar Provincial Police Office (NSPPO) personnel at the Balwharteco Port in Allen town on Sunday, April 3, 2022.
A 24-hour regionwide simultaneous law enforcement operations of the Police Regional Office 2 resulted in the arrest of more than 100 persons involved in illegal drugs, wanted persons, loose firearms, illegal logging.
Policemen in Northern Samar province confiscated hot lumber with a commercial value of over P400,000 at a checkpoint in Allen town on Wednesday.
The Environmental Law Enforcement and Protection Service (ELEPS) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has arrested four illegal loggers in the municipality of Tabuk in Kalinga province on Sept. 2.
The operations conducted by DENR-ELEPS, together with the Kalinga Provincial and Community Environment and Natural Resources, DENR-Cordillera Administrative Region, and DENR’s Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force (AILTF), also led to the confiscation of illegally cut acacia logs and a chainsaw.
A barangay captain in Agusan del Sur was arrested for his alleged involvement in illegal logging activities in the area.
Brig. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr., the director of Police Regional Office in Caraga (PRO-13) identified the arrested village chief as Gabby Natinga, 43, of Barangay San Pedro, Prosperidad town.
In 2010, the Philippines had 13.2 million hectares of natural forest, extending over 62 percent of the archipelago’s land area. Last year, the country lost 46,800 hectares of forest. That is larger than Cebu City and most of the cities in Metro Manila. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Click here to access the Global Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (ILAT) Risk assessment tool and to download the Forest Trends User Guide describing the functionality of the ILAT Risk Data Tool.
Click here to access the Cattle Data Tool.