Main points
- Corruption in the forestry sector is shaped by a complex interplay of local political–economic conditions and broader structural factors, such as the high economic value of forest resources, weak and opaque governance systems, unclear land tenure and limited oversight in remote forest areas.
- Corrupt networks in the forestry sector involve a wide array of actors, including forestry officials, other government agencies, law enforcement, private logging companies and organised crime groups, with the specific constellation of actors varying by local contexts and type of illegal activity.
- Corruption in the forestry sector ranges from petty forms (e.g. bribery) to high-level corruption, such as state capture, enabling both illegal activities (e.g. timber laundering, logging in protected areas) and illicit access to legal rights (e.g. obtaining logging permits through bribes).
- Two broad groups of studies estimate losses in the forestry sector: those assessing overall economic and revenue losses (including but not limited to corruption) and those estimating losses specifically attributable to corruption. Most rely on indirect estimation methods (such as trade data discrepancies, wood balance analyses, import source analyses, expert surveys) or hybrid approaches to gauge the scale of illegal logging and associated losses.
- Estimating corruption-related losses remains constrained by scarce and inconsistent data, underreporting of corruption offences, differing definitions of illegality and a lack of reliable, machine-readable administrative and judicial records. As a result, estimates vary and rarely isolate the fiscal impact of corruption from broader illegal logging activity.
- Notable global assessments illustrate the scale of economic losses linked to illegal logging: for example, the World Bank (2019) estimates a combined value of illegal logging, fishing, and wildlife trade at over US$1 trillion annually, with source countries losing US$7 billion to US$12 billion in revenue each year and foregone tax revenues from illegal logging alone reaching US$6 billion to US$9 billion.
- Despite broad recognition that corruption facilitates illegal logging and influences related losses, very few studies quantify corruption-specific revenue impacts, and those that do either lack a clear methodological description or analyse only broad cross-country correlations between corruption and forest loss, relying on distant proxies for corruption.
- Complementing regulatory measures, effective anti-corruption oversight of the forestry sector can be done using prevention and detection tools, corruption risk management, transparency and due diligence systems, beneficial ownership checks and emerging data driven and AI solutions.
