FT Rethink
Forest detectives are tackling the illegal wood trade
The trade in black market timber is now the third most profitable cross-border crime after counterfeiting and drug trafficking, according to Interpol. The global fraud is destroying critical forests, undermining international sanctions and decimating indigenous lands and livelihoods. But authorities are hitting back. The FT’s Madeleine Speed visits the high-tech forest detectives fighting the multibillion-dollar trade in tarnished timber.
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